March 8, 2026 - Poitics as Usual, the 'Bulwark,' Sources of Info, and Party Orientation Changes

 

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Political Scene Remains Fuzzy 

Paul Krugman’s June 3 posting is primarily devoted to the appointment of the unfit and inexperienced Bill Pulte, from the family of builders, as Director of National Intellegence. It is a additional job for him as he also continues in his existing position as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees the U.S. housing finance system and is not reluctant to refer Trump’s critics to the DOJ to look for purported mortgage fraud. 

Pulte’s only virtue is absolute loyalty to Trump. Krugman started off on June 3 by declaring that Trump is ‘no longer interested in governing’ and ‘is filled with rage and obsessed with revenge.’         

The Founding Fathers, after breaking away from the English king, never anticipated a president like Trump. Neither did American voters. If Congress has its say, they will not allow Pulte’s appointment. But temporarily, in an ‘acting’ capacity, he has this second job. 

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It should not be forgotten that Republicans still wield power in Congress. When the Senate just passed the immigration bill Trump wanted, it rejected a Democratic effort to tie a rider to it that would have permanently killed his not-quite-dead ‘slush fund.’ The ‘acting’ Attorney-General says he is not pursuing it further but the President implies otherwise when asked.

Republicans do not give up easily, making the November mid-term elections even more important because Trump will be president until January of 2029. That’s why the Democrats need to win control of both Houses of Congress in November, a demanding challenge. And that’s not even mentioning the war against Iran that he started and the inflationary troubles his tariffs have brought about for the American people. 

Nevertheless, I sense that finally realizing that many of his actions are illegal, Donald Trump is seeking immunity for himself and his family from future prosecution, and possible incarceration if indicted and found to be guilty. A Democratic takeover of both Houses of Congress might lead there. And the president is not counting on the Supreme Court riding to his rescue. 

Even though it appears that he may have backed off a bit due to public and Congressional reaction to his outrageous, but not-quite-dead ‘slush fund’ deal ripping off American citizens and taxpayers in exchange for his dropping his phony lawsuit against the IRS, the ‘immunity’ part of that corrupt deal still seems to remains safely afloat, aimed at preventing any future investigation of Donald Trump’s (or his family’s) tax returns. 

Those familiar with the ‘Monopoly’ board game know Trump’s greatest fear is losing his ‘Get out of Jail, Free’ card and being forced to pick up a new card which might very well instruct him to ‘Go to Jail, Go Directly to Jail, Do not Pass Go, and Do not collect that $1,776,000,000 (you were planning to steal to use to compensate those January 6, 2021 insurrectionists who were convicted and punished for their actions on that date).’ That’s why the November 3 mid-term election is important, if not crucial, for Democrats. Nothing comes easily.

JL 

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About Souces of Information, Particularly ‘The Bulwark’ 

Online sources of information come and go, some surviving by asking followers to pay for the bulk of their content via subscriptions while others remain free, but are not reluctant to ask for donations. 

Somewhere in this mixture is ‘The Bulwark.’ Jackspotpourri is reluctant to include information from ‘The Bulwark’ itself or from other comments appearing on their news and opinion sites. Why? ‘The Bulwark’ seems to be trying to be all things to all people; its roots are clearly conservative Republican and ‘Neo-Con’ but they do a good job of hiding that. 

Here is an Artificial Intelligence summary of where ‘The Bulwark’ is politically. I still do not trust them. 

“The political orientation of The Bulwark is center-right, primarily defined by its staunchly anti-Donald Trump, "Never Trump" conservative stance. Founded in 2018 by former Republican operatives and conservative commentators, the publication focuses on defending liberal democracy and often partners with moderate Democrats and independent voters to push back against right-wing populism. 

Here is a breakdown of the publication's political identity and core themes:

 

• Founders & Contributors: It was launched by key figures in the conservative movement, including Sarah Longwell, Charlie Sykes, and Bill Kristol.

 

 • Political Philosophy: While rooted in traditional, pre-Trump conservatism and neoconservatism, the editorial board now broadly describes its mission as the protection and preservation of liberal democracy. 

• Coalition Building: Because of their unified opposition to the MAGA movement, they frequently collaborate with and appeal to moderate Democrats and disaffected left-leaning voters who prioritize institutional norms and democratic guardrails. 

For more details on their editorial stances or to read their latest columns, you can visit The Bulwark.” 

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I wonder how ‘The Bulwark’ would position itself if the Democrats gain control of one or both Houses of Congress in November. Would they remain an ally of liberal Democrats? Would they resurrect a Republican ‘opposition’ status? I just don’t know. 

Meanwhile, other online sources of free information are disappearing every day. They come and go, depending on the solidity of their financing. Nevertheless, I continue to follow the free KOS site, which constantly begs for donations, as well as the ‘free’ part of Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American.’ Also, I do pay to subscribe to the printed and delivered (by USPS snail-mail) New Yorker magazine, giving me access to their online material, as well as paying for the New York Times online version and the daily delivered South Florida SunSentinel print newspaper. 

There is no longer any free lunch, even at ‘The Bulwark.’ As for social media sites like Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, or ‘X,’ I just do not have time for them. That goes for much of what’s on YouTube as well. 

But getting back to why I do not trust ‘The Bulwark:’ its conservative background has a strong base in American hisory. Let’s look at it. 

Back in 1789, the new nation’s new Constitution (replacing the Articles of Confederation) provided for a census. In 1790, legislation establishing it was passed, one of the purposes of which was the apportionment of representatives in the House of Representatives. (Senate seats were then still filled by State legislatures.) That legislation specified that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person, and this was considered a fair compromise in those days.  Years later, the 1861-1865 Civil War, and the resulting 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution finally corrected that injustice, getting back to the Declaraton of Independence's saying that 'all men are created equal.' 

But by 1876, racism backed by ‘Black Codes’ passed by State legislatures, had reappeared, it being a dominant theme among local Democrats. 

In that year, 1876, a neck and neck electoral college race resulted in a deal both major parties liked, awarding the patronage-rich presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and withdrawing the occupying Union troops from the defeated South, satisfying to Democrats. 

That is when the switch in the political philosophies of our two major parties took place, but still leaving conservatism dominant for both of them.  Once in office, the Republicans strongly manifested that, and the Democrats, unually out of office, belatedly grasped at more liberal ideas, such as civil service reform. 

It might be an oversimplification, but that is where we are today, personified by a conservative President Trump contrasted with the more liberal ideas of out of office Democrats. And that is why I am cautious of the conservative and neo-con ideas behind ‘The Bulwark.’ (A neo-con is a liberal who switched allegiances in a rightward direction.) 

Given the right candidates, a deal such as was made in 1876 is possible and 'The Bulwark's' genesis suggests that they might use that opportunity to advance their own conservatiive ideas.  As I said earlier, I do not trust them.

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. 

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 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. 

After such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than 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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June 2, 2026 - Flying Pigs, Stealing YOUR property, Pogroms, Property Tax Elimination, and More

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Seeing is Believing

It has been reported that pigs have been seen flying over some of the States of the old Confederacy (you know, the guys that temporarily lost the Civil War) where today’s Republican State legislators staunchly maintain that their revised Congressional district maps positively, definitely, absolutely, and certainly have nothing whatsoever to do with the racial makeup of the populations of the districts involved, and that’s beyond a shadow of a doubt.

JL

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‘You Elected Me So It’s Mine’

Pictured Above - Arena being built for UFC wrestling matches on White House South Lawn as part of 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, adjacent to the mostly demolished White House East Wing, where a massive ballroom is to be built. While Trump can’t manage the economy or a war he started with Iran, he is better with real estate, even that he doesn’t own. One observer commented that lightning attracted by this steel structure might be dangerous to attendees. 

Check out Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ dated May 28 to find out how President Trump is treating United States government property as something that belongs to him, his personal property, and not merely entrusted to him during his term of office in the presidency. Click here or copy and paste heathercoxrichardson@substack.com up on your browser line for the details of this disgraceful state of affairs as well as the latest on Trump’s attack on the rule of law in this country. 

JL 

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Just Like Jackspotpourri Has Been Saying All Along

‘Deep Dive’ on the KOS website on May 29 concluded with these words polishing off an article on the many entertainers who are cancelling out of Trump’s ‘Freedom250’ Anniversary programs (or their reincarnations) in D.C. (There are two such slates of programs; the official bipartisan ‘America250’ and Trump’s ‘Freedom250.’ Don’t confuse them.): 

‘At the end of the day, Americans really fucked up when they elected this corrupt, evil wannabe dictator in 2024. Aside from the economic pain he’s inflicted with his illegal tariffs and boondoggle of a war in Iran, he’s now putting a gigantic damper on the country’s 250th birthday—which feels more like a funeral. Just imagine the lineup we could have gotten if a Democrat won the White House.’ 

Whose fault is that? Are any of you looking in a mirror? Or at your blindsided neighbors? 

JL 

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Latest from Paul Krugman - ‘Pogroms – American Style’ and More 

When a video posting says upfront that it will take 38 minutes to view, few people will watch it. Economics savant Paul Krugman should take note of this. 

More readable is his free June 1 posting that likened Trump’s animosity toward immigrants to a pogrom. Check it out by clicking here or copying and pasting paulkrugman@substack.com on your device’s browser line to read it.

And while you’re in that ballpark, take a look at Krugman’s May 31 free posting in which he addresses the President’s mental illness, something of which all but the most naïve are well aware. 

JL 

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Learning Corner - Anthropology 

With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, the word ‘anthropology’ has been thrown around quite a bit. Very simply, when you merge the biology of human beings with sociology, the study of groups, the result is anthropology. Still puzzled? 

One Artificial Intelligence source offers this definition: ‘Anthropology is the scientific and humanistic study of humanity. It explores human biology, evolutionary history, language, and culture to understand what makes us human across time and space. It examines our species holistically, linking the social sciences, biological sciences, and humanities.’ 

By itself, the word ending ‘ogy’ or ‘logy’ refers to the particular science or subject, often in its Greek or Latin root form, that precedes it (examples: geology, neurology, etmology). As for the meaning of ‘anthropo,’ it is derived from the Greek word for humans or mankind. 

Trying to properly define ‘anthropology’ is difficult. The phrase ‘humanistic study of humanity’ in the above definition becomes meaningless because of its redundancy, sort of like saying ‘hunger is feeling hungry;’ neither defines anything whatsoever. 

 JL 

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Big Tax Savings for Floridians is BS 

When 'termed-out' departing Florida Governor DeSantis tries to push through a tremendous tax savings bill for Floridian homeowners, he is playing games, promising it will lead to the ultimate elimination of property taxes. Now, who can oppose that? 

The tax reductions this would bring about would greatly take away from town, city, and county agencies the financial resources to pay for the services they presently provide. This includes schools, police, fire departments, various health services, trash collection, roadways, and much more. But fear not. The State will find a way to pay for these necessities, once local government lacks the money to do so. Hurrah! 

It’s a dream that the State will get the money for this from businesses and the very wealthy. Their accountants always find ways of getting around such taxation. Quite simply, those services will be greatly reduced or disappear entirely. 

Equally important is the transfer the control of providing these services from locally elected government to State government, controlled by over-represented rural voters who don’t give a damn for local governments, often dominated by minorities or transfers from other States. 

Ultimately, this will have to be voted on by the people of the State, but that doesn’t mean much since Republicans have a way of getting around that, as their positions on guns and Congressional district realignment proves. Keep your eyes open and read your local newspapers. You could always move to another State. There are 49 of them. 

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 28, 2026 - Don's Slush Fund, Advice for Dems, Endgame in Iran, and More

 

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The President’s ‘Slush’ Fund 

While the insurrectionists to which Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment refers were those who rebelled against the United States in the Civil War, its language is also applicable to any other insurrectionists, including those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The President and his supporters cannot rewrite history, which always provides precedent, legal or otherwise; here are the words from that Amendment: “… neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States … but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.” 

Janurary 6 Insurrectionists in Action

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump’s supporters violently invaded the Capitol in order to prevent the counting of electoral votes for president. Some Capitol and local police suffered physical injuries in defending the Capitol; several died as a result of this insurrection as did at least one insurrectionist. Anyone who claims that was not an act of rebellion nor insurrection is blinded by the President’s thoroughly disproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was ‘stolen,’ and is at best a misguided fool. 

Any attempts to compensate these convicted insurrectionists, even after the President pardoned them (pardons affect sentences, not convictions) are forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment. Even a hard-headed Republican should understand that. 

JL 

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A Message to Democrats 

Democrats are struggling to identify the reasons they lost the presidency in 2024. I blame it on two things; First, President Biden (and his advisers) ignored his aging and his apparent knocking on the doorway to senility. But of course this was not true of observant Republicans and those Americans who were watching and listening and found it difficult to consider giving him four more years as president. His dropping out in favor of his vice-president came months, if not years, too late. That was his fault. Secondly, Kamala Harris quickly found the horse given her to ride to be a lame one, hobbled by ‘identity politics’ that brought with it not only well organized support, but well organized opposition as well, making the election into a choice between her supporters’ menu of positions and Donald Trump, who while probably not on top of the issues, at least had previously filled that position four years previously. 

Democrats failed to recognize that the country was looking to elect a president to be a leader and not to participate in referendums on gender identification, climate change, health care, abortion rights, gun violence, energy sources, immigration, and such issues, which while popular with significant groups of Democrats, also unified opposition to some of them. It only took opposition to one of such issues to lock in a voter for Donald Trump. His campaign was spearheaded by opposition to the Democrat’s infatuation with politics aimed at those identifying with such ‘identity’ groups.’ More cautious Republicans, meanwhile, only had to stress traditional G.O.P. patriotic and kitchen table values, and make promises, soon to be revealed as impossible lies once Trump was elected in 2024. 

Today, as we approach the mid-term elections, and look ahead to 2028, the Democrats must recognize three things: 

 1.The people want change and may be willing to accept seemingly radical solutions to bring it about. What we have now is not working well. Nobody is in love with the Electoral College; we should not fear change within the limits provided in our Constitution. 

 2. Democrats must be willing to espouse positions with which not all Democrats agree. There must be tolerance of disagreement within the Party. (example: a supporter of abortion rights might not be bothered by the use of fossil fuels.) 

 3. In approaching these two aims, there must be an overriding sense of unity among Democrats, recognizing that ‘change’ and ‘disagreement’ must be harnessed together to bring about benefits for the entire American population. 

Such unity is essential and must come first. This sense of unity readily manifested itself in the 1930s through President Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal,’ a life preserver thrown to a country then struggling through an economic disaster. Thirty-five years later, in better times, President Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ followed that model, aiming to serve the needs of the people in a country with a thriving economy. Most of his efforts still survive, despite unending Republican attacks on them. That is why a sense of unity is so very important to Democrats. They must prioritize their efforts to attain that unity, and once that is accomplished, concentrate on change and tolerance for disagreement. Unity comes first, taking precedence over individual issues, ones that served as stumbling blocks in 2024. 

(The above comments were written before seeing UCSD Professor Barbara Walter’s May 27 ‘Here Be Dragons’ column on this subject which you can find at barbarafwalter@substack.com.  It is worth your attention. Also worth your time is Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘May 27 ‘Letters from an American’ at https://substack.com/@heathercoxrichardson which sheds a historic light on today’s news.) 

JL 

                                                      

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Trump's Endgame in Iran IS Surrender 

Via Simon Rosenberg’s ‘Hopium Chronicles,’ here are two excerpts from Robert Kagan’s new Atlantic magazine article, ‘Trump’s Endgame is Surrender.’

Rosenberg wrote: ‘One of the ways things are going to get worse for Trump and the Republicans is is that soon it will become impossible to deny that Trump has lost in Iran, has committed arguably the biggest mistake by an American President in our history, and left America in a far, far weaker position in the world. That he is, simply, an historic failure.’ In the article, the outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the other day, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. ‘Endgame’ in this case is a euphemism for ‘Surrender.’ 

Here are two excerpts Rosenberg quotes.

 …….. ‘Trump no doubt hopes that he can slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat. The financial markets may stabilize if it is clear that oil will eventually start flowing again through a reopened strait, even if under the new Iran-controlled system. A major strategic setback for the United States need not affect Wall Street. The president may also hope that he can change the subject by launching another military operation, this time against the government in Cuba. And the news media have indeed begun writing more about Cuba than about the unfolding disaster in Iran.’

 …….. ‘According to one U.S. official, Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the call with Trump—for good reason. The Iran war may end up as the single most devastating blow to Israel’s security in its brief history. On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war. It will exercise leverage with dozens of the richest nations in the world, all of which will have an acute interest in keeping Iran happy. They will be unlikely to take Israel’s side in any conflict that it has with Tehran or with its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, because Iran will have the means to punish them if they do. Israel will emerge more isolated than it has been at any time in its history—and not least from its only reliable protector, the United States. When Trump turns his back on Israel, as he must do to implement this policy, MAGA will gladly follow. The bipartisan anti-Israel consensus in the United States will grow and harden.’  

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This is not news to those who have followed the actions of President Trump. Anything he does or says is for his personal benefit, directly or through his family. He views the presidency as just another business venture, like his bankrupt casinos, his phony university and airline, and his real estate ventures that have failed, all debacles from which he was able to escape relatively unscathed. Being found to be a felon on 34 counts concerning his businesses’ practices by a New York court is meaningless to him; he has even named his personal attorney in that case as our nation’s acting Attorney General. 

Trump has never been reluctant to turn on his supposed supporters when it serves to make him look good. The latest sucker to be in that position is Bibi Netanyahu, who joins Bondi, Noem, and innumerable Republicans tightrope walkers who thought their supporting him protected them from his selfish wrath. Texas Senator Cornyn fits that description too. Sitting ‘on the fence’ in a relationship with President Trump ignores the fact that the top of that fence may be filled with spikes that ultimately can impale a fence sitter where it hurts most. 

But conceivably, this time there just might be sufficent backlash to return Trump ‘to the vile dust from when he sprung, unknown, unhonored, and unsung’, as the poet Sir Walter Scott wrote. He is losing the support of some Republicans in Congress who at last are beginning to see him for the self-serving ‘nonentity’ that he is and always was, with just enough skill to successfully ingratiate him to a gullible American public that failed to pay attention! But in the 2026 and 2028 elections, surrendering to Iran, attacks on our Constitutional rights, and undisguised corruption might be too much, even for them to swallow, strengthening Democratic candidates. 

Let’s get something straight though. Donald Trump is NOT the problem. If it weren’t him, there would be someone else like him. He is what he is. To pin down the problem, look to those who voted for him and his supporters in Congress, who for a variety of reasons such as greed, desire to appeal to bigots, pseudo-patriotism, or plain old fashioned ignorance, fall for his carnival midway salesman’s pitch. They are the ones Democrats must somehow reach. 

JL 

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Republicans Made The Bed In Which We Lie 

Here’s an excerpt from an New York Times opinion column by David French that appeared online on May 27. 

 “Trump is a profoundly unpopular president who still enjoys the deep devotion of his base. This puts Hill Republicans in a terrible position — as we’ve just seen in Indiana, Kentucky and Louisiana. If they defy Trump, they lose their jobs. If they obey Trump, they defend the policies and practices that are hurting the country and courting electoral disaster for the G.O.P. 

But I have zero sympathy. If they’d done their duty in 2021 and convicted Trump in his impeachment trial, then Trump would be a private citizen. They made their bed, and must lie in it, but they made our bed also. We’re all paying the price for the decision they made. May history treat their failure with the contempt it deserves.” 

The lesson: Other than during the presidencies of Lincoln, Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt, Republicans have not been on the side of the people. Remember that when you vote.

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 

                                                    * * * *

May 21, 2026 - Looting, Political Poetry and an Election Day Reminder

 

                                                        *  *  *

The Looting of America 

Krugman

On May 19, Paul Krugman wrote about the ‘Looting of America.’  Departing from his usual area, economic theory, here’s what this Nobel prize winner had to say: 

 “So the Trump administration is creating a $1.776 billion slush fund — 1776, get it? — to pay off victims of “lawfare and weaponization.” Just to be clear, if you’re a U.S. taxpayer, this action means that almost $1.8 billion of your money will be handed out to whomever a panel appointed by Donald Trump decides to reward. The beneficiaries are likely to include January 6 insurrectionists, as well as Trump, his family, and his allies. Few things shock me these days, but this development — in which a Justice Department that works for Trump is paying a vast sum to “settle” a lawsuit brought by Trump himself — is a new nadir in self-dealing, further revealing Trump’s utter contempt for the American people. 

 Now, massive corruption on the part of Trump and his minions isn’t new. But the shamelessness of this latest episode of looting takes it to a new level. Until now, we’ve seen a combination of crony capitalism and insider trading. Plutocrats and corporations have been enriching Trump through back channels, especially crypto, in return for government contracts and policy favors, while Trump himself and people close to Trump have been making hugely profitable market bets thanks to advance knowledge of government policies. But now Trump has eliminated the middlemen, effectively telling his officials to pay money directly to him or anyone else he favors. 

 Granted, we already knew that Trump was, by orders of magnitude, the most corrupt president in U.S. history. But now Trump is the most explicitly corrupt leader in today’s world. After all, Vladimir Putin has obviously stolen billions, but never this brazenly. Even Third World dictators normally try to mask their corruption. 

 Don’t say that this taxpayer-financed slush fund won’t have political consequences.  On the contrary, the polling and focus-group analyses I’ve seen say that voters are very angry about corruption. Trump’s theft of taxpayer money, while people are losing healthcare coverage and food aid while suffering from Trump-induced higher prices, is perfect fodder for the Democrats in the upcoming elections. 

 So we should ask ourselves why the Trumpists have abandoned all restraint. There have been many corrupt politicians in U.S. history – although they were pikers in comparison to Trump. Yet they at least attempted to hide their corruption, or at least keep it discreet and deniable, in order to avoid a voter backlash. I would argue that the blatant nature of the new looting is a signpost of where America under Trumpism is heading in the months and years ahead. It’s true that Trump has a base that will support him no matter what, in many cases literally believing that he has been chosen by God. This puts a floor under this support. But his disastrous recent polling, as Nate Cohn writes in the Times, suggest that this floor may be lower than many thought. Now, we already know that Trump and his allies have no intention of facing free and fair elections. With the unstinting help of the Roberts Supreme Court, they have already rigged the midterms through redistricting. Trump minions are actively trying to depress Democratic-leaning voter turnout, by demanding from states the right to challenge their voting rolls. And it would be naïve to think that redistricting will be the end of the MAGA effort to undermine democracy. 

 Still, Trump is aware that, even with Republican gerrymandering, November may deliver a blue wave big enough to hand Democrats the House and, quite possibly the Senate. G. Elliott Morris estimates that Democrats will need a four point popular vote advantage to win the House, but the latest Times poll gives them an eleven point lead. Why, then, isn’t he trying to be at least slightly discreet in his corruption? 

 One answer is that even if MAGA loses big in November, Democrats can’t count on wave elections every cycle, and the field is now strongly tilted against them. As Morris writes: While the situation for Democrats is not necessarily dire for 2026, the situation for democracy in 2028 and beyond certainly is. So you can think of the $1.8 billion slush fund as a promise to MAGA-world that there is a payoff to be had if they just stick with him for the next two and a half years. Beyond that, we are, in effect, watching what happens when a quasi-authoritarian regime’s corruption and criminality pass the point of no return. 

 At this point Trump and his MAGA minions have stolen so much, committed so many crimes — not just theft but taking America to war illegally, abusing ICE detainees, and much more — that if and when they lose power many of them will face personal ruin at best, years of jail time at worst. This would happen even if they stopped committing more crimes. So there’s no incentive for them to end their criminality, or to end the attempts to bribe others to go along. 

 Either they succeed in destroying America as we know it, or they won’t. And until that’s resolved, they may as well engage in even more corruption and criminal acts. Think of it this way:  'The gravity of what the Trumpists have already done has created a sort of black hole at the center of American political life — and the Trumpists have already crossed the event horizon, the boundary beyond which there is no escape. So they will do ever more terrible things, because they have nothing more to lose.” 

JL

                                                          * * *

Poetry Triumphs over Politics! 

If Paul Krugman’s column (and what has been all over the nation’s newspapers this week) hasn’t gotten you fired up, I strongly recommend that you take a minute to read the South Florida SunSentinel’s editorial published in its May 19 edition. Here it is:  

Editorial by Sun Sentinel Editorial Board 

'In September 1941, the death of a family member prompted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to say how he should be remembered. One of America’s greatest presidents wanted only a plain block of stone, about the size of his desk, to be placed on the front lawn of the National Archives Building, with the words “In memory of … ” 

Friends — not the government — installed it, 20 years after he died. It’s still there, although a more elaborate memorial to one of our greatest presidents now stands beside the Tidal Basin. An elegant simplicity. 

Another great president, Thomas Jefferson, also insisted on simplicity. The epitaph on his gravestone would state only that he had written the Declaration of Independence and Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom and had founded the University of Virginia — not that he was elected president twice. 

The accidental president, Gerald Ford, pocket-vetoed a bill to name a Michigan post office for him, writing that it would be “improper for me as an incumbent president to approve legislation which places my name on a federal building. This is a precedent I do not wish to establish.” 

 Such modesty is lost on Donald Trump, who constantly memorializes himself with monuments to bad taste, from Washington to West Palm Beach. 

Artist renderings and diagrams for President Donald Trump’s new triumphal arch released by the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts that is planned to be built in Washington between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, are photographed Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

               

He slapped his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; intends to build a vastly oversized ballroom in place of the White House East Wing he razed without Congress’ consent; proposes a triumphal arch larger than any that the ancient emperors built for themselves, which would crudely overshadow Arlington National Cemetery; and plans an enormous “Garden of Heroes” with 250 statutes of notable Americans among whom, one suspects, there will be yet another gilt image of Donald John Trump, fist raised. When asked by a CBS News reporter whom the arch would honor, Trump replied ‘Me’.” His name is on a State Department building. His image is on gold commemorative coins, passports and national park passes. His signature is going on paper currency. He wants a new class of white elephant battleships to be named for him.

 And the airport, of course - The licensing deal for Palm Beach International Airport to be named for him, as demanded by a law the state Legislature passed without local consent, requires a logo resembling the White House seal, in — you guessed it — gold with gold stars. The renaming and branding will cost taxpayers $5.5 million and Trump will control who will be allowed to operate concessions there. 

Trump’s personal edifice complex is unmoored to any qualifying achievements or to any corresponding esteem from any sector of the public, other than MAGA diehards. In a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll, Trump’s approval rating has sunk to 37% and his disapproval has climbed to 62%. His approval among Republicans was 85%, but among independents it’s 25%. Across the entire electorate, the public disapproves of how he’s handling every major issue, especially inflation, the cost of living, the overall economy and his illegal war. 

He argues heedlessly that he needs the colossal ballroom to protect him from potential assassins, with the recent attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as the pretext. But that thought conflicts with his personality, because it presumes that he would hunker down in the White House, never leaving for MAGA rallies or rounds of golf. It would not be an acceptable venue for independent associations that need to keep a respectful distance from whoever is president. The East Room was adequate for John F. Kennedy’s state dinners and for the one to which Trump welcomed King Charles III last week. 

A poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias,” taught to generations of Florida high school students, is still listed in the state language arts curriculum. It behooves Trump to read it. It’s short enough that he could do so: 

                       ‘I met a traveller from an antique land,

                     Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

                     Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand,

                     Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown

                     And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

                    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

                    Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

                    The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

                    And on the pedestal, these words appear:

                    My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

                    Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”

                    Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

                    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

                   The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

(The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.) 

                                      * * 

Once the Republicans who run Florida’s government have read this editorial and realize that the Shelley poem is in Florida’s high school language curriculum, they will probably take steps to remove it, since Shelley was clearly ‘woke’ according to the standards of his day and today as well. 

 JL 

                                        * * * 

A Reminder for November 3, Election Day

Buried in the numbers quoted above is the statistic reporting that 85% of Republicans still support President Trump. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? 

Why do they close their minds to facts, such as those presented in this posting? It is tragic that their vision of the United States includes Donald J. Trump’s corruption as an acceptable part of government coupled with the unbridled narcissism of a wannabe tyrant. How and why do so many Americans buy into those ideas? Do they really endorse corruption? Do they really prefer being ruled by a tyrant? What is wrong with these people? 

There is a story or legend, probably untrue, about how Henri Christophe, KIng of Northern Haiti from 1811–1820, to demonstrate the discipline of his army to a visiting diplomat, ordered a group of his soldiers to march over a cliff to their deaths. They complied and all died. There are similar stories about Alexander the Great, also probably untrue, but they serve to make the same point about those who assume absolute power. 

But is this the kind of loyalty 85% of Republicans have to President Trump? It shows up in Republican primaries where those he endorses defeat incumbent Republicans whose only fault is that their loyalty to him is questionable. 

Years ago Trump said that he could shoot someone dead in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it, echoing the absolutist boast of Haitian ‘King’ Henri Christophe. Does it describe the 85% of Republicans voters who support President Trump regardless of what he may say or do? Are they no more than any supposed onlookers to that hypothetical murder on Fifth Aveue? It is up to them to answer that question. Most lack the brains or guts to do so … at least until they also become victims of his wrath, a list of whom is slowly growing. 

                                                           * * 

 As we approach the November elections, which Trump and his supporters are trying to ‘rig’ through illegal gerrymandering, threatening to place ‘observers’ at polling places, seizing of voting records, and other trickery, keep the facts posted above by Paul Krugman and the SunSentinel editorial in mind. And please, pass them on to others, and ask them to do the same. 

There is a lot at stake. It will take massive Democratic victories throughout the nation to overcome that 85% of Republicans whose political involvement goes no further than blind adherence to whatever corrupt ‘King’ Donald says and does. You are in the front lines. You have your weapons at your fingertips. Use them to persuade others. 

JL 

                                                           * * * 

Ignoring the Intent of the Constitution 

The checks and balances built into the Constitution limit what the Executive Branch of our government can do by assigning the ‘power of the purse’ to Congress, the Legislative Branch. The President cannot purchase a pencil if Congress hasn’t authorized him to do so somewhere in the budget it approves. 

Of course, there are exceptions possible in ‘national emergencies,’ but determining if one exists is usually left to the president. A shortage of pencils in the White House is not such a national emergency, even if a president might decree it to be one. 

When the ‘power of the purse’ of the Legislative Branch is surrendered to the will of a president who uses his endorsement of Congressional candidates as a weapon, an intended Constitutional check on the Executive Branch is removed. This is unconstitutional. 

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 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

                                                         * * * *