About Me

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

Friday, July 4, 2025

July 4, 2025 - The Fourth of July

Today We Celebrate the Declaration of Independence's Signing

Today is Independence Day, celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The entire text of that document follows.

"IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America. 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. 

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. 
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. 
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. 
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. 
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. 
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. 
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. 
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. 
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: 
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: 
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: 
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: 
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences 
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: 
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: 
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. 
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. 
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. 

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. 

                                                   * * 
It is important to note that the committee that composed the Declaration, headed by Thomas Jefferson, chose to use these words in its opening phrases: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ Traditionally, the third of those unalienable rights had been ‘property.’ That would have opened a can of worms which Jefferson chose not to open. 

He replaced ‘property’ with ‘the pursuit of happiness,’ avoiding the issue of slavery and opening the door for future expansion of those unalienable rights. It took almost ninety years and a Civil War to strengthen that right to ‘the pursuit of happiness’ with the more specific words of the Fourteenth Amendment, expanding the definition of citizenship to what it is today, and which incidentally is under attack by some in our government. 

JL 

                                                                * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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

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

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

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

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

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

JL 

                                                          * * * *

Thursday, June 26, 2025

June 26, 2025 - Stale Bread, Iran, a New Way to Vote, NYC Mayor's Race, and 'Quick Quiz' Answer

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The New Yorker Magazine's June 23, 2025 cover is a fine commentary
on the recent parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary as
well as President Trump's birthday on June 14.  On that date, millions of
Americans peacefully participated, across the nation, 
in 'No Kings' demonstrations.

                                                                                 *   *   *

What can I say? By the time I am typing this and hope that you are reading it, it will be like stale bread. Things move so rapidly these days that even supposedly up-to-the minute sources are behind the times and only can hint, and not describe, what is really taking place. 

The very least that you can do is to (1) follow the latest stale headlines in the daily postings of papers like the New York Times and free daily sites like those of CNN and NPR.  Honestly, forget about heavily opinionated FoxNews, although no news sources are entirely without some bias. 

And for the local news, (2) a subscribtion to a daily printed newspaper or full online edition of a local newspaper (In my area, the Sun Sentinel or the Palm Beach Post) is essential, to keep up on the many things that affect you that the New York Times, etc. never get anywhere near. 

                                                        *   *
But I'm not leaving you hanging there!  Here are some questions, or subjects, or thoughts, about which you should try to familiarize yourself.  That's not an easy job.  They might give you some perspective on the world around us as reported in the stale bread that fills today’s media.

 • What is the deal with the American people who seem willing to accept a government headed by a Congress and president who are not bothered by their violating the Constitution and otherwise breaking laws, and a politically appointed Supreme Court dominated by two senile Justices? Is that okay if it best serves the nation? 

 • Since when has the kind of bigotry once limited to bar room discourse been elevated to a legitimate level and serving to determine how people vote?   And what happened to the pride we once had in respecting the truths discovered by science, documented by history, and spread by education, only to see them replaced by a pride in having a lack of knowledge, instinct being a sufficient guidepost for dummies. 

 • Is ‘climate change’ a reality that will so affect our planet and make it an unfit place to be? 

 • What do we do about immigration, without which only Native Americans would be the ones reading this posting?

 • Does our government, and do you, understand the roots of the conflicts now going on in Ukraine and in the Middle East? Things are rarely what they appear to be at first glance. 

How many more mass shootings will it take for the nation and the Supreme Court to understand that there are 27 words in the Second Amendment, and not just its final fourteen?
 
Will Florida ever get its homeowners insurance situation resolved?
 
And what about those ideas that we package as things easity opposed by classifying them as ‘isms’: Communism, Socialism, Extremism, Terrorism, Colonialism, Internationalism, Racism, Capitalism (?), Libertarianism, etc., etc., etc. Before packaging them as easily criticized ‘isms,’ do their ideas have any merit of their own? 

 • And of course, we cannot ignore ‘Atheism,’ ‘Agnosticism,’ and the many ‘religions’ or belief systems devoted to worshipping things that can only be accepted as matters of faith, allowing there to exist many answers to important questions, unfortunately answers that often contradict one other, and for which some believers are willing to die

 • And why are educational institutions in the United States, if they want to play competitive games among themselves, hiring athletes instead of recruiting them from their student bodies? Have educational institutions forgotten their purpose? The athletic competitions in which the ancient Greeks and Romans participated had nothting to do with their educational systems, and that is the way it is anywhere outside of this country today, and why so many of the doctors in your local hospital have foreign-sounding names.
 
And how was the Universe created anyway? 

 JL

                                                     * * * 
And now, here’s Jackspotpourri, for whatever it is worth. 

                                                      * *

USA Commits to Stopping Iranian Nuclear Program  -  But There Remain Questions 

What happens to Iran’s nuclear program is ultimately going to be the result of negotiations of some sort between Iran and the United States (and Israel via an intermediary). 

Regime Change: A key question in my mind is whether it will be the present Iranian government or a regime which might replace it that signs on to such an agreement. The destruction of much of Iran’s nuclear program as well as much of its scientific and military and leadership by Israel and by the United States which finally decided to bomb key Iranian nuclear sites, might be sufficient to bring about such regime change. Then again, it might not. It might take more. 

The Politics of Trump’s Decision: In the United States, most Republicans (except the MAGA isolationists who still think two oceans suffice as our walls, and shun any foreign military involvement) generally support the President’s actions while many Democrats are conflicted, some being supportive of Israel and others on the Party’s progressive left not so much, having sympathies with the Palestinians who view Iran as their ally. 

In this sense, Trump’s decision is a political one, serving to sow dissent among his Democratic critics. Some, regardless of Party, feel that bombing Iran’s nuclear sites is something only Congress can authorize, but the President still has to be convinced of that. 

                                                      * * 
In whatever negotiations eventually take place, each side has some cards to play. 

Iran still has proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as Palestinians within Israel, and the Houti rebels in Yemen to disrupt shipments in the Red Sea. They still have customers for their oil, China being their biggest one, which suggest a role for it in negotiations. Iran also has a stockpile of ballistic missiles with which to harass Israel and which have caused some damage. Thus far, Iranian response to the attacks on their nuclear sites by the United States has been limited to a harmless attack on the United States base in Bahrein, about which adequate warning was given. It gave Tehran something to claim as a response; that’s all. 

Israel similarly has plenty of missiles and control of the skies over Iran and has superior and more technically advanced, although not larger, military establishments, and superior intelligence operations, as demonstrated by their initial successes in attacking Iran’s nuclear program’s sites and key personnel. They did so believing that Iran was much closer to developing nuclear weapons than others thought.

Israel and the United States also have the kind of advanced weaponry that Iran lacks. To ‘speed things up’, the United States has already played this card, or part of it anyway, by using its ‘bunker breaking’ bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites. But there still remains much of this card, and others, for them to play. 

President Trump claims that he arranged a truce between the warring parties but Israel and Iran knew little about it and are proceeding cautiously, still unleasing missile attacks on each other. 

Did the ‘bunker breaking’ bombs Trump unleashed work? There remain differing opinions as to how successful the United States’ bombing of Iranian nuclear sites actually were, ranging from Trump and Secretary Hegseth, like circus midway barkers, claiming them to have been ‘totally obliterated’ to others still seeking more evidence as to what was actually destroyed. 

A story carried by The Free Press described the Iranians removing truckloads from the Fordow site just before the attacks on that site. Check it out by  visiting https://www.thefp.com/p/did-iran-just-sneak-out-critical or by simply CLICKING HERE. Apparently they knew what was about to happen and took steps to relocate some of their partially enriched uranium. 

Trump and Hegseth are presently running in circles since a Department of Defense analysis, apparently leaked by that rarity, an honest employee in the Republican administration, contradicted their tale of ‘total obliteration.’ It would be foolish to assume Iran’s nuclear program has been destroyed. A safer assumption would be that it has been considerably delayed, anywhere from a few months to a few years. 

And while you’re in the clicking mood, please check out Heather Cox Richardson’s June 22 'Letters from an American' posting by CLICKING HERE or visiting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ for the opinions of many in our country on the President’s actions. Stay there for her June 24 posting as well, discussing President Trump’s behavior in regard to Iran and Israel, where she remarked that 'It seems to me long past time to question the 79-year-old president’s mental health.’ 

Fortunately, all Republicans are not subject to that criticism. An ‘artificial intelligence’ summary of his views indicates that Senator Rand Paul believes while Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, military strikes are not the answer and could lead to unintended consequences, such as an unwillingness on Iran’s part to sit down and negotiate honestly and continuing working toward nuclear weaponry.  Senator Paul believes diplomacy and negotiation are the way forward and is also a strong advocate for Congress's role in authorizing military action. The President has criticized him for that, as well as his objecting to parts of his ‘big beautiful budget bill.’ We seem to be in the middle of a story, and not anywhere near its conclusion 

This is where things stand today. If I had to venture a guess, I believe that the United States and Israel would be happy, as would some of the ethnic minorities within Iran comprising about 40% of its population, with a change in Iran’s regime, along with the imposition of strict monitoring and control of what remains of its probably significantly damaged nuclear program. And I repeat that we seem to be in the middle of a story, and not anywhere near its conclusion. 

JL 

                                                   * * * 

Voting by ‘Adjusted Gross Income 

It will never happen, but if we did away with actual voting in this country for Congress and the presidency, and replaced it with ‘default positions’ whereby the votes of all tax filers with adjusted gross incomes of $150,000 or greater would be automatically cast for Republican candidates, and the votes of all with adjusted gross incomes below that amount would be automatically cast for Democratic candidates, would the results be more representative of the needs of our population than what we now have in Washington?

It all might be done by computers since both IRS information and voting registration information are readily available online. I wonder. 

JL 

                                                       * * * 

New York City Mayor’s Race Raises Questions

It appears that 33 year-old Zohran Mamdani will end up as New York City’s Mayor when the mandatory ‘ranked choice’ run-off election takes place. An avowed socialist, he is correct in criticizing the Democratic Party, in New York and elsewhere, for ‘lecturing instead of listening.’ 

Despite his successful campaigning to make New York City ‘affordable’ for most of its residents, there will be big problems for him because of his anti-Israel position, refusing to denounce his past support of a ‘global intifada.’
 
While Andrew Cuomo was a dreadful choice made by traditional ‘machine’ Democrats, paving the way for Mamdani’s almost certain victory, his tenure in office will be affected by his position on Israel. His predecessor, present Mayor Eric Adams, avoided criminal indictment only by becoming a toady of President Trump in seeking illegal immigrants to deport from the Big Apple. New York City’s voters just can’t seem to get it right. 

I forsee Mamdani’s election as causing many valuable residents, already offended by Adams’ corruption, to think about moving to Long Island or New Jersey, rather than remain in a city whose voters will have put an anti-Israel socialist mayor into office, despite support for him belatedly coming from some Jewish politicians such as Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler. Some city-run supermarkets and free bus rides may alienate many residents, and real estate interests, always powerful, don't want to hear about rent control. We shall see.

 JL 

                                                      * * *

Quick Quiz Answer 

Answering the ‘Quick Quiz’ question posed in the previous Jackspotpourri, the first president to ignore the Sixth Amendment, supposedly guaranteeing an accused certain rights, including writs of habeas corpus, was Abraham Lincoln. He did so in order to arrest Confederate secessionist sympathizers in the North and in captured parts of the Confederacy. When the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice declared that action to be unconstitutional, Congress quickly passed legislation making it legal. 

JL 

                                                      * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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

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

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

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

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

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

 JL 

                                                          * * * *

Friday, June 20, 2025

June 20, 2025 - Juneteenth (yesterday), Jackspotpourri's Followers, Operation Monarch, Defining Dementia, and the Claremont Institute

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Juneteenth

Yesterday (6/19) was the celebration of Juneteenth, marking the true end of slavery in the United States. You can hear Professor Heather Cox Richardson narrate the history leading to June 19 becoming a holiday in many States and eventually, a national holiday, by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7UaaAyPqPY on your device’s browser line. 
                                                          *   *
Although this three and a half minute video does not go there, in addition to ending slavery, the Civil War was about the Constitutional power of States versus that of the Federal government. 

At that time, that conflict centered on a State’s right to secede from the Union but today, many view it as whether or not the Federal government’ has the right to take over a State’s policing powers under certain circumstances, as may be occurring in California, and elsewhere, right now! That conflict remains unresolved. 

(Quick Quiz: Who was the first president to ignore the Sixth Amendment, supposedly guaranteeing an accused certain rights, including writs of habeas corpus? Answer in the next posting)

JL 

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We’re Popular in Tehran 

An early check on the source of viewers of the preceding Jackspotpourri posting indicated that within the first 24 hours of its posting, it was accessed by 605 computers or other devices in the United States, and a surprising 599 in Iran, where I had been unaware that Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire has so many fans! Brazil was close behind. 

These numbers, by far the highest Jackspotpourri has attracted, are mostly the result, I assume, of readers passing Jackspotpourri on to others because it is sent initiallly to only about 90 recipients. A small number might just run across it in surfing the internet. In addition, some countries’ governments monitor the internet for possible ‘intelligence’ leaks (they probably have a full staff devoted to Peter Hegseth) and also who, in their country, is accessing them. People are hungry for any information they can find on the internet, despite possibly involving some risk in doing so. 

It is reported that the Iranian government has shut down foreign internet sites, but the 599 ‘hits’ mentioned above make we wonder how successful they have been in doing that. You might note that Google’s Blogspot platform enables Jackspotpourri to be translated into almost any language on the planet with a click of the finger. Persian (Farsi) is among those languages. فارسی یکی از آن زبان هاست 

JL 

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Operation Monarch 

It was only a few years ago that the beautiful orange and black Monarch butterflies were almost everywhere in the warm seasons (before they migrated southward), and in places like Florida, all year around. But increasing urbanization and use of sprays to get rid of undesirable weeds have decimated their population. 

Without milkweed plants, on which Monarchs lay their eggs, whose leaves nourish the caterpillars that hatch from them, and produce blooms to attract and feed a succeeding generation of butterflies once they burst forth from the cocoons into which the caterpillars molt, they cannot survive. And herbicides have been succeeding in their war on weeds, and that includes milkweed.

Hence, Jackspotpourri has embarked on ‘Operation Monarch.’ Initially, I tried seeding border areas with milkweed seeds that I had purchased. Unfortunately, the usual meticulous landscaping service in the community where I live made sure that they did not survive and shared the fate of crabgrass and such invasive weeds when they appeared. 

So I proceeded to ‘Operation Monarch’s Plan B.’ This involved planting the milkweed seeds in small pots filled with rich soil, but kept within my screened patio, out of the reach of landscapers and foraging insects. I water them daily if it doesn’t rain. Here is the way they looked a few days ago. 


A more expensive alternative to this would be purchasing mature milkweed plants at a garden center, but they are not always available, and the lifespan of the one or two in each such pot is limited, especially because the caterpillars’ basic food is their leaves, and once they are devoured, the plant dies. I have now moved two of these pots outside to an area not usual bothered by the landscapers, and hopefully protected by low fencing. I hope they will grow sufficiently there to restore the Monarch’s natural cycle: ‘seedling > plant > blossom > egg laying site > caterpillar > cocoon > butterfly > seeding’ we once enjoyed. If ‘Plan B’ doesn’t produce suficient seeds to accomplish that naturally, I still have the remaining pots on the patio with which I can experiment. Meanwhile, here’s the way the two ‘exploratory’ outside pots looked last week. 


They are now significantly bigger.. For those interested in doing this, the variety I have planted is White Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). Supposedly this is an easy variety to grow, and one that is the most prolific when it comes to egg laying. Also popular is the more familiar orange Asclepias tuberosa, which is what you might see in garden centers. Both are shown below in their blossoming stage, one with a visiting Monarch.


Asclepias tuberosa, with a visiting Monarch




 Asclepias incarnata


Good Luck! 

JL 

                                                                * * *

Dementia?

MSNBC’s Larry O’Donnell raised an interesting question the other evening before I shut down the TV for the night: ‘If Donald Trump contracted dementia, how would we know?’ Obviously, O’Donnell feels the President’s normal, day-to-day, comments and actions already manifest that disorder’s symptoms. As an example, he cited Trump’s suggesting that he might nominate himself to be head of the Federal Reserve Bank. 

This brings to mind his recent strange comment about turning Gaza into a seaside Riviera-type resort area. If he were serious, he’s delusional, and if he weren’t, Gaza is no joking matter. Only his devoted followers, the people at FoxNews, and the Fellows at the Claremont Instiute (see the following article) might disagree with O’Donnell. 

JL

                                                           * * * 


Not All Conservatives Run Around with MAGA Caps 

Some pose as legitimate political theorists, and of these, the cream of their crop are affiliated with the Claremont Institute, based in Upland, California.

Here is that organization’s ‘mission statement.’ 

‘The mission of the Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life. To return to limited government, conservatives must return to the principles of the American Founding. The Claremont Institute provides the missing argument in the battle to win public sentiment by teaching and promoting the philosophical reasoning that is the foundation of limited government, as well as the statesmanship required to bring that reasoning into practice. 

Who We Are - We are a think tank that teaches, writes, and litigates. Since our founding in 1979, our strategy has been to teach the principles of the American Founding to the future thinkers and statesmen of America. Those principles include the foundational doctrines of natural rights and natural law found in the Declaration of Independence; the ingenious political science of the Constitution; and the popular constitutionalism or reverence necessary for the maintenance of free government.’ These are nice words, but the key to their mission is stated in four words in the second paragraph: return to limited government.’ They look to achieve this through the ‘natural rights and natural law’ found in the Declaration of Independence and in the ‘ingenious political science of the Constitution.’ 

The key to this  'mission' is summed up with the five words in the first paragraph which I have underlined, 'to return to limited government.' If these folks had been delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1789, they probably would have not voted to ratify it, even with the Ten Amendments of the Bill of Rights added to it. To them, a federal government would have been an undesirable thing. They would have been happy with the weak Articles of Confederation that proved ‘limited government’ was a disaster for the thirteen former colonies. 

They seem to see ‘government’ as an infringement of ‘natural rights and natural law.’ This is the flaw of all ‘libertarian-type’ thinking, the freedoms of which lead to anarchy, something usually finally remedied by some kind of dictatorship. The only ‘Fellow’ (a title supposedly carrying with it a measure of academic status) at the Claremont Institute whose name I recognize is that of John C. Eastman, the lawyer who came up with the plan to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election, leading to his disbarment, and which brought about the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. His position at Claremont is as a Senior Fellow and founding Director of its Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence. 

Claremont has several publications, and I note one of their current issues features the 100th anniversary of the birth of William F. Buckley. That should give you an idea from where Claremont is coming. 

Internet sources, including Artificial Intelligence, report that Claremont Institute fellowships have also gone to prominent figures on the right such as Laura Ingraham, Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, Mary Kissel, and Charles C. Johnson. The institute caused controversy by granting a fellowship in 2019 to the Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. National Review columnist Mona Charen, no flaming liberal, wrote that ‘Claremont stands out for beclowning itself with this embrace of the smarmy underside of American politics.’ In 2020, Mark Joseph Stern of Slate magazine called the institute ‘a racist fever swamp with deep connections to the conspiratorial alt-right,’ citing Posobiec's fellowship and the publication of a 2020 essay by senior fellow John Eastman that questioned Kamala Harris's eligibility for the vice presidency. In 2022, The American Mind , a Claremont publication, published an editorial by Raw Egg Nationalist, an author affiliated with neo-Nazi publishing house Antelope Hill. 

There has always been a close relationship between the Claremont Institute (not to be confused with the seven highly respected colleges comprising the Claremont Colleges in California) and Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, a conspicuously conservative institution. One of the Claremont Institute’s founders served as an early president of Hillsdale. That close association provides what appears to be an academic and legitimate conservative veneer, something better than just wearing a MAGA cap. 

As pseudo-academic institutions go, I place the Claremont Institute somewhere to the right, if that is possible, of the Heritage Foundation, the source of ‘Project 2025,’ much of which has been adopted by the Republican Party, although President Trump laughingly and dishonestly claimed he didn’t know about it during the 2024 campaign. 

Frankly, I prefer the loudmouth conservatives with their MAGA hats, so long as they do not commit acts of violence, rather than these people who mask their opposition to government, really any government whatsoever, and that includes the Constitution of the United States of America, with disproven intellectual arguments and phony appeals to ’natural rights and natural law.’

Note how they mince words (‘ingenious political science’) when they ambiguously refer to the Constitution in their ‘mission statement’ included above. 

If you check out where many of them earn their living, you will find them on the payroll of right-wing media or in jobs provided by the Trump administration. 

JL 

                                                          * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri  

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                         * * * *

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

June 17, 2025 - Swing Time, No Kings, a Travel Alert, Article Five, Karma, and Trump at the G7

 

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Swing Time 

Although it originally was not a Broadway show, the 1936 movie ‘Swing Time’ has some really great songs in it, some of which have reappeared in subsequent musical productions.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire starred in 'Swing Time.'

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire sang and danced their way through ‘Pick Yourself Up’ and ‘A Fine Romance,’ and Astaire crooned ‘The Way You Look Tonight.’ in the film.
The music was by Jerome Kern and the absolutely brilliant lyrics were by Dorothy Fields, thirty years Kern’s junior. All three songs are now part of what some call ‘The Great American Songbook.’ 

The lyrics to ‘Pick Yourself Up’ were appropriate in 1936 as the nation recovered from the economic disaster brought about by the Republican excesses of the earlier decade, many of which today’s MAGA Republicans are right now trying to restore. I wonder if Democrats will be singing Fields’ lyrics to ‘Pick Yourself Up’ at the next Democratic National Convention.

  ‘Now nothing's impossible, I have found 
   For when my chin is on the ground
   I pick myself up, dust myself off, 
   And start all over again, 
   Don't lose your confidence if you slip, 
   Be grateful for a pleasant trip, 
   And pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start over again. 
   Work like a soul inspired, until the battle of the day is won, 
   You may be sick and tired, but you'll be a man, my son.
   Will you remember the famous men
   Who had to fall to rise again? 
   So take a deep breath, pick yourself up, 
   Dust yourself off, and start all over again.'
   

Yeah! 

JL 

                                                   * * * 

No Kings


Here are some pictures of Americans rallying in West Palm Beach on Saturday, June 14. The same kind of protests took place in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and elsewhere in the county … and across the nation. Millions of Americans participated from coast to coast. The pictures speak for themselves. Just 
CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.palmbeachpost.com/picture-gallery/news/trump/2025/06/14/no-kings-protest-west-palm-beach-florida-donald-trump-army-military-parade/84203425007/on your browser line to see your fellow Americans speak their mind. 

Economist Paul Krugman put his statistics aside for the day and demonstrated in New York City. His more expansive June 16 commentary on the demonstrations and the President’s competing parade in Washington can be found by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://paulkrugman.substack.com/ on your browser line. 

If you attended a rally, that’s great! If you didn’t, you can do so right now ‘by proxy’ by passing these pictures on to your friends, relatives, and neighbors. Just send them the links shown above, or this entire posting.  (Directions for forwarding are included at the end of this posting in the 'Housekeeping' section.) 
                                                             *  *
Participating in spreading the truth about President Trump might seem difficult, inconvenient, and even dangerous, but not doing so is inexcusable in times of crisis. We are living in such challenging times of crisis today.

Thomas Paine, at the time of the American Revolution, wrote in his ‘American Crisis’ broadsides that ‘what we obtain too cheap(ly), we esteem too lightly,’ and that ‘it is dearness only that gives everything its value.’ Specifically, he was writing about ‘freedom,’ his words intended to inspire our outnumbered troops facing the British in the front lines. 

If Thomas Paine were alive today, he would be among those protesting in the cause of those same freedoms, on what has become our present crisis’ front line. 

This past weekend, those Americans you can see in those pictures linked to above, and many like them, were there on our front lines demonstrating to protect your freedoms. 

THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS TO JOIN THEM BY PASSING THIS POSTING OF JACKSPOTPOURRI ON TO OTHERS. 

JL 

                                                     * * * 

Travel Advisory 

Here is some advice. Ignore it at your own risk. 

In flying to or from the New York metropolitan area, take flights that use JFK or LGA, but avoid flights scheduled to take off or land at EWR (Newark), where there are not enough air traffic controllers to do the job properly. Right now, EWR traffic is being managed from Philadelphia rather than from Westbury (Long Island) from where JFK and LGA air traffic is controlled, and from where EWR traffic once was controlled as well in days when they had an adequate number of controllers there!  

Also, try to avoid any aircraft whatsoever manufactured by Boeing. They have a reputation for cutting corners. Several major US airlines, notably JetBlue, Spirit Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, as well as some smaller regional airlines do not use Boeing aircraft. 

Although its manufacture ended a few years ago, Boeing’s 747s are still flying and are to be avoided if possible, including the palatial one being gifted to President Trump, if he should happen to invite you to join him on a flight. 

But whatever else you do, stay away from Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner (like the one that crashed the other day in India) at all costs. 

There’s a lot criticism of that specific aircraft on the internet. You can start by reading a frightening article on this subject. Copy and paste https://prospect.org/economy/2025-06-12-dreamliner-gave-boeing-manager-nightmares-just-crashed-air-india on your browser line or JUST CLICK HERE.

And if you have stock in Boeing, speak to your financial advisor as to what course to follow. 

JL 

                                                         * * * 

Is There a  Danger in Article Five of the Constitution?

Here is Article Five of the Constitution, dealing with Amendments to that basic document. Usually, we tend to oversimplfy it by saying it takes two/thirds of both Houses of Congress to propose an Amendment to the Constitution and subsequent passage by three/fouths of the State legislatures to make it effective. But there’s more to it than that! 

Take a good look at that Article’s language: 

Article V - ‘The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.’ 

Aha! So there’s an alternate route to amending the Constitution! While it uses the same percentages, it replaces the role of both Houses of Congress and the actual State legislatures themselves with ‘conventions’ established by State legislatures. No Amendment has ever been proposed, let alone ratified, by this ‘convention’ route, it is nevertheless sitting there, waiting to be used, or more likely, ‘misused.’ 

This permissive language, shown in red above, can move the Amendment process one giant step further from the voter by eliminating both elected Houses of Congress from the ‘proposal’ portion of the Amendment process, and utilizing such ‘conventions’ appointed by State legislatures rather than the legislatures themselves in ‘ratifying’ such an Amendment. 

These are regressive concepts, making the Amendment process less democratic and less connected to the will of the people as shown in their voting choices.  I suspect that it is there because of the same pressures in 1789 that resulted in the Constitution being silent in regard to slavery, and in giving each state two Senators, regardless of their population. 

It appears to me that this ‘convention’ method would be utilized only if the proponents of an Amendment fear that while it might lack sufficient support in Congress or State legislatures, they might be able to succeed in their efforts, by taking the route of more easily manipulated ‘conventions,’ appointed by State legislatures, rather than State legislatures themselves. 

It would seem to be a way of getting around opposition to such an Amendment and a lessening of democracy.  I have seen articles on 'opinion pages' by reactionaries recommending this 'convention' approach.

On hearing the word ‘convention’ mentioned in connection with any proposed Constitutional Amendment, one should also hear alarm bells ringing loudly as well, and call or write to their Senators and Representatives about this danger.  

JL 

                                                   * * * 

Good Karma 

One of my Fathers’ Day presents was a tee shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Good Karma.’ I am holding off wearing it in public because someone might ask me what ‘Karma’ is.  I’m not certain of its meaning although generally, dictionaries define it as a person’s actions determining what subsequently happens to them, good or bad, including what happens in an afterlife, as some Asian religions contend. 

I appreciate the tee shirt because I prefer to think of ‘Karma’ favorably as ‘Good’ which is what the shirt says. That means that the shirt’s wearer is satisfied that the good choices they make will follow them and ultimately reward them in some manner. But this ignores that there can be ‘Bad Karma’ as well, and sometimes it is unavoidable that bad choices are made, for which the rewards are not so nice. 

There’s a lot of wisdom available on tee-shirts dealing with Karma, much of which can be summed up by recognizing that ‘what goes around, comes around, so be careful what you do or say.’ Many politicians should heed this.

JL 

                                                  * * * 

Trump at the G7 Meeting

The other day, Canadian journalist Dean Blundell (originally a sports writer and now sort of a Canadian version of Howard Stern) reported that Washington insiders and observers from abroad had noticed how rarely Trump appears in public and how often he falls asleep when he does, prompting speculation that he is not physically able to do the work of the presidency.  I add 'Was he ever?'

Earlier at the G7 meeting held this past weekend in Canada, in mentioning a trade deal the United States had made with the United Kingdom, Trump erroneously referred to the UK as the European Union. Blundell suggested Trump’s team would look for a way to get the president out of the G7 early to avoid exposure. 

AND THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT THEY DID, having him leave the G7 meeting in the Canadian Rockies early supposedly because of the need for him back in Washington to work on the Israeli-Iranian hostilities, which in part were caused by his independent nuclear treaty negotiations, bypassing Israel, with an Iran that still preached the destruction of the State of Israel and advocated ‘Death to America.’ 

JL 

                                                               * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 JL

                                                           * * * *