March 8, 2025 - Elissa, the SCOTUS, Antisemitism, Voting by Mail, Congressional Contacts, Crypto Currencies, Words from Heather, and Some Random Thoughts

 

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Keep Your Eye on Elissa 

On Tuesday evening, newly elected Senator Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democratic response to President Trump’s falsehood-filled speech, in which he risked dislocating his shoulder from continually trying to pat himself on the back. 

Senator Slotkin (D) Michigan

He spoke as if he were at a MAGA rally, not before both Houses of Congress, and incidentally, the American people. It was a disgrace. But when is anything the President does not a disgrace? 

It is important to keep in mind that Slotkin won in a State that voted for Trump, quite an accomplishment. I am proud to say that I donated to her campaign, however minimally, even though I have never been in Michigan. Here is an excerpt from her remarks that those who oppose the wrecking crew in Washington should note: 

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

This more or less says what Jackspotpourri has been preaching over its past few postings.

JL 

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Something Else to Keep Your Eye On 

This week the Supreme Court put a halt to the President’s attempt to stifle foreign aid but also let his firing of the nation’s chief ‘whistleblower,’ Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, stand until further review by a lower court. That was to be expected but the switch of Justice Barrett on foreign aid was a surprise, at least to me. The majority backing continuance of foreign aid consisted of the SCOTUS’ four female justices plus Chief Justice Roberts; some fired ‘foreign aid’ employees are actually being returned to their jobs.

There is some ‘infighting’ going on in the SCOTUS’ deliberations but we are never made aware of it. Eventually, the really big issue, the constitutionality of Trump’s shrinking of government, will reach the SCOTUS. Then we will see where they stand on the balancing of the Executive and Legislative branches of our government, the duties and limits of which are each precisely described in the Constitution’s Articles One and Two … and which make no mention of the powers of civilian advisors like Elon Musk.

Article 2, Sec. 3, of the Constitution specifically states that the President ‘shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ He seems to think that this extends to his having unlimited power to control the entities created by Congress, but many in Congress think otherwise, counting on the limits Congress built into those entities. A split is developing which might end up before the SCOTUS. 

The Republicans in Congress will have to start putting country ahead of party, something the White House, totally under MAGA control, does not do, and that includes Elon Musk, responsible to no one and Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, his new job after heading the Heritage Foundation’s hatchet blueprint, Project 2025. 

JL 

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Not So Latent Antisemitism

Yale Professor Timothy Snyder, in his latest ‘…Thinking About’ posting considered Trump’s and Vance’s treatment of Ukraine president Zelenskyy to be an act of antisemitism. Read about it by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://snyder.substack.com/ on your browser line. And pass it on. 

JL 

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 ‘Vote by Mail’ Requests Must Be Renewed! 

Those who voted by mail in the past must again request that they be sent a ‘mail-in’ ballot in future elections, their earlier ‘vote by mail’ status having expired after the last General Election in 2024! 

In Palm Beach County, do this by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/Vote-By-Mail on your browser line. Elsewhere, contact your local Supervisor of Elections. 

JL 

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Speak Up to Congress! 

In Jackspotpourri’s prior posting, I suggested making phone calls to elected representatives in Congress. Usually, you will just be leaving a message, so prepare one to be ready to read on a pertinent issue that concerns you. The same goes for the content of Emails you might send. If you luck out and get a real person to talk to, be nice and tell them to pass on your message. Often, they ask you to leave your name and number for a return call. I recommend you ignore that. They still will ‘count’ your call if you left a meaningful message for them to hear. 

Here is some contact information:

 

Senator Rick Scott (R) – 202-224-5274 – https://www.rick.scott.senate.gov Senator Ashley Moody (R) Appointed to replace Marco Rubio - 202-224-3041 – https://www.moody.senate.gov 

Representative Lois Frankel (D) – 202-225-9890 

Representative Jared Moskowitz (D) - 202-225-3001 

Representative Brian Mast (R) – 561- 530-7778 (Jupiter Office) His D.C. number is screwed up (as are his politics). 

Email contact for House of Representatives members is available through their own websites, which you can get to via https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative 

I suggest you print this list out and keep it close to your phone or computer. Make those calls or send those Emails! And one time isn’t enough. Weekly is better. My current message to these addressees involves the Constitutional duty of the President to execute the laws (Article 2, Sec. 3 of the Constitution). It’s up to you to compose your own messages! Next week, I will switch over to a message to them about the dangers of Crypto currencies, about which economist Paul Krugman just wrote an interesting column that you can find by CLICKING HERE or by copying and pasting https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-is-planning-the-biggest-heist on your browser line. 

JL 

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Don’t be Crippled by Crypto … and a Frightening Thought 

I don’t think that most of the small investors who have invested in crypto currencies fully (or even slightly) understand what they are all about. I freely admit that I do not. If you’re looking for an expert on them, look elsewhere, not to Jackspotpourri. 

What I do know is that they are initially purchased with real money, like the dollar bills in your wallet backed by the United States government. Once you own them, their value can vary, depending on the demand for them, but without the regulatory safeguards that the real money that initially purchased them possessed. (Note that this is not the case with other ‘non-monetary’ investments traded on real money exchanges, like stock options, commodity futures, bonds, mutual funds, or shares of legitimate corporations, all of which are regulated by the government.) 

Don’t expect to be able to pay your mortgage or credit card bills with ‘crypto currencies’ or to buy a car with them or even a cup of coffee, no matter how much they purportedly are worth. They are speculative investments, the nature of which might be no more than fictional. They are traded on ‘platforms’ created for that purpose and not in the established financial marketplaces. It is wise to be careful about those transactions you are able to make with crypto currency rather than with real money. There has to be a reason and sometimes it might not be a good one. 

There even are now ATMs dealing with crypto currencies. Users must remember that they too are totally unregulated. Have you ever tried to argue with a pinball machine. 

When Donald Trump, outside of his role as president, issues worthless coins, as he has done with his face on it, supposedly as a crypto currency, they have no value other than what the purchaser paid Trump for it in real money and that he keeps in his pocket. Conceivably, such coins might have some value, but only if they are sought by collectors or dedicated Trump fans. What a great way to hide a bribe or use in shady, under-the-counter trading in real financial marketplaces. Read Krugman’s article, linked to above. And don’t throw away your Monopoly set. Its money might be worth something someday. If you choose to invest in crypto currencies, you should first seek expert advice but not from someone from whom you are purchasing that crypto currency with your real money. Remember that the only backing they have is faith in them by their owners. To use two words common in the financial world, they lack liquidity and are speculative. 

Our government, with the President’s support, is actually establishing a crypto currency ‘reserve.’  It plans on buying ‘crypto currency’ with real money seized in the course of prosecuting and convicting criminals or from fines levied for illegal activities, so taxpayers would not be financing it. Supposedly, it would exist as a resource to protect holders of crypto currency which on its own, has no basis for existing other than the faith of its owners which like a balloon, can be easily punctured. 

I am beginning to suspect that such a ‘reserve’ might even serve as a basis for a worthless replacement currency for the United States if the economic policies of the current administration debase and destroy our existing system of real money, a distinct possibility. That might even be the intention of some who would turn to it, but only after they have personally acquired, legally or otherwise, all the assets behind the real wealth of our present monetary system. That would be dreadful. 

JL

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History Never Stops 

Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American,' dated March 5, lays it all out, from the inception of the ‘Iron Curtain’ in Europe to our betrayal of Ukraine. Please read it and make up your mind.  I believe that those who think Russia is our friend are out of their minds, including President Trump, whom I feel was elected back in November only because of the ‘Achilles Heel’ in our representative democracy that often permits misinformation to prevail over reality. (More about that further on.) 

CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line.  Professor Richardson closes that March 5 posting with the following quote from a French politician: “We were at war with a dictator,” said French center-right politician Claude Malhuret of Europe’s stand against Putin. “Now we are at war with a dictator backed by a traitor.” 

Putin is that dictator and in the eyes of many of our erstwhile allies, Donald John Trump is that traitor. That may be an exaggeration, but what his policies add up to amounts to the same thing. Eventually Americans will realize that and treat him accordingly, and in the words of the Scottish poet, Sir Walter Scott, return him ‘to the vile dust from which he sprung, unknown, unhonored, and unsung. 

JL 

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Random Thoughts 

Because of the inexperienced politicians who are running our government, it is becoming clear that that their simple Junior High School Student Council level solutions are inadequate to solve complicated problems, and that is all that Trump and his supporters can offer. 

The billionaires who back them don’t care about what comes first, party or country, because they live in a monied world of their own, not really caring about party, country, or the American people. Regardless of what happens to the rest of us, they possess the resources to take care of themselves. 

They are leading the country into an era of unemployment, chaos in the financial marketplace, and inflation, all caused by a politicized tariff policy and the firing of competent government personnel, as well as fractured international relations, and defiance of our laws, and even of our Constitution. The President, drowning narcissistically in his own ego, doesn’t recognize the problem, and as I pointed out above, his billionaire supporters just don’t care. 

As I have often pointed out, the is the result of the ‘Achilles Heel’ of our democracy. Voters legitimately elected our present government in 2024, but only after their judgement was pierced by years of massive misinformation, made possible by our nation’s freedoms, just as Achilles’ heel, by which his mother grasped him while immersing the rest of his body (but not that heel!) into the waters that made him impregnable, was pierced by an arrow years later. Their votes were swayed by misinformation about Haitian immigrants eating neighbors’ pets, what was hidden on Hunter Biden’s laptop, and what was being taught in schools about the reasons for the Civil War. This misinformation was a great part of what handed the 2024 election to the Republicans, and now we are in a pickle. 

The challenge is whether the country can survive until the next presidential election in 2028. I have no doubt that the Republicans would be defeated nationwide in the 2026 mid-term elections, but only if those in power permit those elections to take place honestly in a fair environment, which seems questionable, considering the priority they continue to give to disseminating misinformation. The Republican Party has already advised House Representatives not to run ‘town halls,’ which can turn out to be counter-productive. Obviously, constituents can ask question there about their lies, and they don’t want that to happen. 

The burden of solving this problem might rest with the remaining sane Republicans in Congressional offices. They could ignore the threats of having to run against a MAGA challenger in a primary election, a whip used to keep them in line, even if it meant consistently voting with the Democrats. If they fail to choose to put their country ahead of their party, there might not be a country much longer. The idea of impeachment, and the President’s illegal and unconstitutional behavior well might justify that, isn’t a valid alternative either since the two elected officials in line to succeed him, the Vice-President and the House Speaker, are no better than he is. 

Come to think about it, the answer to this problem might rest with the millions of Americans who will be severely hurt by the practices of the current administration. Revolutions have been started because of far less meaningful reasons than unemployment, inflation, chaos in the financial marketplace, and fractured international relations that are the hallmarks of the 47th president and those who kneel to kiss his ring and do his bidding. 

Are these things beginning to have an effect on the American people? Are they thinking about them and experiencing the early pangs of political ‘buyer’s remorse.’? If they are, they might come around to agreeing with the two prior March, 2025 postings on Jackspotpourri which offer a plan of action: Standing Up for America, Speaking Out for Democracy, and Joining in a nationwide Chorus of Protest about the unemployment, inflation, chaos in the financial marketplace, and fractured international relations that those dedicated to wrecking our Federal government are bringing about. They didn’t vote for that. 

More about fighting misinformation, the crux of the problem, will follow in succeeding postings of Jackspotpourri. 

JL

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri

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

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

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

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

 JL 

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

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Words of Wisdom  

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

 JL 

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                                                  Trump’s Disgrace 

                                           David Remnick - March 1, 2025 

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

Yet there was such a time. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Remnick

 JL 

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And When You ‘Speak Out for Democracy’ 

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

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

JL 

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

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

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

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

JL

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

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

 JL 

                                                         * * * 

‘Voting by Mail’ Requests Must be Renewed 

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

Elsewhere, contact your local Supervisor of Elections. 

JL 

                                                          * * * 

Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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

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

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

Eliminating ‘Promotions’: Each morning when I check my Email, I first sweep out almost all the messages that end up asking for a donation. My Email ‘in basket’ enables me to do that, separating most of them out without my even clicking on them individually. That makes my life a little easier, and a lot of informative material still reaches me. If I want to donate to a particular cause or candidate, I can easily find a way to do so.

Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Bear in mind that the population of Florida is constantly changing and many newcomers are not familiar with Jackspotpourri. 

 JL 

We're watching youse

 

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

 

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

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

IT'S TIME TO STAND UP PROUDLY FOR AMERICA,

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

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

                

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                             * * 

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

JL

                                                       * * * 

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

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

·       First of all, Democrats should forget about the 2024 elections.  The Democrats could have won Congress and the presidency, but they blew it by running a campaign that lacked a compass. (‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up somewhere else,’ … a Yogi Berra quote that well describes what happened.) That should have taught them to not make the same mistakes again now, in 2026, and in 2028.  Their ‘Identity’ politics centered on protecting every American’s individual right to make choices in many areas, including and beyond women’s rights, while legitimate and highly desirable, do not on their own attract enough voters to win elections.  More basic appeals to working people and their families do work. Voters are interested in rising prices, affordable health care, job opportunities, law & order, and whom to blame for whatever bothers them!   

·       Remember that even though there is much to criticize about Trump and Republicans at all government levels, in talking or writing ‘politics’ don’t concentrate on that.  Why be hostile? Be Positive.  Point out that you are talking about, in simple terms, the importance of a government OF the people that recognizes that it is a government doing things FOR the benefit of the people, and most importantly, a government run BY the people they vote into office. Right now, make a list of things your government does for the benefit of the people.  (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, regulation of foods and drugs, protecting the environment, disaster relief, national parks, interstate highways, transportation safety, regulation of financial activities, student loans, medical research grants, etc. etc.)  This role of government in serving the people is sometimes ignored when people who weren’t even on the ballot like Musk and Vought end up running government.  That is wrong, and what the nation faces today.

 Consider making donations to individual candidates who are dedicated to getting rid of the current G.O.P. majorities in the House, the Senate, and in many Statehouses.  They don't have to be big ones. Every dollar counts. But don't donate to all of them!  Some have little chance of winning so don’t waste your donations on them.  That would be an unwise use of scarce resources.  The same goes for donations to an entire group of a Party’s candidates, some of whom don't stand a chance. (Right now, I am donating to former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s November 2025 race for the Virginia governorship, which she has a good chance of winning, setting an example for the entire nation for the 2026 mid-term elections.) Those are the kind of donations that will count!

Cultivate relationships with individuals and groups who think as you do, so that your ideas can bounce off of them, and visa-versa, improving both yours and theirs. 

·        Become active in your local Democratic Party organization.  Be willing to ‘knock on doors.’

 Become active in local ‘non-political’ civic organizations.

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

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

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

JL 

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

JL 

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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri 

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A   Again I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it. Bear in mind that the population of Florida is constantly changing and many newcomers are not familiar with Jackspotpourri.   

J