‘Rule of Law’ Under Attack
The crucial battles between those who believe in preserving our democracy, protected by our Constitution, and those who would replace it with an autocracy beholden to American ‘oligarchs’ and a dictatorial president will be resolved by whether the ‘rule of law’ in this country survives.
Retired lawyer Marty London, whose perceptions are based on years as one of the top litigators in his profession, writes about this. His short postings on February 12 and February 14 go to the core of this issue, the Supreme Court, and Trumpian attacks on the legal profession. Visit his blog by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://londonsbh.blogspot.com/ on your browser line.
London jokes as he concludes his February 14 posting about readers considering moving to Canada, if our northern neighbors will have them. It should be noted that London resides in St. Barts in the Caribbean, somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico America.
JL
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He Doesn’t Care. Do You?
Here’s a letter that appeared in Friday’s Palm Beach Post. I’ve not included the writer’s name, but I certainly agree with him. I’ve printed his message, with a few of its words shown in red:
“The op-eds, opinion pieces and letters bemoaning the damage and chaos President Donald Trump’s policies are causing are missing one thing, Trump doesn’t care. Polls show his approval ratings cratering, Trump doesn’t care. Elon Musk’s scorched-earth approach is destroying our government infrastructure, ruining lives, and wrecking the economy, Trump doesn’t care. Trumps tariffs are tanking the stock market and causing global instability, Trump doesn’t care. His betrayal of Ukraine has caused an upheaval in European defense strategy, Trump doesn’t care.
Trump cares for one thing, Trump. His goal is to stay president. To that end, he nurtured a cadre of violent followers letting them out of jail to be available. He turned the Republican-led Congress into his own personal support animal. He demonized the press, installed loyalists at every government department to do his bidding no matter how illegal or unconstitutional. He openly defied court orders and called for impeachment and disbarment of judges and lawyers. He effectively neutralized the military and is now going after colleges and schools to ensure they toe the party line. Next will be our health care and what he considers 'entitlements' because, Trump doesn’t care."
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But I care, and I suspect that most Americans, including YOU, care. Think about what you can do about it.
Quoted In a recent Jackspotpourri posting, Michigan’s new Senator, Elissa Slotkin, offered some advice:
‘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.’
*(pessimistic, disheartening, predictions)
And in an earlier Jackspotpourri posting, I made the following suggestions as part of a three-step formula, ‘Standing Up Proudly for America, Speaking Up Loudly for Democracy, and Joining the Chorus of Protest Spreading Nationwide.' Here is an abbreviated summary:
- First of all, Democrats should forget about the 2024 elections. Put it behind you! Stressing the protection of every American’s individual right to make choices in many areas, including and beyond women’s rights, while legitimate and highly desirable, did not on their own attract enough voters to win in 2024. Democrats should have learned the hard way by now that basic appeals to working people are the answer; 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. Talk about the things a government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people does for the benefit of the people! (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, healthcare, 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. The list goes on!) This role of government in serving the people is sometimes ignored when people who weren’t even on the ballot like Elon Musk and Russell 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 so select the candidates you donate to very carefully. (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.
With each passing day, the President repeatedly attacks the government he heads, breaks more laws, and threatens the Constitution itself. More and more of those criticizing him are Republicans who voted for him.
There is an epidemic of ‘buyer’s remorse’ sweeping the Republican Party. If the election were held today, rather than four and a half months ago, he would lose both the electoral and the popular vote (to use one of his made-up words) bigly!
Trump knows this and as a result, he daily increases his efforts to destroy our government so that he can replace it as a dictator without interference. But as the letter writer said, Trump Doesn’t Care.”
But YOU Should!
And if you don’t fully agree with those alongside you in the trenches who also care, that’s fine too. All who care share one common objective, saving their country from Donald Trump, and that’s what’s important.
JL
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Shumer Was Correct
While I greatly sympathize with those Senate Democrats who did not support the Republican House’s awful ‘continuing resolution’ to keep the government operating (with even some increased tools to further their right-wing agenda), I understand Senator Shumer’s very reluctant support of it.
He felt it was preferable to its alternative, a government ‘shutdown’ that would leave Trump, Musk, and their followers to easily do whatever they wanted to do with impunity.
Trump and Musk both preferred a ‘shutdown,’ allowing them free rein to install an autocracy or dictatorship (take your choice) to replace a ‘shutdown’ government. Senator Shumer wanted to avoid giving these scoundrels that opportunity.
The opposition to the ‘continuing resolution’ in both Houses of Congress was led by Democrats like Representative Alexandria Octavia Cortez and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They had ‘right’ on their side and will ultimately prevail in the 2026 midterm elections!
A government ‘shutdown’ now, however, might have even resulted in the Republicans trying to cancel those elections! They probably are now working on another underhanded way of accomplishing that.
On to 2026!
JL
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You Think You Live in a Free Country?
You may not think so once you read Professor Timothy Snyder’s March 17 posting at snyder@substack.com or by CLICKING HERE, or Professor Heather Cox Richardson’ March 16 posting at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ or by CLICKING HERE . Visit both links to find out how the Trump administration engages in illegal deportations, getting away with defying court orders.
This will not end well, unless we all stand up proudly for America, speak loudly for democracy, and join the chorus of protest against the evils being perpetrated by Donald Trump and his puppet master Elon Musk (or perhaps the other way around) with elected Republicans frightened into blindly falling into line.
Professor Snyder’s ‘Thinking About …’ comes out a couple of times a week and Richardson tries for a daily posting of 'Letters from an American.' Try not to miss a single one of either.
JL
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Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) on Conservatism
Professor Heather Cox Richardson, in her March 12 posting, talked about philosopher Edmund Burke’s having described conservatism as preserving some of the good things from the older governing principles which it replaced. He viewed the American Revolution in this healthy light, contrary to the radicalism of the French Revolution which, taking place at about the same time, that eventually turned into a bloody dictatorship by committee.
As an example, Richardson pointed out that the Constitution gives to Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. But our ‘International Emergency Economic Powers Act’ allows our president to impose tariffs if he declares a national emergency under that Act, which Trump did on February 1, without any real justification for doing so.
His loyalists in Congress have played word games with the legal time limits that Act prescribes, actually redefining what a ‘day’ is! That, Richardson wrote, seems to prove the truth of Edmund Burke’s observations.
By trying to force reality to fit their ideology, the Republicans’ radical ideologues will end up imposing tyranny in the name of liberty, as the radical Revolutionaries in France did, and that’s not what conservatism is supposed to represent.
We indeed do face a national emergency, but it is not immigration, which has mostly turned out well for America. It is Republican control of Congress and Trump in the White House, pestilences permitted by too many American voters being misled by misinformation, as Jackspotpourri pointed out a few days ago.
JL
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Probationary Government Employees
There’s been a lot in the news about the Trump administration firing those who are known as ‘probationary’ employees. The word has negative connotations in the civilian world where most think of ‘probation’ as a part of the terms of a criminal conviction, either in lieu of imprisonment or a period following release from imprisonment.
In our government, however, it has an entirely different meaning. There it refers to a ‘trial period,’ of one or two years, depending on the agency, during which (1) new employees, or less frequently, (2) employees transferring from another government agency, or (3) employees getting a promotion, who perform poorly or are otherwise found 'unfit' for their job, may be terminated.
It is not as if they violated some rules on the job and are being punished for doing that with ‘probation.’ Some Americans make the mistake of thinking that is the case.
The rationale behind this is that it is very difficult to fire a government employee after this ‘trial’ period because of the legal protections the law provides for permanent civil service workers.
Such protections are necessary because stability in our government’s operation requires that employees continue to do their jobs and not be replaced each time the voters switch control of Congress or the Executive Branch. Many years ago, President Grover Cleveland recognized this and fought to keep the civil service non-political. Trump and Musk either do not understand this, or worse, do understand it and seem to consider such stability a symptom of a ‘deep state’ and would be happy without it. Stability and our present government’s ‘chaos’ are opposites.
Statistics are hard to come by as to how many in such ‘probationary’ periods fail to achieve permanent status, but there are some numbers that indicate only about 1.6% of those who were hired based on competitive civil service examinations fail to make it through their ‘probationary’ period.
I conclude then that there is no stigma attached to being referred to as a ‘probationary’ employee during such a trial period. It seems to be a routine step on the pathway to a career in government service, and one that serves to weed out those unfit for such positions.
But when the current administration fires ‘probationary’ employees as an ‘economy measure,’ the word ‘probationary’ makes such action seem more acceptable to a public that unfairly attaches negative connotations to that word and that of course lessens the ability of the agency to properly function.
But isn’t that the intent of those aiming at destroying our government, replacing it with autocracy, or even worse, dictatorship?
JL
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The Questionable Price of Progress
A recent article in the New Yorker magazine’s ‘Critics’ section raised an interesting question. After pointing out the stagnation in the growth of our cities, primarily due to the unavailability of affordable housing for those who want to live there to benefit from cities’ greater employment opportunities and other desirable attractions, it went on to note that the growth of our high-speed railroad networks, our highways, and the development of our energy sources had similarly slowed down.
It contrasted this with the exact opposite that is taking place at breakneck speed in China and elsewhere in these specific areas.
The reason for this is the many protective laws we have to protect our urban and rural environments, laws enacted by liberal governments with desirable outcomes in mind, and which have been used to prevent progress from taking place, not primarily to protect those environments as they were intended to do, but actually to preserve an existing environment for the benefit of those who live or have a business interest there.
When multi-unit affordable housing is proposed, individual single family home owners in the area object, and when a new power plant or highway extension is announced, those living in the area invoke the laws, not to protect the environment, but to not disturb the comfortable way they have things presently. ‘Not in my neighborhood,’ they complain.
Even when progress is made in these areas, it is usually only after years of expensive litigation and at an increased cost to comply with provisions of these laws. But in China, for example, where such laws don’t exist or can be easily bypassed, progress is quicker and accomplished at a far lower cost.
That is the price we pay for living by the rules of law in a democracy rather than in a place where the individual doesn’t have the laws, and the courts, on their side.
The article then obliquely makes the point that theTrump administration’s efforts to eliminate or at least reduce the power of our federal regulatory agencies, often echoed at State and local levels, may offer a sorry solution to this problem if they are successful.
Such a diminishing of environmental regulations would favor the immediate aims of businesses or of the government itself, enabling them to misuse laws for purposes for which they were never intended, even despite occasional objections from judges who might rule in favor of such laws. If that happens, we very well may then be able to build affordable housing, high-speed railroads, highways, and power plants even better and faster than the Chinese do.
But we will have lost something of value along the way. Would it be worth it?
JL
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Blackjack, Craps, Football, Basketball, You Name It
If you know anyone who is a gambler, or if you are disturbed by the many slick ads on TV promoting online gambling sites, tell them to spend a few minutes reading this story from the Free Press. CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.thefp.com/p/hi-my-name-is-allan-and-im-a-compulsive?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email on your browser line.
The combination of the commercialization of college sports with the legitimization of gambling which these online sites promote will inevitably lead to a scandal within the next decade. The online gambling sites themselves make money legally without any finagling and basically are honestly-run enterprises; the scandal will arise from among the athletes and teams on which gamblers wager.
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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