April 17, 2025 - An Alliance to Bring About Impeachment and All it Entails

                                                             

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Let’s pick up where we left off with that ‘BIGGIE’ in the Jackspotpourri published on April 9. Please go back and read it again. On most devices, it should appear a bit after this posting, and if not, just find it on the archives off to the right. 

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If we have reached the point where most thinking Americans agree that Donald Trump should not complete his term in office as our elected President, positive actions are necessary.  I feel that reasons for reaching this conclusion can perhaps come from diverse viewpoints. 

In all fairness, let’s start with what might be the possible views of those on the right.  Some of his most ardent supporters on the right, recognizing that a growing number of Americans very strongly oppose President Trump, as evidenced by the recent massive demonstrations throughout the land, feel that these protesters amount to a present danger warranting President Trump being allowed to loosen the Constitutional limits of presidential authority, claiming that he actually is defending and preserving the Constitution, permitting him to becoming what amounts to a 'benevolent' autocratic dictator instead! This would necessitate action or inaction (an action in itself) by both houses of Congress, and if contested, by the Supreme Court. 

Recognizing the time-consuming delays in doing it that way, with a semblance of legality, some very few extremists may just want to turn the country into a dictatorship with one fell swoop, overnight, and as the ancient Greeks did in times of stress, accept the rule of a ‘tyrant,’ who would be Donald Trump. 

Proponents of these approaches do not have enough supporters because too many Americans still claim to believe in the nation’s historic democratic principles. (Whether or not they do is another question.)  Therefore, those on the right seem to be willing to make this transfer from democracy to autocracy in bits and pieces and are quite willing to leave Trump as President.

That’s dangerous because many Americans do not pay attention to his individual acts and daily behavior and are unaware of such a gradual transfer from democracy to autocracy. 

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I believe that the real solution lies in the opposite direction, concluding that the preservation of democracy might be best accomplished by an ‘alliance’ of Democratic and ‘traditional’ Republican members of both Houses of Congress, together with the leadership of the investment, banking, and business communities, including the billionaires who had supported Trump, finding a way of getting him out of office before he completely destroys the nation, wrecking its financial and economic structure. 

While the motives of this investment/banking/business ‘leadership’ group might be selfish ones, they also recognize, despite his promise to lower their taxes, that the President’s economic programs, especially his simplistic and ignorant faith in tariffs, damage the economy in which these leaders exist, threatening their personal wealth, the successful operation of most large corporations, and destroying the Wall Street financial marketplace in which they operate as well. 

Their joining in an ‘alliance’ with Democratic and ‘traditional’ Republican members of both Houses of Congress, might look like an unhappy marriage, but together they can form a solid force sufficient to legally remove a sitting President.  And that’s where this is heading.

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I believe that more Americans support such an ‘alliance’ dedicated to seeing that Donald Trump does not complete his present term of office (more about how that would be accomplished in a moment) despite his winning the 2024 election, than support his staying in office and wrecking the country, a platform he did not run on. 

Action must be taken as soon as possible and be based not only on his tariff policy and its chaotic effect on the economy and upon domestic and international financial marketplaces, but also because of his disregard for individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution, his failure to execute existing laws, his illegal deportation policies, as well as his disregard and disrespect for ‘the Rule of Law.’ 

Remember, President Trump is a felon, convicted as such by the courts of the State of New York, and appears to be embittered toward our judicial system, as are many convicted and unrepentant criminals. That well describes the President of the United States and is a tragedy of almost operatic dimensions.

At this very moment, his lawyers are defying court orders regarding deportations in an environment where the Department of Justice, already under his thumb, is refusing or delaying carrying out the court’s orders. 

The question that the Supreme Court must eventually address is whether their decision last year that ‘presidential immunity from prosecution exists for actions related to his office’ extends to the ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ that will be part of any impeachment effort. The road to deciding that is a circuitous one, and their decision regarding ‘deportations’ will be a step along the way. 

This disrespect and disregard for ‘the Rule of Law’ on the President’s part has spread to his opinions of academics, law firms, science, media, and others in our society who do not agree with him. The misinformation he spreads have misguided too many Americans. That is how he got elected. 

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But getting back to the ‘alliance,’ it might take the form of an ‘Alliance Committee’ and would transcend party politics, before and after removal of the President from office, up until the 2028 elections and those of 2032 if necessary, at which point it would be automatically disbanded. 

Such a Committee, the formation of which would be totally legal, would be no more a part of government than the Heritage Foundation’s ‘Project 2025’ or even Elon Musk’s self-named Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which is neither fish nor fowl, but certainly not an official government agency. The Alliance Committee’s recommendations would be purely advisory but passed on to Congress for action. 

Three Important Groups for the ‘Alliance Committee’ to Recruit: 

(1) It would be very important for a majority of the Supreme Court to be on board, agreeing not to disturb such an alliance, and what it might accomplish, for the sake of preserving the nation. This might result from an actual case coming before it or if the SCOTUS, without such a case, is asked to render an opinion on terminating a president’s term in office prematurely. They also could choose to just remain on the sidelines.

 

(2) To assure that removing the President from his position would not be opposed by military force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, already supposedly purged by President Trump, will nevertheless be urged to adhere to what they learned at West Point, Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy, pledging allegiance to the Constitution over the orders of a Commander in Chief. Our military forces were never intended to take arms against the nation’s citizens. They know that. The President does not. 

(3) Finally, and because they are often targets of the President and his spear-carriers, leaders of the scientific, academic, and legal professions and communities should have input into the ‘Alliance Committee’ if only to balance its obvious link to its leadership by members of Congress and of the investment, banking, and business’ world.  This would give the ‘Alliance Committee’ greater credibility among the American people. 

Without the support or at least the acquiescence of these groups though, the work of the ‘Alliance Committee’ would be delayed and become more difficult.

Here’s the Way the Process Might Work: 

Crumbling economic conditions, food prices, inflation, job loss, financial marketplace instability and unpredictability, reduced pensions, loss of traditional allies, disappearing Constitutional freedoms, abandonment of the ‘rule of law,’ etc. will have to have become sufficiently threatening to the American people so that the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (where impeachments originate) and the SENATE (where impeachment is ‘tried’ and voted upon) WOULD EACH SUPPORT A SUCCESSFUL IMPEACHMENT REMOVING DONALD TRUMP FROM OFFICE. (See Article 2, Sec. 4 of the Constitution.)

And such an action by Congress would terminate the presidency of Donald Trump, with the backing of the nation through the ‘Alliance Committee.’ Hurrah! 

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After many years of ‘winging it,’ replacing a removed president, and what happens afterwards was finally clarified by the 25th Amendment to the Constitution in 1967.  CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxv on your browser line to read the text of the 25th Amendment. 

Such a removal by impeachment, requiring ‘conviction’ by the Senate, has never occurred, although presidencies have been terminated by a President’s death or resignation, or only briefly suspended during a President undergoing surgery. 

If an impeachment were confirmed by the Senate, the Vice President would succeed the impeached President and name a new Vice President who would require a majority vote in both the House and the Senate. 

If a presidential disability elevates the Vice President to the position of ‘Acting President’, and that disability becomes permanent, that too would cause a vice-presidential vacancy. Without a new Vice President being appointed by the ‘Acting President,’ after 21 days both Houses of Congress can proceed to select a new Vice President, but in such cases, two-thirds majorities would be required to proceed in that manner. Once a new Vice President is named and confirmed by Congress, the ‘Acting President’ becomes President. 

It is conceivable that a Vice-President, in line to succeed a successfully impeached or otherwise removed President might not want the job and having views similar to the removed President, might not want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, and themselves resign, throwing the choice of a President to Congress. 

There has been a lot written on this matter, and ‘Google’ searches about the 25th Amendment, or including the names of Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon, or Gerald Ford might be educational. Of course, reading the actual Amendment is desirable. To do that, CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xxv on your browser line, if you have not already done so.  Even oversimplified ‘AI’ summaries might be helpful. 

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If the ‘Alliance Committee’ and Congressional action succeed in their efforts to cut short the term of President Trump, Congress would want to forestall the recurrence of another Presidency with the same autocratic flaws Trump presents. That would mean their insisting that the new President accept Trump’s removal from office from office as a ‘fait accompli’ as well as agree to an immediate reconstruction of the Executive Branch of our government with a significantly strengthened system of checks upon the President, including a powerful ‘whistle blower' presence in its agencies and departments. This is where the acquiescence of the Supreme Court becomes important, and this will be the most difficult part of saving the nation from Donald Trump’s becoming a dictator. 

After the President is removed from office, whoever ends up as President would also have to, but only until the Executive Branch is reconstructed and operative, agree to temporarily limit his or her role as President to seeing that the laws passed by Congress are faithfully executed, as the Constitution requires, and to not initiate any actions that have not been previously discussed with the leadership of both Houses of Congress and informally agreed to by them, including cabinet and judicial appointments and budgets.

Initially, this would result in a short period during which the country would  have an interim government with only a ‘figurehead’ ceremonial president, with actual control of the government's executive functions resting with our two elected Houses of Congress.  Every effort should be made to make that interim period as short as possible.  Nevertheless, it would be an improvement over an autocratic President because it would put the government in the hands of the voters who elect both Houses of Congress, following the tradition of representative democracy, and take it out of the reach of a ‘wannabe’ dictator, who still thinks he is running a television show. 

In carrying this out, it must be continually kept in mind that before any of these actions, including changes which affect the Constitution’s Article Two (establishing the Executive Branch), take place, conditions will have to have deteriorated to the point where not only the House of Representatives and the Senate will take action by impeachment or via the 25th Amendment’s disability provisions but also, the Supreme Court, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have to be either openly agreeable to removing Donald Trump from office or be willing to stand by on the sidelines as that process advances through Congress as the only way of saving the United States of America from its self-destruction at his hands. That's a tall order, but a necessary one.

There must be no room for compromise, for as pointed out in the Jackspotpourri dated April 9, negotiations with Donald Trump are always losing propositions. 

The informal ‘Alliance Committee’ would automatically go out of existence after the 2028 or 2032 presidential election at the latest, there being no further need for it. 

While reconstructing the Executive Branch, putting a check on the President’s actions, will go a long way toward solving the problem of an autocratic President replacing our democracy, the Executive Branch must still retain sufficient independence to balance any anti-democratic excesses originating in Congress. The presidential ‘veto’ process and the rules for overriding it would be an example of this. 

Once a rebuilt Executive Branch is functioning, if necessary, changes in its structure can be documented as an Amendment to the Constitution and submitted to Congress and the States. But Amendments usually take years to be passed and to take effect. 

It would be important that no one be prosecuted during this period for their actions leading up to the removal of the President, or afterwards, and that the legal protections of the  First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment rights be specifically preserved. 

No one would be totally pleased with such a solution, but it would be better than letting the world’s oldest democracy go down the drain, as might be the unspoken intention of Donald Trump, or the result of his blind stupidity or incompetence, or the aims of some of those he appointed to key positions.

When the ‘inconceivable’ (the election of a truly unfit President whose actions can result in the nation’s demise) occurs, such a solution can be both ‘possible’ and ‘necessary.’ It appears to be the latter. 

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And that is what I have to say, crossing boundaries that most politicians and pundits have up to now cautiously observed. Because these ideas may be incomplete and subject to criticism and revision, it is up to Democrats and ‘traditional’ Republicans elected to Congress, and the leadership of the of the investment, banking, and business communities, joined together on that ‘Alliance Committee,’ and ultimately the American people through their elected legislators to step up right now to get the job done.  It will not be easy and it will open a Pandora’s box. But I can do no more. 

Perhaps you can. 

 JL 

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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. 

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 because I am in the dark about the techniques used and possible sources AI has mined to develop them. Sources with their origin clearly identified to me still follow, and these are what I use in composing Jackspotpourri postings. (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

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April 14, 2025 - Trump, Bukele, and Carville

Back in Jackpotpourri’s April 9 posting, I said I would follow up the idea of prematurely terminating the presidency of Donald Trump in greater detail in the next posting. I’m postponing that; the posting is already written, and you’ll be seeing it in a few days, but there are a few important items I would like to draw to your attention right now. We can start with some news about two Presidents, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and our own Donald Trump.

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Trump’s Savior – ‘El Salvador’- A Tale of Two Presidents 

Today (April 14), the President of El Salvador, jailer of those President Trump wants out of the United States, is visiting the White House.  That is a national disgrace. 

Presidentes Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele

El Salvador's Nayib Butele ignores our request to return an immigrant we mistakenly arrested and sent to his prison. (This tactic avoids our sending civilian deportees to Guantanamo, which might create giant legal problems here.) He laughs at us and defies our laws, and we are paying him six million dollars a year to do so.  (I wonder if we can stop the check,)

If justice were to be served, he should be seized and held as a hostage until he returns those illegally deported to his country back to the United States. But Trump would be the last person to do that. He is as bad as Bukele who has indeed reduced crime in his country but only by arbitrarily imprisoning thousands of innocent people, sacrificing their freedom. Trump may wish he could do the same here, especially to journalists who regularly criticize him with facts, as those on MSNBC do daily. 

In reading the articles about the Adminstration’s deportation practices, filled with lies, evasions, and defiance of court orders, and which have affected many immigrants long legally in the United States, and even visiting tourists, I smell the aroma of the lies the Nazis told about their detention facilities which were really death camps. Stories of ICE arrests remind one of Gestapo tactics. No one, including misinformed and misled Republicans should be fooled. 

JL 

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Some Thoughts from James Carville 

Here’s a piece James Carville wrote for the New York Times.  

'How to Turn Trump’s Economic Chaos Against Him' 

James Carville - April 14, 2025 

(Jim Carville is a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s in 1992, and a consultant to American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC).

“In many ways, President Trump is a one-trick Shetland pony: He talks a big game, like building a border wall or ending Covid, and then tries to distract Americans when his promises go belly up. 

Back in office this winter, he promised a golden age for the economy and the end of inflation starting on Day 1 — and then we got served plenty of fish bait: blowing smoke about seizing Greenland, huffing and puffing about annexing Canada and throwing people into a tizzy over seeking a third term, which he will never be able to do. Now we know why. Mr. Trump didn’t have a plan to bring down inflation and make life better (except for the rich, who disproportionately benefit from his tax cuts), and he was hellbent on tariffs at all costs. The problem is that smoke and mirrors only work until you screw up so hard that no act of lunacy can pull the American people’s attention elsewhere. And boy, did the president just screw up royally. 

In what will certainly be recorded as one of the most ignorant acts of political leadership in American history, the president of the United States has now willfully damaged the global economy with his tariff chaos. Not only was this an act of economic warfare, it has broken the cardinal rule in American politics: Never destabilize the economy. 

With it, the Trump administration is causing enormous damage to itself — and there can be no more distraction from this naked truth. This is where the Democrats have an opening. In February I wrote a piece calling on my party’s leaders to play dead, allowing the Republicans to punch themselves out and crumble beneath their own weight. But many Democrats indulged Mr. Trump’s lunacy or allowed themselves to become the story over the government funding and shutdown debate, while the president continued his campaign of chaos and distraction. 

Now, Democrats have an opportunity to allow the Republicans to edge closer to collapse as the party in full control of Washington — let’s please not become the story again and get in their way. In the coming weeks and months, many Americans are going to experience pressure and pain with the tariffs on China and the remaining tariffs on an array of goods and countries. Prices could rise sharply, consumer spending may well dry up and we are already seeing evidence of surging mortgage rates and a weakened bond market. 

The Trump administration will not be competent enough to dig us out. The path to stabilizing and strengthening the country starts when Democrats can take back the economic narrative from the Republican Party and persuade the majority of Americans to close the book on the Trump chaos. This can only be done if we avoid the distractions — whether it’s Mr. Trump’s third-term talk or Democratic infighting on social issues — and instead focus on the economic foundations that matter to Americans most. 

My fellow Democrats, it’s time we transform our party into a projector for the economic pain of the American people. Here’s how to do it: 

First, focus on prices. We must start with what matters most. President Trump won the White House on an overt promise to bring down prices. Let’s not forget his most oft-repeated claims: “Starting on Day 1, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods” or: “Prices will come down. You just watch. They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.” 

This promise is formally broken. The cost of trucks and vehicles is set to shoot up thousands of dollars. Dame, a sexual wellness brand that makes adult toys and personal care products, implemented a $5 “Trump tariff surcharge.” Everything from seafood to cans of beer to clothing to toys will grow more expensive. The most direct hit to working people’s pocketbooks will always be from the cost of daily goods. Making it clear that Trump and the Republicans willingly broke this promise should be in every ad, every podcast talking point, every message we send from now until the midterms.

Second, it’s not about the stock market, it’s about 401(k)s. With six in 10 Americans lacking the savings to cover even a $1,000 emergency expense, Democrats cannot afford to hinge our economic narrative on the rise and fall of a market for the privileged. For younger Americans, stocks will most likely rebound and grow over time. But the tariffs are a poison dagger for those who have saved and vested into their 401(k) their entire lives, just to see it depleted by the reckless actions of the president. You can bet certain retirees are now living in a panic, pausing home renovations and big-ticket purchases as their life savings start to drain by the day. If this continues, many retirees will have to go back into the work force, spending what should be their comfortable years grinding in the office like they are in their 30s. This is a real, substantial pain that will be felt by the Americans who are the least deserving of it. As it turns out, older voters are also some of the most reliable, powering Trump’s re-election. Democrats, uplift their stories and connect their pain to the president. Do not focus on the market or the daily percentage drop in the Magnificent Seven tech stocks. 

And third, make the message local. It’s important that as a party we understand this is not about us and that the Democratic brand is tarnished at this given moment. And instead, take our prints off of the message as much as possible. This is not about us going on CNN or taking to X to complain about the president. The Democratic Party must now take local stories and project them where they matter most. Record the story of Nicholas Gilbert, a dairy farmer upended by the tariffs — and localize it to Wisconsin. Focus on the Latino and Black men who supported his previous election, and take it to Georgia or Arizona. Go on influencer networks and podcasts talking about the looming increase in car prices and the fact that the president exploded Nintendo’s plans for the Switch 2. For the entirety of his tenure in American politics, Donald Trump for better or worse has lived on by the grace of the American people’s faith in his economic leadership. 

Now it is plain and clear, just as with his failures in Atlantic City or with Trump University, that President Trump never had any idea what he was doing all along. If we avoid the distractions to come and stay focused on the economy, Democrats can take back the one issue that has kept Trump on a respirator all this time. Through all the hardships to come, we bring the silver lining. And finally, we can begin again.” 

I don’t think Carville goes far enough.  He is on the right track, but it will take more than that, as the next posting on Jackspotpourri will suggest. 

JL 

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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. 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 because I am in the dark about the techniques used and possible sources AI has mined to develop them. Sources with their origin clearly identified still follow, and these are what I use in composing Jackspotpourri postings. (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 

                                                             * * *

April 9, 2025 - Compromises Getting Nowhere, States vs Federalism, The Meaning of MAGA, a Krugman Column, and a 'Biggie'

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Compromises, Tariffs, War, and Their Heritage 

Compromises are not necessarily a permanent solution. 

It’s time for a little history. Andrew Jackson, whom President Trump admires, was a supporter of tariffs, the government’s major source of revenue in those pre-income tax days, but he knew how to compromise, playing both sides of an issue. 

In 1832, anti-tariff’ South Carolina, an exporter of cotton with little manufacturing and where imports played a big role, announced that it would militarily resist the collection of tariffs, a process known as ‘Nullification’ (of a Federal law). President Jackson and Congress then responded by threatening to send in the United States Army to force their collection. 

Congressional leaders rushed to negotiate a compromise in 1833 whereby both South Carolina and the President backed off from aiming guns at one another, withdrawing the warlike legislation originally passed both in Washington and in Charleston. Jackson and Congress ended up reducing the tariffs but they remained a political weapon and still are one today, potentially damaging to the nation if used by those with no understanding of how they work. The Congressional pressure to craft a compromise on tariffs in 1833 could not happen today because both Houses of Congress have given up their autonomy in exchange for the votes of Trump’s MAGA loyalists. 

Over the next three decades after Jackson’s compromise on tariffs, the concept of ‘Nullification’ did not disappear as tariffs increased and were joined by fierce arguments and failing compromises regarding the expansion of slavery. More States than South Carolina were by then involved, as the concept of ‘Nullification’ led to ‘Secession’ and the war between the North and the South.

John C. Calhoun, proponent of 'Nullification'

South Carolina’s Senator John Calhoun, who also served as Vice President for John Quincy Adams and during Andrew Jackson’s first term, spearheaded the cause of States Rights and slavery, and fought tariffs during his career. Eventually a frequent foe of Jackson, he died in 1850 but not before working with Henry Clay to bring about the Compromise of 1850, which postponed the Civil War by eleven years. Clemson University sits on Calhoun’s estate, donated by his heirs. 

The importance of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, also instrumental in the ultimately unsuccessful compromises of that era, cannot be minimized.  He is famous for saying ‘I’d rather be right than President,’ (He ran and lost three times); Henry Clay will be addressed in a future Jackspotpourri. 

The Civil War was about how far the rights of individual States extended, with owning slaves as an inherent property right being the salient issue. Back in 1789, for the sake of creating and passing our Constitution, the slavery question had been avoided by the Founding Fathers. By the middle of the Nineteenth century, however, times had changed; slavery had been banned in most of Europe, including Great Britain, tariffs were again rising , and both Andrew Jackson and that 1833 tariff compromise were dead.

Although that compromise and others were not permanent solutions, they were still useful in that they provided time to somehow try to avoid a war that was looming on the horizon, even back in 1832 and 1833. But all it did was to postpone it. 

The North was infuriated by the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which allowed a former slave to be returned from Wisconsin to his former owner in Missouri, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the West to slavery. The die had been cast and the North and the South were ready to fight for their beliefs, and no longer did they focus on tariffs, generally popular in the North, less so in the South.  The rights of States and slavery, intertwined issues, were what the War would be about.

In 1861, South Carolina’s guns finally fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, starting a war some say continues today in other, non-military forms, touching on those same issues. 

After all, isn’t the President’s use of tariffs as a supposed weapon of coercion against foreign nations, ultimately burdening Americans with higher prices to enable importers to pay ‘tariffs’ to our government? Sounds like a thinly disguised sales tax on consumers who purchase imported items to me. 

And aren’t his attacks on ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ related to the heritage of slavery? Historically, Trump stands with those who brought post-Civil War ‘Reconstruction’ to an end, welcoming the ‘gilded’ age of the unregulated ‘Robber Barons’ and ‘Jim Crow’ State laws in 1877 when the last Federal troops were withdrawn from the South. 

His praise of President McKinley, who did nothing praiseworthy, represents this. Things change and also remain the same.

JL 

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The Continuing Conflict – Federalism vs States Rights 

Throughout most of the first century of the history of the United States of America, the conflict between the power of the Federal government and the rights of the supposedly ‘united’ individual States centered on tariff policies, the favorite revenue-raising tool of Alexander Hamilton. 

In 1862, to help finance the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln created the IRS and the income tax which Congress approved.  This eventually moved the focus of those who disliked central Federal government from opposition to tariffs to opposition to taxes. Both are still with us, although the emphasis is now on the latter, while States Rights themselves remain an issue presently more related to voting, environmental, and health care issues.

JL

 

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What MAGA Really Means 

In disbelief, the other day I heard our now pro-tariff President mumble that the income tax was mysteriously started in 1913 to replace income derived from tariffs, apparently unaware that Abraham Lincoln started the IRS in 1862 to finance the Civil War. He must have cut class the days they taught that at Wharton and New York Military Academy.

And this past week, I saw a poster at an anti-Trump rally declaring that Morons Are Governing America. Tee Shirts and caps are on the market with that slogan as well. That is absolutely true. 

President Trump is their drum major, leading their parade. That slogan well describes the proponents of tariffs who are ignorant of how they work and who is left to ultimately pay for them. It takes a little thinking to understand that; just scratching the surface is not enough, once you’re out of junior high school. (Did Trump cut classes there too?) 

Worse is the fact that Americans voted these morons into office, misinformed and misled by deceitful media, protected by the First Amendment. 

JL

  

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At the Edge of the Abyss

Economist Paul Krugman writes about how we are at the brink of economic disaster because of the President’s tariffs. CLICK HERE  or copy and paste https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-cost-of-chaos-this-is-getting on your browser line. You might not understand all that he writes but give it a shot.  After all, he is a Nobel Prize winner.  

What it comes down to, I think, is that bondholders seek stability, and if that is absent due to stock market gyrations caused by tariffs or anything else, they prefer having cash on hand rather than a future promise to pay, which is what a bond is.  So they will sell, sell, and sell … until there aren’t any buyers left, and that can push the bond market over the brink into the abyss, eliminating the money sources necessary for growth and dragging the entire economy behind it. Huh? 

JL  

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Today's 'Biggie' 

For the past few postings of Jackspotpourri, I've been dancing around what can be done about the unqualified, shallow, bigot we have in the White House. I've also thrown around the words 'inconceivable,' 'possible,' and 'necessary.'  But face it, we are now precisely at the point where the ‘inconceivable’ looks to be a ‘possibility’ if not a ‘necessity’ in order to save the nation from self-destruction. Elaborating on that leads nowhere but to Donald Trump. It is time to put it all together, to fish or cut bait.  So here goes!

 

Let me repeat that, but this time, more SPECIFICALLY, at last: 

The ‘inconceivable possibility or necessity’ that I’ve been writing about consists of seriously thinking about PREMATURELY ENDING THE PRESIDENCY OF DONALD TRUMP as soon as possible, primarily because of his disastrous tariff policy, but also because of his disregard of rights guaranteed by the Constitution and existing legislation, our goal being saving the United States of America from its self-destruction at his hands, but let’s make it very, very, clear, it is something to be accomplished in a legal and Constitutional manner. 

Now that our goal has been stated, a big step forward, stay tuned to Jackspotpourri for some ideas about where we go from here!  It won't be easy because Trump has sixty years of feinting, lying, double-talking, and reversing his own positions so that he comes up on top in negotiations. He is one person with whom never to negotiate.  Bankruptcies, expensive law suits forced on those with whom he negotiates, and decades of not paying bills are all in his bag of tricks.  As a politician he is no different. 

Today's posting started off talking about 'compromises.'  Going down that road with him plays into his hands. But we now know what our objective is and that is a big  step forward. Next time, we'll get into the method of arriving there. successfully.

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. 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 because I am in the dark about the techniques used and possible sources AI has mined to develop them. Sources with their origin clearly identified still follow, and these are what I use in composing Jackspotpourri postings. (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

                                                        * * *

April 5, 2025 - Trump's Tariffs - a Step Too Far, Singapore 'Hits,' and What Fox Hosts are Saying

 

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They are Watching 

Google provides Jackspotpourri with data indicating how many out there have clicked on its URL and possibly read it. Over the past week, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of ‘hits’ from the ‘city-state’ of Singapore. This has happened before in times of international concern, and I usually assume this represents monitoring of Jackspotpourri by the Chinese government which has a friendly presence in Singapore. (Singapore’s position on Taiwan, for example, parrots Beijing’s.) 

The only reason that I can see for this to be happening at this time are President Trump’s tariffs, about which the Chinese diligently check every possible source for intelligence, even Jackspotpourri. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping

Hey there, President Xi:    All I know is what I read in the newspapers and online, just like your guys. Trump doesn’t even know what he’s doing. 

JL

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Inconceivable? Impossible? Who Knows? 

In the preceding Jackspotpourri (which for some of you might appear directly following this posting, depending on what device you are using), in writing about a president’s disregard for the ‘rule of law,’ I pointed out that once that happens ‘what had been inconceivable is no longer impossible,’ and that is dangerous. 

And now, economic policy, represented by the President’s tariff increases, joins ignoring the ‘rule of law’ in making ‘what had been inconceivable no longer impossible.’ 

The Constitution gives to Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. But the International Emergency Economic Powers Act allows the president to impose tariffs if he declares a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, which Trump has done. He has declared a “national emergency to increase our competitive edge, protect our sovereignty, and strengthen our national and economic security.” 

While many Presidents, including Trump, have declared such national ‘emergencies’ in the past, they usually have been in response to specific situations, not the non-specific ‘bullshit’ talking points the President declared as his reasons as quoted above. Nobody has attacked us from abroad or domestically or threatened to do so. I doubt that Trump’s reasons are what Congress had in mind as constituting a national emergency when they passed those Acts, nor that a President might use these acts to usurp a power the Constitution first gives to Congress. 

If the truth were to be known, the President might just as well have come out and said, ‘I’ll do whatever the hell I want to do, regardless of what the laws say.’ That would at least be honest, possibly a ‘first’ for him. 

Really though, there is a ‘national emergency’ right now, identifiable as Donald John Trump being in the White House. It may last as long as he is there. And that ‘emergency’ can be blamed on the ‘misinformed and misled’ mentioned in the previous posting of Jackspotpourri. 

President Trump’s playing around with tariffs as a political tool, wreaking havoc to our economy, hurting individual Americans and businesses, threatening a 1930s style depression here and in the entire world, now joins disregard for the ‘rule of law’ as making ‘what had been inconceivable no longer impossible.’ 

Check out Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s April 3 and April 4 postings of her ‘Letters from an American’ (CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line) to find out how Trump’s tariff policy, which has no basis in any real economic data or theory, amounts to what one critic compares to a mob boss shaking down all the businesses in a town, but in this case, they are our 50 States and other nations! 

It is even likened by former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to ‘what creationism is to biology, astrology is to astronomy, or RFK's 

thoughts are to vaccine science.’ The Trump tariff policy, Summers added, ‘makes little sense EVEN if you believe in protectionist mercantilist economics.’ 

Even many of the wealthy and business leaders, of course excluding the MAGA dummies, who supported Trump in November, 2024, are losing faith in him. 

                                                        * * 

All of which raises a question: Is it time, right now, for supporters of the President and those opposed to his actions to be more specific about what is now ‘conceivable’ and now ‘possible’ in the United States of America? 

Those at both extremes are beginning to go further and wonder if the adjective ‘possible’ ought to be replaced with the more urgent ‘necessary’?

Are we at that point where ‘what had been ‘inconceivable’ is not only ‘possible,’ but also ‘necessary’?

                                                         * * 

Here’s a hint: Contradictory answers from both sides involve the President, some taking him to be a heaven-sent angel and others, as a disciple of the devil. You can guess where Jackspotpourri stands. I have my ideas as to possible answers, but I don’t want to be ahead of the news about things that haven’t happened yet and may not ever happen. Eventually, however, I may share my thoughts. Please ‘stay tuned.’ 

JL 

                                                        * * * 

Fox Reaction to Bad Economic News 

Courier, a liberal newsgathering website, to which I don’t subscribe, recently documented the reaction of FoxNews personalities in a posting designed to attract donors. They reported the following comments after enormous declines in the financial marketplace resulting from the President’s tariff policy, put into effect despite it being contrary to all reputable economic theory.  Here’s what Courier reported Fox News’ most biggest hosts said after the crash: 

 Jesse Watters: “It’s an exciting time to be alive.” 

 Jeanine Pirro: “I don’t really care about my 401(k)... I believe in this man.” 

 Sean Hannity: “I am absolutely a thousand percent confident that things are going to work out.” 

 Laura Ingraham: “I personally know a lot of people who are buying into this  market. That's how people always make money.” 

Yes, they actually wrote ‘most biggest.’ That sounds like something our President might say. That says a lot for Courier, but they did get their idea across. 

My take on these four Fox hosts’ words: Let Jesse be excited, let Jeanine keep on believing, let Sean be 1000% confident, and it is reassuring that Laura knows people who ‘buy low’ hoping to ‘sell high.’ 

None of them give a darn about the American people who are being hurt by higher tariffs that automatically lead to higher prices having to be paid by the importer and then passed on to the customer. (I would venture to guess that all four are wearing some imported clothing and drive imported cars, but they are sufficiently overpaid not to care. Most Americans do care.) Meanwhile, foreign countries put retaliatory tariffs on American exports lessening demand for them, hurting employment in the United States. It’s a ‘lose-lose’ proposition: Higher prices and fewer jobs! All these four Fox hosts are interested in doing is spreading misinformation to those they daily mislead, which is what their employer pays them to do, and how we got into this mess in the first place. 

 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 newspaper and what appears in my daily email. Be aware that when I get to that email, I take these steps. (1.) I quickly scan the sources of the dozen or so 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 criterion is whether or not they end up asking for money. 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 emails at which I will actually look, which on a typical day add up to about fifty or sixty.

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 because I am unaware of the sources AI has mined to come up with its summaries. Sources with their origin clearly identified follow, and that is what I use as sources for Jackspotpourri postings. In doing searches on Google, I have found that these AI summaries can be avoided by saying so in your search. For example, instead of searching for ‘FDR’s New Deal,’ I search for ‘FDR’s New Deal – no AI please’. 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 

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