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Governor Pritzker Got it Right! Read What He Said Right Here
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| Last week, Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker rallied Democrats at a New Hampshire fund-raising event |
Before you turn in for the night, check out Heather Cox Richardson’s April 28 posting on her daily ‘Letters from an American’ by copying and pasting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line, or by just CLICKING HERE. She reports on what Pritzker said.
JL
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‘Forever Young’ – Trump and Reagan Represent Different Parties
Here’s a message for those who think of Ronald Reagan’s presidency as a time in the past when America was great and say so by wearing hats emblazoned ‘Make America Great Again.’ Because not too many of these folks follow Jackspotpourri, I recommend that you pass this on to any of them you might know!
In 1989, on the last day of his presidency, in his last speech, President Ronald Reagan recalled what someone had once written to him: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly true, but the ‘Great Communicator’ was on the right track when he continued:
“We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people—our strength—from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”
Today’s Republicans, who started restricting immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, attain new levels of hypocrisy every day, closing that door bit by bit, losing America’s leadership in the world, as they ignore these words of their idol, Ronald Reagan, and turn instead to Donald Trump.
JL
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A New Low Reached in Attorney General’s Office – She Thinks ‘Judges are Deranged’
The other day, Attorney General Pam Bondi talked on the Fox News Channel about the arrest of a local judge in Michigan who enablied a defendant appearing before her for a minor infraction to leave the courtroom via a ‘juror’s corridor’ to avoid ICE agents waiting in the hallway to arrest him as an illegal alien.
“What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me,” Bondi said. “The judges are deranged is all I can think of. I think some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today … “
Though it was something Bondi didn’t concern herself with, there are a couple of judges on the Supreme Court to which that might apply. SCOTUS Justices are not above the law; in fact, one of them was once actually impeached. Bondi might consder going after Justices Alito and Thomas who clearly place themselves in that category.
And come to think about it, if thinking that one is above the law warrants prosecution, isn’t that part of President Trump’s thought processes as well? Yup, but his three appointments to the SCOTUS brought him immunity from prosecution for laws he breaks in carrying out his ‘official’ duties. Don’t stay up nights trying to define ‘official’ though. It is whatever he says it means.
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| Bondi |
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Pain Causes Voters to Change
Somewhere in the previous posting of Jackspotpourri, the following comment was included: ‘The pain Americans are, or will be feeling, must be turned into reasons to turn Republican voters into Democratic voters. That’s what FDR did.’
Think about that for a moment. How long must we wait for that to happen again? The President’s irrational tariffs, for example, add up to these painful truths for Americans:
• Financial market instability decreasing the value of all investments especially retirement savings in IRAs and 401K plans,
• Higher retail prices on imported items (look at the appliances in your home, the labels on the clothing you wear, and the furniture in your living room … much of which is imported),
• Empty shelves in stores once loaded with imported items, and ‘dollar stores’ (where poorer people seek bargains) totally disappearing,
• Unemployment in industries dependent on what were once less costly imported parts and even raw materials.
This is what higher tariffs, hastily imposed, without logic or careful thought, are causing. And of course, the nations upon whose exports we impose higher tariffs do not hesitate to reciprocate with their own tariff incresases on what we export to them!
But there’s more!
Besides tariffs, consider the uncontrolled actions by an Executive Branch intent on reducing taxes paid by the wealthy and some businesses, tax reductions to be achieved by reducing government spending for services, passed by Congress over the years, historically provided to retirees and working people, like you! Just pick up a newspaper, any newspaper, and read all about it! Or try to reach Social Security, IRS, or Medicare by telephone (which are, incidentally, among the imports which tariffs will make more expensive).
Federal funding of research to cure diseases is being put on a back burner while disaster relief, environmental protections, and seeing that we have decent local schools is turned over to woefully ill-prepared State governments.
And the regulatory abilities of Congressionally-created agencies like the Federal Communication Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Aviation Administration are being taken away or shrunken despite the real needs they fill, adding to the public’s pain.
In normal times, the place to fight these kinds of things would be the courts. The Constitution calls for a ‘separation of powers.’ When the Executive Branch attempts to violate that separation, encroaching upon the powers of the Legislative Branch, going far beyond its duty of ‘executing the laws,’ a constitutional crisis arises and the Judicial Branch ought to step in.
But these are not normal times. Congress meekly agrees to whatever the Executive Branch wants, and judges are constantly being harassed by the Executive Branch. Our government seems to operate as if the rule of law did not exist, carrying out daily unconstitutional measures, even defying court orders from judges who attempt to follow the laws. And the Supreme Court’s role, at the top of the Judicial Branch, is limited because of its politicalization.
Is all of this enough to bring about enough pain to Americans to turn Republican voters into Democratic voters? It did in FDR’s time. It should today or will very shortly!
JL
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Donald Trump’s ‘Deportation Obsession’
If you are sufficient naïve to still believe that there is a spark of decency in the President, read Jonathan Blitzer’s piece included in the New Yorker magazine’s ‘Talk of the Town’ print issue dated April 28, 2025, and online a week earlier. Just CLICK HERE or copy and paste https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/28/donald-trumps-deportation-obsession on your browser line, and find out all about Donald Trump’s ‘Deportation Obsession,’ something that threatens all Americans, not just the possibly illegal immigrants you’ve been hearing about.
JL
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Jackspotpourri is Not Just Talking Big
Back in its April 17 posting of Jackspotpourri, I suggested the impeachment of the President before his term was completed, to be accomplished by an alliance of Congressional Democrats, ‘traditional’ Republicans, and most importantly, the influence of the investment, banking and business communities, all of which recognize the damage President Trump is doing to them and the nation. Go back and read that posting. I meant it!
Trump’s ‘making up’ a ficticious national emergency in order to justify his many unconstitutional acts (without his doing that, tariff policy for example, remains a Congressional function and due process remains protected by the Constitution’s Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments) should not go unpunished. We are not being ‘invaded by terrorists,’ as the President will have you believe. Peaceful demonstrators with mostly home-made signs are not a national emergency.
History will be the judge of our 47th president, to borrow a line from Sir Walter Scott, at that time when he is returned to “the vile dust from which he sprung, unknown, unhonored, and unsung.’
JL
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Let’s be Honest - Where the Money Comes From
Many of the Democratic support groups that I know of, including the one in my own local election precinct, ‘pass the hat’ at meetings to provide funding for their activities.
That doesn’t seem to be the case, however, with the individual ‘Indivisible’ groups that seem to be carrying much of the load for local Democraic groups today. The bottom line is that a lot of their funding originates with George Soros, through various grants from sources like the Open Society Foundations that he founded and which his wealth supports. It is difficult to fully document and trace the paths such funding follows but ‘experimental generative artificial intelligence,’ whatever that is, gives it a try.
Check that out by copying and pasting https://www.google.com/search?q=open+society+foundation+-+indivisible+groups&oq=open+society+foundation+-+indivisible+groups&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRirAtIBCjI2NDU3ajBqMTWoAgiwAgHxBaRHZBqLkJpz&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 on your browser line or by simply CLICKING HERE. Because this link consists of ‘artificial intelligence,' which Jackspotpourri avoids, it may not be totally accurate, but I suspect it is close to the truth.
Certainly, there is nothing wrong in accepting financial support from one of Soros’ ‘Open Society Foundations’ to accomplish ‘Indivisible’ groups’ objectives. They don’t ask for anything in return. And Elon Musk and other billionaires donated far more to Trump’s continuing campaigning.
(Incidentally, Jackspotpourri receives no support, financial or otherwise, from any sources. Check out the comments at the close of this posting headed ‘Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri’ for information about my sources, where I frown on AI which by its very nature is anonymous.)
JL
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Governor Pritzker Got it Right! Read What He Said Right Here
In case you ignored the first item on today's posting, here it is again.
Before you turn in for the night, check out Heather Cox Ricardson’s April 28 posting on her daily ‘Letters from an American’ by copying and pasting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser line, or by just CLICKING HERE . She reports on what Pritzker said.
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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