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‘Swing Time’
Although it originally was not a Broadway show, the 1936 movie ‘Swing Time’ has some really great songs in it, some of which have reappeared in subsequent musical productions.
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| Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire starred in 'Swing Time.' |
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire sang and danced their way through ‘Pick Yourself Up’ and ‘A Fine Romance,’ and Astaire crooned ‘The Way You Look Tonight.’ in the film. The music was by Jerome Kern and the absolutely brilliant lyrics were by Dorothy Fields, thirty years Kern’s junior. All three songs are now part of what some call ‘The Great American Songbook.’
The lyrics to ‘Pick Yourself Up’ were appropriate in 1936 as the nation recovered from the economic disaster brought about by the Republican excesses of the earlier decade, many of which today’s MAGA Republicans are right now trying to restore. I wonder if Democrats will be singing Fields’ lyrics to ‘Pick Yourself Up’ at the next Democratic National Convention.
‘Now nothing's impossible, I have found
For when my chin is on the ground
I pick myself up, dust myself off,
And start all over again,
Don't lose your confidence if you slip,
Be grateful for a pleasant trip,
And pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start over again.
Work like a soul inspired, until the battle of the day is won,
You may be sick and tired, but you'll be a man, my son.
Will you remember the famous men
Who had to fall to rise again?
So take a deep breath, pick yourself up,
Dust yourself off, and start all over again.'
Yeah!
JL
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No Kings
Economist Paul Krugman put his statistics aside for the day and demonstrated in New York City. His more expansive June 16 commentary on the demonstrations and the President’s competing parade in Washington can be found by CLICKING HERE or copying and pasting https://paulkrugman.substack.com/ on your browser line.
If you attended a rally, that’s great! If you didn’t, you can do so right now ‘by proxy’ by passing these pictures on to your friends, relatives, and neighbors. Just send them the links shown above, or this entire posting. (Directions for forwarding are included at the end of this posting in the 'Housekeeping' section.)
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Participating in spreading the truth about President Trump might seem difficult, inconvenient, and even dangerous, but not doing so is inexcusable in times of crisis. We are living in such challenging times of crisis today.
Thomas Paine, at the time of the American Revolution, wrote in his ‘American Crisis’ broadsides that ‘what we obtain too cheap(ly), we esteem too lightly,’ and that ‘it is dearness only that gives everything its value.’ Specifically, he was writing about ‘freedom,’ his words intended to inspire our outnumbered troops facing the British in the front lines.
If Thomas Paine were alive today, he would be among those protesting in the cause of those same freedoms, on what has become our present crisis’ front line.
This past weekend, those Americans you can see in those pictures linked to above, and many like them, were there on our front lines demonstrating to protect your freedoms.
THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS TO JOIN THEM BY PASSING THIS POSTING OF JACKSPOTPOURRI ON TO OTHERS.
JL
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Travel Advisory
Here is some advice. Ignore it at your own risk.
In flying to or from the New York metropolitan area, take flights that use JFK or LGA, but avoid flights scheduled to take off or land at EWR (Newark), where there are not enough air traffic controllers to do the job properly. Right now, EWR traffic is being managed from Philadelphia rather than from Westbury (Long Island) from where JFK and LGA air traffic is controlled, and from where EWR traffic once was controlled as well in days when they had an adequate number of controllers there!
Also, try to avoid any aircraft whatsoever manufactured by Boeing. They have a reputation for cutting corners. Several major US airlines, notably JetBlue, Spirit Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, as well as some smaller regional airlines do not use Boeing aircraft.
Although its manufacture ended a few years ago, Boeing’s 747s are still flying and are to be avoided if possible, including the palatial one being gifted to President Trump, if he should happen to invite you to join him on a flight.
But whatever else you do, stay away from Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner (like the one that crashed the other day in India) at all costs.
There’s a lot criticism of that specific aircraft on the internet. You can start by reading a frightening article on this subject. Copy and paste https://prospect.org/economy/2025-06-12-dreamliner-gave-boeing-manager-nightmares-just-crashed-air-india on your browser line or JUST CLICK HERE.
And if you have stock in Boeing, speak to your financial advisor as to what course to follow.
JL
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Is There a Danger in Article Five of the Constitution?
Here is Article Five of the Constitution, dealing with Amendments to that basic document. Usually, we tend to oversimplfy it by saying it takes two/thirds of both Houses of Congress to propose an Amendment to the Constitution and subsequent passage by three/fouths of the State legislatures to make it effective.
But there’s more to it than that!
Take a good look at that Article’s language:
Article V - ‘The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.’
Aha! So there’s an alternate route to amending the Constitution! While it uses the same percentages, it replaces the role of both Houses of Congress and the actual State legislatures themselves with ‘conventions’ established by State legislatures. No Amendment has ever been proposed, let alone ratified, by this ‘convention’ route, it is nevertheless sitting there, waiting to be used, or more likely, ‘misused.’
This permissive language, shown in red above, can move the Amendment process one giant step further from the voter by eliminating both elected Houses of Congress from the ‘proposal’ portion of the Amendment process, and utilizing such ‘conventions’ appointed by State legislatures rather than the legislatures themselves in ‘ratifying’ such an Amendment.
These are regressive concepts, making the Amendment process less democratic and less connected to the will of the people as shown in their voting choices. I suspect that it is there because of the same pressures in 1789 that resulted in the Constitution being silent in regard to slavery, and in giving each state two Senators, regardless of their population.
It appears to me that this ‘convention’ method would be utilized only if the proponents of an Amendment fear that while it might lack sufficient support in Congress or State legislatures, they might be able to succeed in their efforts, by taking the route of more easily manipulated ‘conventions,’ appointed by State legislatures, rather than State legislatures themselves.
It would seem to be a way of getting around opposition to such an Amendment and a lessening of democracy. I have seen articles on 'opinion pages' by reactionaries recommending this 'convention' approach.
On hearing the word ‘convention’ mentioned in connection with any proposed Constitutional Amendment, one should also hear alarm bells ringing loudly as well, and call or write to their Senators and Representatives about this danger.
JL
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Good Karma
One of my Fathers’ Day presents was a tee shirt emblazoned with the words ‘Good Karma.’ I am holding off wearing it in public because someone might ask me what ‘Karma’ is. I’m not certain of its meaning although generally, dictionaries define it as a person’s actions determining what subsequently happens to them, good or bad, including what happens in an afterlife, as some Asian religions contend.
I appreciate the tee shirt because I prefer to think of ‘Karma’ favorably as ‘Good’ which is what the shirt says. That means that the shirt’s wearer is satisfied that the good choices they make will follow them and ultimately reward them in some manner. But this ignores that there can be ‘Bad Karma’ as well, and sometimes it is unavoidable that bad choices are made, for which the rewards are not so nice.
There’s a lot of wisdom available on tee-shirts dealing with Karma, much of which can be summed up by recognizing that ‘what goes around, comes around, so be careful what you do or say.’ Many politicians should heed this.
JL
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Trump at the G7 Meeting
The other day, Canadian journalist Dean Blundell (originally a sports writer and now sort of a Canadian version of Howard Stern) reported that Washington insiders and observers from abroad had noticed how rarely Trump appears in public and how often he falls asleep when he does, prompting speculation that he is not physically able to do the work of the presidency. I add 'Was he ever?'
Earlier at the G7 meeting held this past weekend in Canada, in mentioning a trade deal the United States had made with the United Kingdom, Trump erroneously referred to the UK as the European Union. Blundell suggested Trump’s team would look for a way to get the president out of the G7 early to avoid exposure.
AND THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT THEY DID, having him leave the G7 meeting in the Canadian Rockies early supposedly because of the need for him back in Washington to work on the Israeli-Iranian hostilities, which in part were caused by his independent nuclear treaty negotiations, bypassing Israel, with an Iran that still preached the destruction of the State of Israel and advocated ‘Death to America.’
JL
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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.
3. Then I read my email.
Besides email, my other source of information is the Google search engine where I can look up any subject I want.
Lately, these search results have been headed by a very generalized summary clearly labeled as being developed by AI (Artificial Intelligence). I do not use such summaries in preparing Jackspotpourri.
Following such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the results of my initially having accessed Google (or any other search engine) for information. Contrary to the AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated.
I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information, yourself or something else (AI), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable.
(In doing searches on Google, I have found that these AI summaries can sometimes … but not always … be avoided by saying so in your search. For example, instead of searching for ‘FDR’s New Deal,’ I might search for ‘FDR’s New Deal – No AI.’ This is a work in progress.)
Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them.
There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though! Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog. Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com , or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.
JL
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