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| The New Yorker Magazine's June 23, 2025 cover is a fine commentary on the recent parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary as well as President Trump's birthday on June 14. On that date, millions of Americans peacefully participated, across the nation, in 'No Kings' demonstrations. |
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What can I say? By the time I am typing this and hope that you are reading it, it will be like stale bread. Things move so rapidly these days that even supposedly up-to-the minute sources are behind the times and only can hint, and not describe, what is really taking place.
The very least that you can do is to (1) follow the latest stale headlines in the daily postings of papers like the New York Times and free daily sites like those of CNN and NPR. Honestly, forget about heavily opinionated FoxNews, although no news sources are entirely without some bias.
And for the local news, (2) a subscribtion to a daily printed newspaper or full online edition of a local newspaper (In my area, the Sun Sentinel or the Palm Beach Post) is essential, to keep up on the many things that affect you that the New York Times, etc. never get anywhere near.
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But I'm not leaving you hanging there! Here are some questions, or subjects, or thoughts, about
which you should try to familiarize yourself. That's not an easy job. They
might give you some perspective on the world around us as reported in the stale
bread that fills today’s media.
• What is the deal with the American people who seem willing to accept a government headed by a Congress and president who are not bothered by their violating the Constitution and otherwise breaking laws, and a politically appointed Supreme Court dominated by two senile Justices? Is that okay if it best serves the nation?
• Since when has the kind of bigotry once limited to bar room discourse been elevated to a legitimate level and serving to determine how people vote? And what happened to the pride we once had in respecting the truths discovered by science, documented by history, and spread by education, only to see them replaced by a pride in having a lack of knowledge, instinct being a sufficient guidepost for dummies.
• Is ‘climate change’ a reality that will so affect our planet and make it an unfit place to be?
• What do we do about immigration, without which only Native Americans would be the ones reading this posting?
• Does our government, and do you, understand the roots of the conflicts now going on in Ukraine and in the Middle East? Things are rarely what they appear to be at first glance.
• How many more mass shootings will it take for the nation and the Supreme Court to understand that there are 27 words in the Second Amendment, and not just its final fourteen?
• Will Florida ever get its homeowners insurance situation resolved?
• And what about those ideas that we package as things easity opposed by classifying them as ‘isms’: Communism, Socialism, Extremism, Terrorism, Colonialism, Internationalism, Racism, Capitalism (?), Libertarianism, etc., etc., etc. Before packaging them as easily criticized ‘isms,’ do their ideas have any merit of their own?
• And of course, we cannot ignore ‘Atheism,’ ‘Agnosticism,’ and the many ‘religions’ or belief systems devoted to worshipping things that can only be accepted as matters of faith, allowing there to exist many answers to important questions, unfortunately answers that often contradict one other, and for which some believers are willing to die.
• And why are educational institutions in the United States, if they want to play competitive games among themselves, hiring athletes instead of recruiting them from their student bodies? Have educational institutions forgotten their purpose? The athletic competitions in which the ancient Greeks and Romans participated had nothting to do with their educational systems, and that is the way it is anywhere outside of this country today, and why so many of the doctors in your local hospital have foreign-sounding names.
• And how was the Universe created anyway?
JL
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And now, here’s Jackspotpourri, for whatever it is worth.
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USA Commits to Stopping Iranian Nuclear Program - But There Remain Questions
What happens to Iran’s nuclear program is ultimately going to be the result of negotiations of some sort between Iran and the United States (and Israel via an intermediary).
Regime Change: A key question in my mind is whether it will be the present Iranian government or a regime which might replace it that signs on to such an agreement. The destruction of much of Iran’s nuclear program as well as much of its scientific and military and leadership by Israel and by the United States which finally decided to bomb key Iranian nuclear sites, might be sufficient to bring about such regime change. Then again, it might not. It might take more.
The Politics of Trump’s Decision: In the United States, most Republicans (except the MAGA isolationists who still think two oceans suffice as our walls, and shun any foreign military involvement) generally support the President’s actions while many Democrats are conflicted, some being supportive of Israel and others on the Party’s progressive left not so much, having sympathies with the Palestinians who view Iran as their ally.
In this sense, Trump’s decision is a political one, serving to sow dissent among his Democratic critics. Some, regardless of Party, feel that bombing Iran’s nuclear sites is something only Congress can authorize, but the President still has to be convinced of that.
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In whatever negotiations eventually take place, each side has some cards to play.
Iran still has proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as Palestinians within Israel, and the Houti rebels in Yemen to disrupt shipments in the Red Sea. They still have customers for their oil, China being their biggest one, which suggest a role for it in negotiations.
Iran also has a stockpile of ballistic missiles with which to harass Israel and which have caused some damage. Thus far, Iranian response to the attacks on their nuclear sites by the United States has been limited to a harmless attack on the United States base in Bahrein, about which adequate warning was given. It gave Tehran something to claim as a response; that’s all.
Israel similarly has plenty of missiles and control of the skies over Iran and has superior and more technically advanced, although not larger, military establishments, and superior intelligence operations, as demonstrated by their initial successes in attacking Iran’s nuclear program’s sites and key personnel. They did so believing that Iran was much closer to developing nuclear weapons than others thought.
Israel and the United States also have the kind of advanced weaponry that Iran lacks. To ‘speed things up’, the United States has already played this card, or part of it anyway, by using its ‘bunker breaking’ bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites. But there still remains much of this card, and others, for them to play.
President Trump claims that he arranged a truce between the warring parties but Israel and Iran knew little about it and are proceeding cautiously, still unleasing missile attacks on each other.
Did the ‘bunker breaking’ bombs Trump unleashed work? There remain differing opinions as to how successful the United States’ bombing of Iranian nuclear sites actually were, ranging from Trump and Secretary Hegseth, like circus midway barkers, claiming them to have been ‘totally obliterated’ to others still seeking more evidence as to what was actually destroyed.
A story carried by The Free Press described the Iranians removing truckloads from the Fordow site just before the attacks on that site. Check it out by visiting https://www.thefp.com/p/did-iran-just-sneak-out-critical or by simply CLICKING HERE. Apparently they knew what was about to happen and took steps to relocate some of their partially enriched uranium.
Trump and Hegseth are presently running in circles since a Department of Defense analysis, apparently leaked by that rarity, an honest employee in the Republican administration, contradicted their tale of ‘total obliteration.’ It would be foolish to assume Iran’s nuclear program has been destroyed. A safer assumption would be that it has been considerably delayed, anywhere from a few months to a few years.
And while you’re in the clicking mood, please check out Heather Cox Richardson’s June 22 'Letters from an American' posting by CLICKING HERE or visiting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ for the opinions of many in our country on the President’s actions. Stay there for her June 24 posting as well, discussing President Trump’s behavior in regard to Iran and Israel, where she remarked that 'It seems to me long past time to question the 79-year-old president’s mental health.’
Fortunately, all Republicans are not subject to that criticism. An ‘artificial intelligence’ summary of his views indicates that Senator Rand Paul believes while Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, military strikes are not the answer and could lead to unintended consequences, such as an unwillingness on Iran’s part to sit down and negotiate honestly and continuing working toward nuclear weaponry. Senator Paul believes diplomacy and negotiation are the way forward and is also a strong advocate for Congress's role in authorizing military action. The President has criticized him for that, as well as his objecting to parts of his ‘big beautiful budget bill.’
We seem to be in the middle of a story, and not anywhere near its conclusion
This is where things stand today. If I had to venture a guess, I believe that the United States and Israel would be happy, as would some of the ethnic minorities within Iran comprising about 40% of its population, with a change in Iran’s regime, along with the imposition of strict monitoring and control of what remains of its probably significantly damaged nuclear program. And I repeat that we seem to be in the middle of a story, and not anywhere near its conclusion.
JL
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Voting by ‘Adjusted Gross Income’
It will never happen, but if we did away with actual voting in this country for Congress and the presidency, and replaced it with ‘default positions’ whereby the votes of all tax filers with adjusted gross incomes of $150,000 or greater would be automatically cast for Republican candidates, and the votes of all with adjusted gross incomes below that amount would be automatically cast for Democratic candidates, would the results be more representative of the needs of our population than what we now have in Washington?
It all might be done by computers since both IRS information and voting registration information are readily available online. I wonder.
JL
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New York City Mayor’s Race Raises Questions
It appears that 33 year-old Zohran Mamdani will end up as New York City’s Mayor when the mandatory ‘ranked choice’ run-off election takes place. An avowed socialist, he is correct in criticizing the Democratic Party, in New York and elsewhere, for ‘lecturing instead of listening.’
Despite his successful campaigning to make New York City ‘affordable’ for most of its residents, there will be big problems for him because of his anti-Israel position, refusing to denounce his past support of a ‘global intifada.’
While Andrew Cuomo was a dreadful choice made by traditional ‘machine’ Democrats, paving the way for Mamdani’s almost certain victory, his tenure in office will be affected by his position on Israel. His predecessor, present Mayor Eric Adams, avoided criminal indictment only by becoming a toady of President Trump in seeking illegal immigrants to deport from the Big Apple. New York City’s voters just can’t seem to get it right.
I forsee Mamdani’s election as causing many valuable residents, already offended by Adams’ corruption, to think about moving to Long Island or New Jersey, rather than remain in a city whose voters will have put an anti-Israel socialist mayor into office, despite support for him belatedly coming from some Jewish politicians such as Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler. Some city-run supermarkets and free bus rides may alienate many residents, and real estate interests, always powerful, don't want to hear about rent control. We shall see.
JL
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Quick Quiz Answer
Answering the ‘Quick Quiz’ question posed in the previous Jackspotpourri, the first president to ignore the Sixth Amendment, supposedly guaranteeing an accused certain rights, including writs of habeas corpus, was Abraham Lincoln. He did so in order to arrest Confederate secessionist sympathizers in the North and in captured parts of the Confederacy. When the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice declared that action to be unconstitutional, Congress quickly passed legislation making it legal.
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. Most are from vendors which I may have used years ago. 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 ‘Promotion’ 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). On occasion I might use such search results, but when I do, I will say that I am doing so. Generally, however, I try not to 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. Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence.
(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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