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Today's Big Story |
| Pam Bondi, Trump's Attorney General |
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| Karoline Leavitt, Trump's Press Secretary |
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| Laura Ingraham, Trump Loyalist at Fox News |
In Hitler’s Germany, they wore swastika armbands. With no offense to Christianity, I ask if
that is the way religious jewelry is being unofficially, yet conspicuously, used here by some in a manner
prior administrations have never done, in fact avoided, even during the tenure
of presidents far more devout than the current White House occupant. Or does the President just have a weakness
for blondes?
Of interest might be a recent New York Times article
about this
curious intersection of ‘faith and culture.’ To read it, just CLICK HERE or copy and paste
JL
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I Get Published (Again)
A letter from me was published in the Palm Beach Post on July
16. (That
provides far greater circulaltion than Jackspotpourri!) The Post’s readers’ letters, on their
‘opinion’ page Wednesdays through Sundays are usually representative of what a
lot of people are thinking. Here’s my
letter for those of you who don’t read local newspapers any longer . . . a practice too many have abandoned.
“The Post’s July 6 editorial concerning the
One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s effect on Floridians was overly optimistic in
stating that ‘almost anyone not living under a rock has heard how the bill will
drive up the national debt.’ From the
way Floridians vote in gubernatorial, congressional, and presidential
elections, it is quite clear that is exactly where most Sunshine State voters
reside – ‘under a rock.”
JL
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Reporting on ‘Good Trouble’ Events
The speakers at the many rallies on Thursday celebrating the late John Lewis’ urging Americans to perform acts of ‘good trouble’ aimed their words at those the Democrats must mobiize in order to succeed in the 2026 mid-term elections, younger voters, minorities, and members of the LGBTQ communities.
But looking around at the
audience at the one I attended, I saw mostly gray-haired oldsters, most of whom
were on Medicare, whose votes they already have practically locked in. The
Democrats must learn to better focus on reaching the voters they will need in
2026. And that is a ‘one-on-one’ job,
something a gathering of senior citizens just does not accomplish.
JL
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Questionable Advertising
I received a piece of mail the other day from a real estate
broker who claimed to specialize in the community in which I live. I had never heard of him before. Even more troubling was that his office was
about ten miles from here and there are several brokers, some working through a
more local office of the same national firm he represents, who actually live
right here in the community and whom I know. So his mailing went right into the trash, his
own words regarding specialization in my community being evidence of his questionalble
honesty.
I tell this story because folks who are selling things from
which they receive a commission tend to stretch the truth a bit in their
marketing. Most of us accept that. It’s the world in which we live. But we also
recognize its negative aspect, often seen in some automobile salespeople, in
peddlers of the latest nutritional pill on TV or the internet, and of course,
in builders of new real estate developments. That’s why we should be very
careful in digesting the alleged ‘truths’ that come out of the mouths of such
salespeople when they venture into other arenas.
The President of the United States falls into this
category. He lied about his
‘university,’ his steaks, his wines, his airline, his apparel, and currently is
lying about his cryptocurrency. It is
beyond my understanding how anyone can vote to put him in charge of the
Executive Branch of our government. Some
of his most ardent supporters are now waking up to this and questioning the
alternate reality that had been sold to them by this huckster.
JL
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Some of Jackspotpourri's Sources:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/
https://www.thefp.com (the Free Press)
Some of these sources call for a subscription to get past
their ‘teaser’ first paragraphs, but generally, much information is available
from them without subscribing in order to cross their ‘paywalls,’ wherever they
exist.
If I were to select one source to access without paying to
subscribe to it, Professor Richardson’s is the clear choice. Her daily ‘Letters
from an American,’ usually posted late the preceding evening, includes material
from many sites.
In a recent meeting with several followers of Jackspotpourri,
it was suggested that one of its shortcomings was its lack of brevity. We will try to address that where possible.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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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