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The President is not on the ballot in November but some candidates who support his attempts to be a tyrant are, and they ought to be defeated, particularly in races for seats in the House of Representatives that have become vacant in the middle of terms that are slated to expire next year. Governorship races in Virginia and New Jersey are also similarly in the spotlight.
(There are no such contests on the ballot in Florida, vacancies already having been filled through ‘special’ elections or appointments by the Governor.) But it’s still a good time to make certain that your ‘vote by mail’ choice is preserved for future use by contacting your County’s Supervisor of Elections. See the preceding Jackspotpourri for an appropriate link to her office.
Elsewhere, If there is a race occurring in your State or Congressional District, your vote might be the best way to rid the nation of its 'wannabe' tyrant. And there are many important contests elsewhere though!
Keep an eye on them as precursors to 2026 when the entire House of Representatives and one third of the Senate will be up for grabs in addition to important governorship races. The Ballotpedia site lists the most important of next week’s contests. Check them out by clicking here or copying and pasting https://news.ballotpedia.org/2025/10/10/top-10-elections-to-watch-this-nov-4/ on your device’s browser line.
JL
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Read, Read, and Read Some More
The following comment appeared in the ‘free’ introductory part of the ‘Free Press’ newsletter on October 24:
‘James Marriott (a contributor to that site’s posting) explains why the stakes couldn’t be higher. Our liberal democracy, he writes, was built by widespread literacy — the same widespread literacy that is now being dismantled by screens. Unless we start reading again, he says, our civilization may not survive.’
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When was the last time YOU read a book, a printed one, not an online version on a screen as the writer mentions? When?
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This reminds me of the famous quote by John Cotton Dana, founder of the Newark Public Library. It was included on the inside of the cover of every book in that massive library in the town where I grew up:
1. Read
2. Read
3. Read Some More
4. Read Anything
5. Read About Everything
6. Read Enjoyable Things
7. Read Things You Yourself Enjoy
8. Read and Talk About It
9. Read Very Carefully Some Things
10. Read On the Run Most Things
11. Don’t Think About Reading, But
12. Just Read
JL
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More Trumpian Lies – East Wing Destruction and More
When President Trump announced he was adding a ballroom to the White House, he specifically said that its East Wing, which would be adjacent to that addition, would remain as it is. That was a lie, par for the course for him. The first thing that the contractors who would build the new ballroom did was to demolish the East Wing of the White House.
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| Destruction of East Wing of White House and the President who couldn’t care less |
According to both the New York Times and MSNBC postings, the East Wing was first built in 1902 under President Theodore Roosevelt as a relatively modest entryway for guests to the White House. The edifice was greatly expanded in 1942 during World War Two, in part to cover up the construction of a bunker beneath the White House. The excuse given was that it would be used for offices purposes.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, never one to miss an opportunity, used the newly constructed wing to support her expanded operations, host events with key constituencies and hold press conferences. But it was Rossalyn Carter who first set up the official Office of the First Lady on the second floor of the East Wing. Carter organized the office into a home base for the political power, an influence that first ladies have learned to wield, each in their own fashion alongside their usual social responsibilities. The silence of the present First Lady on the East Wing’s destruction speaks for itself.
Supposedly the new ballroom was to be paid for by those loyal enough, or dumb enough, or seeking the President’s favor, to make donations for this project, but few, if any of them, knew it would involve desecration of a major part of the White House in use for the past 123 years.
It should be noted that previous architectural changes of the White House over the years have all been ‘constructive’ ones approved by Congress or federal commissions. This latest one, however, making room for the addition of the President’s ego-building ballroom, starts off with destruction of a useful and historic part of the White House, ‘destruction’ being a hallmark of most of what the President and his administration have accomplished.
They are still busily involved in destroying the Constitution and the nation’s democratic institutions through the President’s often illegal Executive Orders and illegal actions carried out by the Office of Management and Budget whose head, Russell Vought (author of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025), has led the usurping of the House of Representatives’ historic ‘power of the purse,’ even preventing Congressionally-approved government funding from being spent!
To find out more about Vought’s background and activities from a recent New Yorker magazine artilcle, click here or copy and paste https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/27/russell-vought-profile-donald-trump on your device’s browser line.
The best aspect of these despicable acts on the President’s part and those of his appointees is that they serve to awaken many Americans to the fact that Donald Trump is no more fit to be president of the United States than he was while he was heading up his many enterprises that ended in bankruptcy.
Have you ever wondered why Trump paints everything ‘gold,’ including the fixtures and trim in the Oval office? Think back to the Greek myth about foolish King Midas. Who does that kind of thing, other than someone seeking a synthetic mantle of royalty?
Bravo, ‘No Kings’ demonstrators! You hit the nail on the head!
Millions of those who voted for him are already suffering from political ‘buyer’s remorse.’ Even though there is a Constitutional two-term limits for presidents, Trump is already hinting about finding a way of circumventing that. Even rock-solid Republicans are coming to believe that Donald Trump is the greatest foe of American democracy since George III. They are correct. Democrats already know that but are having difficulty doing much about it.
JL
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A Change I Am Considering
On most, but not all, days I find that Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson’s daily ‘Letters from an American’ (Usually sent out late the previous evening) has touched on most of the topics I try to reach on Jackspotpourri.
I am considering limiting Jackspotpourri to matters on which Professor Richardson DOES NOT COMMENT and linking this blog to her daily ‘Letters from an American’ for everything else.
There’s no ‘paywall’ to surmount in order to access its text and audio postings unless you choose to be able to exchange thoughts with other commenters.
Richrdson’s footnotes always include links to the sources of the many topics about which she writes, so it offers more than merely her thoughts. ‘Letters from an American’ can be reached at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ . I usually agree with what she posts there so this can save me a lot of work. I am getting lazy as I grow older.
JL
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Update
Dr, Howard Olarsh’s letter, included in Jackspotpourri on October 18, was published by the SunSentinel on October 25. Hurrah!
JL
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Sports Gambling
I’ve been planning to include in Jackspotpourri my thoughts on sports gambling, particularly the online sites where all that is needed to bet, including on some ‘exotic’ wagers, is a credit card and access to sites like Fanduel, DraftKings, and many others.
Their ads on telecasts of athletic events tempt people who cannot afford to wager to do so and imply to children that gambling is an acceptable ‘fun’ pastime, which it isn’t.
The scandal I fear has now occurred, and I hope it results in strict regulation of online wagering and the television advertisements promoting it. More later!
JL
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Misleading Auto insurance Ads
And speaking of television ads, a major auto insurance provider instructs viewers to ‘only pay for what you need.’
That is terrible and misleading advice.
In the State of Florida, for example, 'what you need’ to register your car is only $10,000 of property damage coverage and $10,000 of personal injury protection. That is far, far, less than you might need if you get into an accident and find yourself as the defendant in a lawsuit. It is why so many Florida motorists drive around in underinsured vehicles.
At best, that company’s agents should point that out and try to sell them what they really need, coverage for far more than their dishonest TV ads suggest.
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com.
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
More on the Sources of Information on Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered daily ‘paper’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel) 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 (or other search engines) 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.
After such ‘AI’ search results, there follows the other results of my search. Unlike the anonymous AI-generated summaries, the sources of these results are clearly indicated, giving them a greater credibility than the AI summary. I feel that It comes down to who YOU want to be in the driver’s seat in seeking information: yourself or something else (Artificial Intelligence), the structure of which somewhere along the way had to have been created by others, with whose identity I am neither familiar nor comfortable. At least when I read a column by Timothy Snyder, for example, I know from where it comes, and to some extent, what to expect.
Caution should be exercised in using Artificial Intelligence.
JL
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