* * *
A Motto on a State Flag
The time for fence sitting, and giving the Republicans the benefit of the doubt is ending. There is no reason for continuing to what amounts to legitimatizing their lies and hypocrisy, which is what such attempts at fairness provides.
But replacing words with actions involves risks; that is where we are right now. It is a big step because taking such risks involves the costly hiring of lawyers to defend such actions through the rule of law which itself is being diminished by Republicans.
But history is on the side of the people. It demonstrates that tyrants cannot remain in power when ugly truths about them are revealed to the public. ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’ is more than just a motto on the State flag of Virginia and what the assassin of Abraham Lincoln screamed out.
 |
| State Flag of Virginia carrying the words 'Sic Semper Tyrannis' ('Thus Always to Tyrants') |
Today, it is rather a call for some sort of action that puts an end to their tyranny, bearing in mind that in our more civilized times such an action does not involve the blood of the tyrant.
JL
* * *
Trump Added to Mount Rushmore?
I have received emails asking how I feel about adding a likeness of President Trump to Mount Rushmore. I believe the senders expect me to disagree with that idea and ask for a donation to support their position. Actually, I am for it, but only if it serves the limited purpose of directing visitors to the restrooms, which would carry Donald’s likeness on the commode doors.
JL
* * *
The Grift Bubble
Critics of the Administration frequently use the words ‘grift’ or ‘grifter’ to define what is occuring. These words should not be confused with ‘graft’ which is outright blatant thievery, clearly criminal, perpetrated by government officials. 'Grifting,’ on the other hand, describes small-time, petty, dishonest acts of such officials, often going unnoticed and not worthy of punishment, even when revealed.
Professor Timothy Snyder, in his ‘Thinking About …’ posting dated November 16, writes about those who operate from within a ‘grift bubble.’ Check it out by CLICKING HERE or by copying and pasting https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-grift-bubble on your device’s browser line.
JL
* * *
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 becoming 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, then 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 any 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
* * * *
No comments:
Post a Comment