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One Dumb Administration
Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ dated March 13 and 15 document the continuing lies of the President and the incompetence of his administration, particularly military ‘prayer leader’ & Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth and supposed negotiator Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, whose profound ignorance of facts and lack of diplomatic skills resulted in the war with Iran.
Trump is too dumb to know that business skills do not automatically transfer to diplomatic skills.
Neither Hegseth nor Witkoff have any business being in government unless there are openings in its buildings’ janitorial staffs.
Unfortunately, American voters were sufficiently misguided in 2024 and elected Trump president who appointed these misfits, along with many others, to important positions. As I have pointed out in the past, such ignorance on the part of voters is the Achilles heel of our democracy. But rather than restrict voting, which happens to be one of Trump’s aims to keep Republicans in power, it is preferable to try to remedy ignorance, something Jackspotpourri attempts to do, in its limited way.
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The President and his appointees apparently believe their own lies. Going to war without a consistantly stated objective is dumb, even well over par for this dumb administration. Trump doesn't remember its objectives from day to day. The current New Yorker magazine cover well illustrates this, echoing World War Two Generals MacArthur and Patton. Trump's attempts at military behavior insults their memories. Here's the President on the way to tee off in a golf cart driven by former Fox weekend anchor Peter Hegseth.
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JL
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Two Questions Raised by ‘The Bulwark’
I don’t frequently refer to ‘The Bulwark,’ which requires a subscription to get near to the meat of what they ‘headline’ but they raised two interesting questions on March 15, without giving their answers, if there are any. (Tip for them: A posting that says up front that it will take 60 minutes to read invites its being ignored.)
They asked ‘what happens if Trump doesn’t TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) and pulls the plug on the Iran war excursion after things go from messy to bad.?’ I suspect he can just declare it to be a victory and try to leave things as they were, if that is still possible, but which I suspect they will no longer be after he screwed it all up.
They further ask ‘what happens if we know how to reform the system (that got us into this war, I assume), but the system is so ossified that it can’t be reformed?’ I think that is what I’ve often referred to as our democracy’s Achilles heel, curable only by eliminating ignorance on the public’s part, an enormous, if not impossible, task.
I think that these are questions that will still be in search of answers by Americans before they vote in the November mid-term Congressional elections. And that might be why Trump and Republican State legislatures are trying to make it far more difficult for Americans to vote in those elections.
JL
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Trump in Uniform
The closest Donald John Trump ever got to the honor of wearing any military uniform was when he was at New York Military Academy to which his parents had sent him, and which did not object to enrolling students with bone spurs on their feet.
Here is a photo taken on a visitors’ day there with his parents which the President, unbelievably, was not ashamed of releasing on his website, while real Americans, unlike wannabe tyrants like him, risk their lives attacking Iran at his direction. Donald is the one in the military costume, probably left over from a student operetta there.
Needless to say, Donald did not continue his military masquerade by joining the ROTC programs at either Fordham University or the University of Pennsylvania. This might have ended up with his being caught up in the Vietnam War, were it not for those bone spurs earning him five deferments.
JL
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More about Fueling Antisemitism
Those interested in reactions to Peter Beinart’s thoughts that appeared in the prior posting of Jackspotpourri explaining how the Iranian war is fueling domestic antisemitism can access varying opinions based upon what he wrote. Here’s how:
(1) Click on the link (peterbeinart.substack.com) provided there, and once there, then
(2) Click on his March 9 posting.Then,
(3) Click again, this time on the speech bubble 
displayed there.
displayed there. * *
Beinart is Not Without His Own Agenda
Those reading this should recognize that Beinart’s views (as repeated in the prior posting of Jackspotpourri) are the words of a journalist who has taken the position that Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel was excessive, resulting in many unnecessary civilian deaths in Gaza and turning much of its urban area into rubble.
He also is a strong advocate of the rights of Palestinians in Israel and the territory it controls.
So it is difficult to consider his opinionated journalism to be objective or neutral, the words of an ‘honest broker,’ whether or not you agree with them. Keep in mind from where they come, in considering their role in fueling antisemitism.
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 in Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘paper’ newspaper (now the South Florida Sun Sentinel) and what appears in my daily email; that includes the views of many contributors, including the New York Times and other respected journals.
Be aware that when I open that email, I first quickly glance at and screen out those sent to my very old former email address and those considered ‘promotional’ by Gmail’s system as no more than advertisements or requests for donations.
Besides these sources, I also utilize 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 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. Always!
JL
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