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Resting in Peace
Even when the late Senator Joseph McCarthy died back in 1957, despised by most Americans and his peers in Congress, the custom of speaking only kindly of the dead (who cannot defend themselves) was observed for a reasonable time.
That is not true, however, of our present president, who took the death of former FBI Director and Special Counsel Robert Mueller who passed away a few days ago, as a fresh opportunity to continue to insult him.
Mueller, besides being a Vietnam War hero, had revealed the connections between Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Russia, further pursuit of which had been squelched by Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr, when he was elected.
President Trump took the occasion of Mueller’s death to continue to viciously lie about him, not only disgracing himself, but the office of the presidency, and whatever religious belief he might have, if any, as well. (More about Robert Mueller appears in the ‘Letters from an American’ dated March 22 referred to below.)
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| Robert Mueller |
May Robert Mueller rest in peace. I don’t know how many Americans will feel that way about Donald Trump when he, as all of us must, passes away.
JL
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‘Letters From an American’ Not to be Skipped
Boston College history Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s postings over the past week on her free ‘Letters from an American’ seemed to touch upon most of the reasons (don’t try to count them) why voters should not vote for any Republicans who still support the President.
Rather than referring you to the many postings on the internet dealing with the Iranian war, I think that Professor Richardson documented enough of them, particularly in her March 23 posting, to provide many viewpoints to which I direct you. One of them describes the stock market profits Republican insiders are making from supposedly classified tactical information to which they have access.
Checking them all out is a big job. If you wish to learn more, links to Professor Richardson’s sources are always included at the end of her postings. I suggest clicking here or copying and pasting https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ on your browser to get there and review her postings over the past three or four days. It’s just too big a job to include most of them in Jackspotpourri.
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And if you still want to learn more on a closely related subject, see the New York Times’ Opinion piece dated March 23 which distinguished between the goals of Israel and those of the United States in attacking Iran. They differ. For that, click here or copy and paste https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/opinion/america-israel-iran-war.html on your device’s browser line.
Israel is trying to destroy as much as possible of Iran’s (and Hezbollah’s) military capabilities before Trump cuts a deal of some sort with Iran, belatedly recognizing that Iran was never going to be another Venezuela.
A few months ago, President Trump was complaining about not receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace. Watch and see: When he makes some sort of deal with Iran, he will claim to be a peacemaker again, forgetting that it was the United States that attacked Iran. The man is an idiot and every day he remains president is a national emergency. Quite possibly, the only Americans dumber than he is are those who believed his lies and voted for him. I know a few. You probably do too!
It’s up to you to gather information and make up your mind.
JL
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Kharg Island
Kharg Island, through which much of Iran’s oil shipments flow into the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, is frequently mentioned as a target for American bombing and even ‘boots on the ground.’ That is a foolish idea.
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| Kharg Island (Note Strait of Hormuz at far right) |
Besides being heavily fortified, it is less than twenty miles from the Iranian mainland, possibly visible on a clear day, and clearly easily reinforceable from there. Besides alienating our allies who depend on Iranian oil, it could turn into a bottomless pit if we chose to fight over it. Geography was never Trump’s strong suit.
JL
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Sports Page – Basketball and Baseball
I can’t ignore the March Madness of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. They are great to watch on TV. Here are three thoughts that occurred to me about them.
1. Teams that live off of three pointers can also die from dependence on them.
2. We should recognize that most of these players are being paid more than many openly professional athletes in other sports receive, usually through NIL (payment for use of their names, images, or likenesses). Income in the six-figures is not uncommon.
3. I think there should be a height limit established for basketball recruiting purposes. If they don’t do that, a team of giants from a school that purposefully only recruits prospects in excess of seven foot in height might end up winning a March Madness championship someday, and that seems wrong to me. I think 6’ 10’’ would be a reasonable height beyond which recruiting ought to be excluded. Perhaps those over such a limit might have a league of their own, or just get a scholarship and a free education.
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For Those in Florida Only:
Looks like this year’s Miami Marlins games will be excluded from the cable TV packages most South Floridians purchase individually or get through their communities’ deals with cable providers. Of course, the games will still be available via streaming, but at a price over and above what fans pay for cable TV.
Elsewhere, some fans may be willing to buy into such a deal, but it appears to me that asking South Floridians fans to pay extra to see all of the generally non-competitive Marlins’ games is like trying to sell truckloads of snow in Vermont in the middle of winter. There isn’t much of a market for either.
Nevetheless, about half of the thirty teams in major league baseball are going this route. This is not the way to drum up fan support, particularly for mediocre teams like the Marlins that need it. And most teams are mediocre. In fact, it might be suicidal. But TV advertisers no longer seem willing to cover its costs.
As for better teams with loads of fans who fill their stadiums for mostly every game, teams like the LA Dodgers or the New York Mets or Yankees, most local cable packages in their cities routinely include their games without charging extra or moving entirely to streaming. But that is not the direction baseball is going.
Still, there will be plenty of baseball on TV but it will be more difficult for many to identify with a particular team unless you go to their games, spring for a streaming subscription, or happen to live in the local area of those teams whose games will still be on traditional cable TV. Fans might consider alternatives to cable TV such as satellite dishes depending on their availability and cost.
Right now, this situation is still confusing and subject to changes, but in any event, starting this Wednesday evening, when the Yankees battered the San Francisco Giants, baseball is back.
BATTER UP !
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Your comments on this ‘blog’ would be appreciated. My Email address is jacklippman18@gmail.com.
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More on the Sources of Information in Jackspotpourri: The sources of information used by Jackspotpourri include a delivered local daily ‘printed’ 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.
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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