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Here’s the Jackspotpourri posting that was prepared for release today, April 26. Why waste it?Intentionally omitted from it is any mention of the assassination attempt that occurred at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening, April 25. There will be plenty of opportunity for commentary on that after the dust has settled on the reporting of and the repercussions of that event. Right now, there are still many unanswered questions.
JL
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And now, back to the Jackspotpourri prepared for today.
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Mealtime at Mar-a-Lago
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Who would have thought two months ago that Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi would be canned, causing worries on the part of other unpopular Trump appointees like Hegseth, Patel, and JFK jr, and those like Vance and Rubio who in the past have strongly criticized Trump? Guys, Donald has a long memory, regardless of what jobs he has given to you. And Hegseth will eventually run out of hairspray.
Those who consider themselves to be 'friends' of Trump are greatly mistaken. He has no friends. Only those he uses, like Bondi, who took the fall for inadequately hiding the Epstein papers and Noem, who got the blame for ICE excesses in Minneapolis.
Right now, he’s looking for someone to take the blame for his stupid Iranian ‘excursion.’ That’s a difficult task since most of his advisers tried, unsuccessfully, to talk him out of it. Infrequently but also mentioned is the depletion of our military hardware, intended as a buttress against China or Russia, wasted on Iran.
Trump ought to be singing ‘What Kind of Fool am I', Anthony Newley’s hit song from the 1961 musical, ‘Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.’ That best describes him.
And he can’t pin the blame on Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who would have eventually acted anyway, with or without Trump coming along. Also, his doing that might open him to charges of antisemitism.
It looks like Trump will end it, declaring it to be a victory if only because that is what he’ll say. He’ll make up some cockamamie story, probably blaming someone in his administration whom he’ll promote to the job of Ambassador to some remote country whose name he will fail to remember.
But I doubt that there will still be a Republican Party remaining to believe him.
The poison administered to the G.O.P. by Trump’s supporters of all stripes, from fascists to racists to economic conservatives to libertarians, and the failure of a Trump-fearing Republican Congress to do its job of being a check to balance the power of the presidency as the Constitution intended, will be fatal, leaving the detritus of the G.O.P. to make new political choices. The Republican Party, as we knew it, will be gone. Dead. Kaput. Finished.
Some will become Democrats, moving that party more toward the center and some will become more libertarian, if only as an excuse to reduce the powers of government in order to keep their taxes, their only real concern, low. An opposition Party will eventually emerge, but for what it will stand is yet to be determined. See the following article on ‘the Bulwark’ for a clue.
The limits of the gullibility, of the ignorance, and of the stupidity of too many American voters will have been reached. And the Republicans will pay for it with their Party’s extinction, while Donald Trump and his family walk away with many billions of dollars resulting from their questionable use of his presidencies, which some critics are already beginning to label as corruption.
The one thing worse than electing a stupid president might be electing a stupid president who is also a crook and a bad liar as well.
JL
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The Bulwark
I am continually puzzled when I see internet postings coming from the Bulwark and those associated with it. It is difficult to see where, if anywhere, it is firmly politically anchored. A search for an answer, including what the use of an Artificial Intelligence tool concludes about it, came up with the following:
“The Bulwark is a news and opinion website launched in 2018, known for offering serious political analysis from a center-right, "Never Trump" perspective,by Sarah Longwell, Bill Kristol, and Charlie Sykes, Founded by conservative commentators, it acts as a, platform for conservative thinkers who oppose Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, focusing on the protection of liberal democracy and constitutional norms.
Here is a breakdown of what The Bulwark offers:
Core Focus and Ideology
• Anti-Trump Conservatism: It is designed for "politically homeless" conservatives who are opposed to the direction of the modern Republican party.
• Pro-Democracy Coalition: While rooted in center-right views, its contributors often collaborate with center-left allies to defend Democratic institutions.
• "Conservatism Conserved": The publication seeks to defend traditional, pre-2016 conservative ideals against populist, authoritarian, and populist trends.
Content and Media
• Articles and Newsletters: Daily, independent, and critical analysis of political events.
• Podcasts: The Bulwark is known for its extensive podcast network, including The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller, The Next Level, The Focus Group (with Sarah Longwell), and Shield of the Republic.
• YouTube: A major focus of their digital strategy, featuring full-length shows, interviews, and video shorts.
The Community (Bulwark+)
• The Bulwark is a reader-supported, for-profit media company.
• Bulwark+, a paid subscription service, which gives members access to, ad-free podcasts, exclusive newsletters, private podcasts, and community commenting features.
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| Tim Miller, frequently featured on 'The Bulwark' |
Community: The site fosters an active, engaged community of users that often includes non-conservatives who share a similar commitment to defending democracy.
Key Personalities
• Sarah Longwell: Publisher, executive director of Defending Democracy Together, and host of The Focus Group.
• Tim Miller: Writer-at-large and host of The Bulwark Podcast.
• Jonathan V. Last (JVL): Editor, known for his regular, energetic commentary and the Secret Podcast.
• Bill Kristol: Editor-at-large and a prominent figure in the "Never Trump" movement.”
I translate all of this as meaning that The Bulwark is anything its followers want it to be, depending on what part or parts of its content they access.
Some may be totally unaware of its neoconservative roots based on the last century’s disillusioned liberals, and consider it to be a liberal entity, which it is not, although some of its positions are indistinguisible from those of today’s liberals.
Try to put that in your smoke and pipe it. Or did I get that wrong?
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 ‘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 usually 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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