Update from the Sunland
No.954
20.4.20 – 26.4.20
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
As a consequence of the outrageous pronouncements this week by the Bully-in-Chief (BIC) [see below], the Press and We, the People, overlooked an extraordinary Supreme Court ruling on Monday – Ramos v. Louisiana [589 U.S. ____ (2020); No. 18–5924]. The case deals with the law in Louisiana and Oregon that allows non-unanimous verdicts in criminal trials—in both states, a 10-2 verdict is sufficient to convict. The case challenges the Supreme Court’s precedent Apodaca v. Oregon [406 U.S. 404 (1972); 22.May.1972] that allowed the non-unanimous conviction to stand in a rather quirky 4-1-4 decision. This particular decision is not much better in that the majority, while ostensibly six justices, they were only three who agreed with the decision as written by Associate Justice Gorsuch. Justice Kavanaugh wrote an interesting opinion concurring in part and expounding on his view to stare decisis that was his effort to justify his concurrence with the majority in overruling the Apodaca precedent. Justice Alito wrote for the three dissenting justices (Roberts & Kagan), arguing that the Apodaca precedent should stand and would have affirmed the non-unanimous verdict tolerance. So, it is now the law of the land—unanimous juries for convictions in all criminal trials.
I will be candid and confess my ignorance at the outset. All of my life, childhood to old age, I have been under the erroneous assumption that unanimous jury convictions were long accepted principle of American jurisprudence. As I learned upon reading this case, I have been mistaken. The unanimous 12-person jury goes back to at least to 1769 [Blackstone 4-27-343]. Justice Gorsuch cited 9 Hen. III c.29 [circa 1225] as the genesis, however, I could not find the statute to verify the language. The point is a unanimous 12-person jury has been the standard for quite a few years. The Ramos majority noted the rather dark basis for Louisiana’s change from unanimous to 10-2 majority at the state’s constitutional convention in 1898 to “establish the supremacy of the white race.” We might expect that from Louisiana, but even more bizarre was Oregon’s change to non-unanimous conviction in the 1930s that can be traced to the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, e.g., D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” [8.2.1915].
The Constitution is voiceless regarding unanimous juries for criminal convictions. And yet, this widely divided Court “sees” the answer in its interpretation of the history and supporting documentation. To me, the most interesting aspect of the Ramos ruling is the reasoning of the so-called ‘strict constructionists’ and ‘fundamentalists’ in their establishment of new law without a single direct word in the Constitution. Convenience is a powerful force, so it seems.
Aspiring to be the doctor-in-chief is simply not enough for the BIC. Now, he wants to be the idiot-in-chief. He brain-farts aloud to the nation and the world that disinfectants like bleach works on surfaces, perhaps disinfectant can be injected into human beings to clear the virus. He says, “I’m not a doctor, but I have common sense.” NO! You do NOT have common sense . . . injecting disinfectant? Really? Erroneously pumping Hydroxychloroquine without proper testing is bad enough, injecting disinfectant is off the page.
As a consequence of the BIC’s idiotic statement, the Washington State Emergency Management Department immediately issued a tweet:
Please don’t eat tide pods or inject yourself with any kind of disinfectant.
If you need help with #COVID19 issues, we have lots of resources at https://t.co/C4x8jjWLOx
Just don’t make a bad situation worse.
7:57 PM – April 23, 2020
Then, the next day the manufacturer of Lysol disinfectant felt compelled to issue an emphatic public statement.
Due to recent speculation and social media activity, RB (the makers of Lysol and Dettol) has been asked whether internal administration of disinfectants may be appropriate for investigation or use as a treatment for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route). As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information.
We have a responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts. For this and other myth-busting facts, please visit Covid-19facts.com. (emphasis by the originator)
-- Reckitt Benckiser Company plc statement of 24.April.2020.
My Lord, what have we become! Our so-called president has no marbles left in the confines of that little, tiny, orange-painted skull of his. The BIC is an open, active threat to the well-being and safety of American citizens; HE is a clear and present danger. Worse, no one can shut him up. And, even if he is not re-elected this fall, he is probably still not going to shut-up. He must be quarantined incomunicado until he is no longer a threat; his words are hurting people. He is welcome to sell his worthless snake-oil to his believers, just do NOT do it in the public domain. The rest of us do not need his crap!
His sycophants howl that he is only trying to give hope to We, the People. NO, he is NOT!!! He is on the verge of killing people with his idiotic brain-farts. He is NOT offering hope or positive perspective; he is selling worthless snake-oil, or worse now, fatal toxic snake-oil. And, the worst part is, there are too many people who actually believe what he says and act on his brain-farts; case in point, the idiots in the street protesting against the stay-at-home orders in some states. The transgression is not the protesting; (look at the myriad videos from multiple states) it is the paucity of any (none) protective measures by the protesters to break the chain of potential viral transmission. These idiots, like their idiot-in-chief, do not understand, comprehend, or otherwise appreciate what they are dealing with this highly infectious virus because the BIC drowns out the medical and scientific professionals.
Now, the idiots are attacking Doctor Anthony Fauci, MD, perhaps the world’s most renowned epidemiologist. STOP! Listening to the BIC is bad enough; muzzling the one expert we should all be listening to is wrong in every possible way, manner, or aspect.
If the BIC wants to be a comedian and tell jokes, or to be a talking head pundit espousing whatever nonsense comes into his little pea brain like Alex Jones and his ilk, then resign and move on to do what he wants to do. We, the People, hired him to be the freakin’ president of the United States; we did NOT hire him to be a comedian. If he wants to tell some jokes, he should attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—that is the proper time and place. The daily COVID19 White House news conference is NOT, I repeat NOT, the time for such conduct or behavior.
Just a little related reminder from history, this week, 59 years ago, President Kennedy issued a public statement that he "bears sole responsibility for the events of the past few days" – the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by U.S. sponsored Cuban exiles. The little history blurb reminded me of contemporary times. Can anyone imagine, even in your wildest dreams, the BIC EVER, EVER doing such a thing? I guess his parents taught him that he was never ever wrong, and he was incapable of any mistakes, and that apologizing for the real mistakes he made was a sign of weakness and thus never, ever done. President Kennedy was a real president. The BIC is just a common bully masquerading and pretending to be a president. The BIC bears no, not even the remotest, resemblance to any real president. I previously cited President Carter as the low-point for presidential performance, but now President Carter appears like a blessed saint from the Mount. If only the BIC had just a smidgen of humility and had studied even just a little history, this whole abysmal situation might have been monumentally better and more constructive for We, the People. Oh well, we cast our lot with Oh So Great Orange One Bully-in-Chief. We must endure until he goes away. May God bless We, the People, and this once grand republic.
Comments and contributions from Update no.953:
Comment to the Blog:
“In time, we’ll have a discussion of disaster preparedness in this country. The history of FEMA back at least to Hurricane Katrina ought to be a topic, along with the Chump’s failure to use the Defense Production Act and many societal factors.
“The reality of the current virus situation is that some of the states are making the only prevention effort they can by trying to stop gatherings of any sort. We don’t really know what’s going on but it may be working in some places. This isn’t the best practice for the situation, but that practice would involve having test materials, personnel, labs, and related resources available along with personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and whatnot. None of that was available at the beginning of the crisis, and most of it still isn’t in place. No sound numbers about the virus’s prevalence, course, treatment, or fatality rate exist at present, but eventually, we’ll be able to piece together a picture of what is happening today.
“One of the qualities you lauded in Vice President Pence’s briefing was “unemotional.” You might want to take some deep breaths and bring that quality to the blog. You are indulging in the same behaviors that will lose the Presidential election for the Democrats. “Chump is a villain” will not motivate voters despite its truth.
“If it weren’t the Chump’s brownshirts protesting the lock-downs, it would be someone else, due to human nature. In fact, it already was someone else a couple of weeks ago here in Ohio. Human beings socialize. Telling us to avoid each other doesn’t work well.
“I may be in one of the vulnerable groups. That depends on the specific criteria and on a somewhat dubious diagnosis. I take reasonable precautions against the virus, but I’m more afraid of the people who are so scared. Fauci and his kind are presenting their messages in dramatically wrong ways. Marketers never, ever use that level of fear-mongering because it invariably backfires, as we’re seeing. On top of that, the infectious disease experts ignore all that is known about both human behavior and the human cost of economic collapse. Those factors will kill more Americans than the virus.”
My response to the Blog:
Oh my, yes, I’m game there; great topic. To me, the COVID19 federal response has been and will continue to be the new basement for failure, i.e., what not to do. The Katrina failure was bad, but it was a spot failure compared to the breadth of the COVID19 disaster. We are not out of this debacle yet, so retrospective analysis is not productive.
[Temporary side note: One of the myriad assignments of any POTUS is to mobilize the assets of the nation during a unified response to any national crisis. It is our collective strength that applies the full weight of this nation. We have exemplary examples: Lincoln & the Civil War; Roosevelt & Great Depression + WW2; and with some trepidation, I will add Truman & Korean War. It appears to me that the BIC will be rendered to the failure side of the ledger when the time comes. My negative examples: Hoover & the Great Depression; Kennedy/Johnson & Vietnam; Carter & Iran; and, Bush43 & Katrina + Iraq.]
I agree with your observations and assessment of our current situation. The experts have been warning about a 1918-like influenza pandemic potential for years; the forecast is live now. The template for local & federal response has existed for years. For the federal government to take what is perilously close to a laissez-faire approach to the COVID19 crisis suggests FEMA had no plan; and, we are just making this up as we go along.
[Another related side note: A friend and fellow author has a new book in the final stages of publication. The title is “VIRAL.” He has been researching and working on it for years. The timing is just a smidge late, but he offers an impressive ‘image’ of what could be a far more progressive approach to dealing with a viral pandemic, e.g., COVID19. He’s done a helluva good job at presenting a complex problem and a practical solution in a fictional story based on real-world facts—very informative, engaging, and entertaining.]
I still contend we are still flying blind. We see glimpses of the horizon (in aviation terms), but we are flying blind thanks to the failure of the federal government to prepare for what we knew was coming. We are still relegated to reactionary response and glimpses of the situation. To this day, we still have no clue regarding the extent of this pandemic.
Your counsel is quite appropriate, and this week’s Blog is more of the same after the BIC’s Friday COVID19 daily briefing. I do offer one notable exception, as you will see. Unfortunately, I call ‘em as I see ‘em, and it is no better this week.
You may well be correct. However, the job of POTUS in such situations does not involve amplifying the problem. Further, I would have no objections to those protests if those individuals involved had simply taken precautions to avoid viral transmissive conditions. This virus may not be as fatal as others, but it is surely more contagious than most. Prohibition is not a viable approach in a free society, but sometimes it is the best knee-jerk reaction to get ahead of a problem. Again, to me, POTUS should be mobilizing the nation, guiding We, the People, regarding our situation and our contribution to victory, and keeping us focused on the objective. The fellow occupying that office and position of employment has done none of those things. He is only interested in selling his snake-oil elixir to his believers.
You offer an interesting perspective on Fauci’s contributions to this situation. Fauci is a scientist who is steeped in dealing with facts and best practices. He is NOT the president, whose job it is to find the balance point between many conflicting factors. I do not see Fauci as trying to sell anything other than his best counsel on dealing with a highly infectious virus. Unfortunately, the fellow whose job it is to take the best information we can collect and help guide the rest of us through a difficult time has chosen to take a far more selfish path.
Another contribution:
“Cap, one of your more forceful blogs-your views on your ‘leader’, your snake oil man, came through very strongly. I do hope Cap as a friend you can sail through this unpleasant period and come out smiling again. Certainly, I agree with your views as many of your countrymen will. Surely he will be gone this autumn. The sun will shine again.”
My reply:
Yes, last week’s Update was rough. Unfortunately, there is more of the same in this week’s Update, as a consequence of the BIC’s Friday news conference / daily briefing.
So far so good for us. We are abiding the federal & state guidelines. I eagerly await the day when we can return to “sunlit uplands.” I trust y’all are safe & sound as well.
. . . follow-up comment:
“OK, looking forward to seeing it. I can’t believe you’ll say things he doesn’t deserve. Does he still have any supporters?”
. . . my follow-up reply:
I call ‘em as I see ‘em. He deserves far worse than I can possibly give him. Oh my, yes, he has many supporters who swear on their mother’s graves that the BIC’s snake-oil elixir has cued them of all their ills; they are true and committed believers, and they have no interest in any facts that might expose or disparage the worthlessness of his snake-oil elixir. His supporters should never be underestimated. When he says he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue in New York City and his supporters would still hang with him, he is spot on correct; that is the level of belief in his snake-oil elixir.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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