Update no.976

 Update from the Sunland

No.976

21.9.20 – 27.9.20

Blog version:  http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

 

            To all,

 

            In my study of Sir Winston Churchill’s life, politics, oratorical skills, and leadership accomplishments, I learned that he was far from perfect, a flawed man, and human like all the rest of us.  Little known to many, Winston suffered throughout his life from intermittent spats of depression, occasionally deep, debilitating depression, that he referred to as the “Black Dog.”  From the moment I learned of his affliction and his term for those moments in his celebrated life, I have become more aware of and sensitive to the “Black Dog.”  So, it is with humility, I confess to the visit of the “Black Dog” to my life on Tuesday of this week (also reflected in the Comments section below).  I shall attempt to retreat into my writing, work on the words, and immerse myself in the story of my next “To So Few” novel, provisionally titled: Struggle.  No more contemporary news today.  Perhaps, I can avoid the bite.

            I am old, Caucasian, male, educated, retired comfortably, in a very nice home with a beautiful pool that I use many times a day nearly year around, and I am married to a beautiful, humorous, and extraordinarily tolerant woman who takes very good care of me despite my flaws, foibles and idiosyncrasies.  Yes, I am comparatively privileged.  I am not wealthy privileged, but I am sufficiently privileged to enable my withdrawal.  The best I can offer to those who face discrimination, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of degradation and marginalization is I felt some of that mindless nonsense during the Vietnam era when many of us serving in uniform felt tinges of that discrimination.  But that is a far cry from living with it everywhere, all of the time.  If this once grand republic degenerates farther into a white supremacist, evangelical Christian theocracy, I can retreat farther into my hermitic, isolated little world, and immerse myself in my writing.  I blend into their world as long as I do not speak, but further, I do not need to suffer the public as other less fortunate people must.  So, in my personal Black Dog days, I say fuck it.  Let them have what is left; we probably ceased to be a republic in 2016 anyway; it just took us a long time to recognize reality.  I will likely continue to speak out until the FBI takes me away in handcuffs to a concentration camp for political dissidents, for my audacity to speak out against King BIC.  For all of my once fellow Americans who enable the Bully-in-Chief (BIC) and anointed him King, I truly hope you are happy with what you have left.  Hope is vanishing far too quickly for the rest of us.

 

            As a comparatively privileged citizen, I do not need abortion rights, the PPACA, welfare, economic assistance, and so many other laws or judgments.  There is a substantial chunk of our citizenry that want to take away all those protections and services for those who need them.  I could easily sit back and say oh well, none of that affects me.  Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., PhD (systematic theology), observed:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

I speak out against the BIC’s actions of regression because they are wrong, not because they affect my life—they are wrong!  Far too many people are less fortunate than me.  Our humanity and compassion justify many of the programs and regulations that the BIC and his administration have sought to negate.  For that (among so many other factors), I regret and often condemn the BIC’s actions as POTUS.

 

            At an afternoon presser, Wednesday, 23.September.2020, in the White House Press Room, a journalist, wearing a face mask that boldly declared ‘America needs journalist,’ asked the BIC:

[reporter]: “Will you commit to ensuring there will be a peaceful transferal of power after the election?”

[BIC]: “We’ll have to see what happens; you know that.  I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.  And . . .”

[reporter]: “I understand that, but the people are rioting.  Do you commit to making sure there is a peaceful transferal of power?”

[BIC]: “We want to have, get rid of the ballots, and you will have transf’, we’ll have a very peaceful, ah, there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there will be a continuation.”

[emphasis mine]

            This is precisely the BIC’s and the Republican position.  You will vote for us, or we will burn the whole house down to the ground.  I know there are good, honest, patriotic, American citizens out there, who call themselves Republicans.  Senator Mitt Romney publicly condemned the BIC’s statement; that evening, Romney tweeted:

Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus.  Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.

5:54 PM · Sep 23, 2020·

Unfortunately, so far, Romney is the only Republican condemning the BIC; I know there are others out there, but no others have spoken up, yet.  If the Republicans do not stop the BIC’s very unpatriotic, un-American nonsense, the BIC might well be successful.  I am voting by mail this year due to the COVID19 pandemic.  The BIC is trying to disregard my ballot.  I say, DAMN HIM to hell for even thinking about negating my vote or anyone else’s vote.  What he is doing is the exact definition of un-American—a clear and present danger.  He is what he is; he has always been this way; and, he is incapable of changing for the better.  And the worst of it all, there are millions of good American citizens who have been rendered blind and deaf (but definitely not mute) by the BIC’s magic snake-oil elixir; they believe, and that was the last reality they have and apparently that is all they now know.

            That despicable man (and I truly hesitate to call him a man as it inherently disparages many good men among us) who I refer to only as the BIC, has offered not one scintilla of evidence to support or even hint at fraudulent mail-in ballots.  He yammers on about some unknown and unspecified state flooding their jurisdictions with unqualified mail-in ballots.  He persists in his wild, substance-less, public claims that some state (as yet unspecified) is sending or going to send out mail-in ballots to every address whether the resident is registered or not, or perhaps just put stacks of blank ballots on every street corner.  I have continued to search for such a state; I cannot find a single one.  My state, Arizona, sent out an application card to all registered voters asking whether we were going to vote in person or needed a mail-in ballot, as a consequence of the COVID19 pandemic.  Both Jeanne and I filled out the form, signed & dated the form, added a contact telephone number, and mailed them in several weeks ago.  We are due to receive our ballots before the 7^thof October, when early voting opens in Arizona.  I know for a fact that Arizona is not the object of the BIC’s wild, mindless accusations, and I suspect every other state in the Union is the same or similar.  The BIC is only trying to sow doubt, confusion, and chaos in the lame hope of suppressing or negating as much of the vote as he possibly can.  This is the man we are supposed to call president.  He has consistently proven and demonstrated himself unworthy.  I will vote as soon as I am able, and I will guaran-damn-tee you it will not be for the BIC.  DAMN HIM to hell, I say.

 

            The Senate of the United States passed by unanimous consent (implying all 100 senators agreed without regard to party) S.Res.718 - A resolution reaffirming the Senate's commitment to the orderly and peaceful transfer of power called for in the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.  The resolution is noted in the Library of Congress record; however, I have been unable to read the exact words of this resolution; yet, the title alone says enough.

 

            According to information collected by the New York Times, we paid more federal income tax in just one year (any year, pick it) than the BIC paid in fifteen (15) years combined.   Well, I guess, according to the BIC, that reality just makes me a loser and a sucker.  And you know what is worse, if anyone seeking a security clearance carried the level of debt that the BIC apparently has, they would be denied a clearance since they pose a security risk, i.e., the debt can be used against them.  Yes, the BIC is a clear and present danger.

 

            The BIC nominated Appeals Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit (Chicago, Illinois) to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by the passing of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, AKA the Notorious RBG.  At 48 years of age, Barrett might well sit on the bench for 40 years.

            Barrett calls herself an originalist in the image of Justice Scalia.  The problem I have with that descriptor is that it is a convenient façade to hide behind, to avoid change and adaptation as life and society evolve, i.e., a conservative ideology—to hold things as they are, or in their case, as they were 233 years ago.

            Over two centuries ago, “We, the People” meant only white, male, free, educated, English-speaking, Protestant Christian, landowners—nothing else; no one else was included.  The 13^th Amendment (1865) banished slavery from the United States, but did not alter the assumptions of We, the People.  The 19^th Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote but did not alter the status of women as assumed in 1787; women were still considered property by the English common law Doctrine of Coverture until it was finally banished from our society {Kirchberg v. Feenstra [450 U.S. 455 (1981)] [571]}—a Supreme Court interpretation, not an amendment to the original language.  A series of Supreme Court rulings have interpreted the Constitution to include many subgroups—citizens with dark skin pigmentation, females, non-heterosexuals, non-Protestants, and even undocumented aliens.  Such essential and critical factors like choice, privacy, or the social factors [age, gender, race, skin pigmentation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, economic status (money), education, political affiliation, marital status (provided that the applicant has the capacity to enter into a binding contract), or disability] are not explicitly addressed in the Constitution.  The original meaning of We, the People, as used in the Constitution has not changed.  Are we to return to 1787?

            So, when I hear “originalist,” what I see is a desire to return us to a time 233 years ago.  I can find no evidence whatsoever that the Framers intended the words of the Constitution to remain locked in granite until they are explicitly amended by the means established by the Constitution.  Thus, since such an amendment has not been ratified, the original meaning must apply.  Further, anything not written explicitly in the words of the Constitution, as appropriately amended, it does not exist under the authority of the Constitution.

            Most of us, or at least some of us, have evolved the meaning of “We, the People” and “All men are created equal” in the far broader understanding.  To us (or at least most of us),‘We’ is all inclusive regardless of the social factors, and ‘men’ was the generic men, as in all of mankind (all gender variations).  So, when I hear ‘originalist,’ I see a person who wants to take us back 200 plus years.

            No, thank you.  We do not need regression.  All societies evolve within the framework of the principles that establish the nation.  Barrett is a technically qualified jurist; however, I cannot imagine a judge more ideologically opposite from Ginsburg than Barrett.  Her confirmation will dramatically alter the balance on the U.S. Supreme Court and does not bode well for every citizen’s freedom of choice and fundamental right to privacy.  I am not in favor of or supportive of the Barrett nomination.

 

            Lastly, I choose to note that McConnell and his Republican cronies in the Senate are hell bent upon confirming the Barrett nomination less that 30 days before a presidential election.  But the outright hypocrisy of their actions (or rather inaction) [2016-2020] is staggering.  The Republican majority in the Senate literally thumb their nose at We, the People.  Their ‘damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead’ action is a direct demonstration of how bloody desperate the Republicans are to impose their minority will upon all of the rest of us.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.975:

Comment to the Blog:

“You must have a cast-iron stomach if you can watch a Chump performance all the way through.

“The Chump’s speech-reading skills still bear a strong resemblance to early machine-generated speech.

“Dipping into one aspect of your dialog from abroad, the Dow will surely fall appropriately when the wealthy realize they, too, are affected by our common fate.

“I mourn Justice Ginsburg, but I also regret that she didn’t resign during the Obama Administration when she was urged to do so under a Democratic President.”

My response to the Blog:

            Yes, it was not easy, but I felt a duty to be a witness.

            Oh, I would say it is worse than that.  Machine-speech makes no pretense of being human.  The BIC wants us to believe he is human.

            You may well be correct.  I suspect the retreat of the DJA will come with other factors as well.

            I join you in mourning the passing of Justice Ginsburg.  I do not join you in regretting she did not resign during the Obama administration.  If the Senate Republican majority leader could justify not complying with the U.S. Constitution 269 days before an election in 2016, he would have found some convoluted rationale for not complying 300, 400, or 500 days before the election.  He would have claimed two is enough; Obama should not have three no matter how many days before the election the vacancy occurred.  Oh wait, the BIC has his third vacancy (one stolen, one legitimate) . . . ah yes, let us not forget, the rules, the law, the Constitution do not apply to Republicans—everyone else, yes, of course, but not for Republicans.  In 2016, they wanted the voters to decide, but in 2020, screw the voters, we’re jamming this through no matter who the BIC nominates.

            I will confess that I came from a staunchly Republican extended family, and here I mean, John Birch, Orange County, hardcore, conservative Republican.  I was an outspoken advocate for Barry Goldwater before I was old enough to vote.  And yet, the last Republican I voted for was John McCain—how fitting; and, he will quite likely remain the last for the remainder of my life.  I cannot imagine how the Republican Party, as I once knew it, will ever recover from the BIC’s absurdity.

            I am truly and genuinely afraid that our degeneration will increase in pace if Republicans are allowed in any public office from dog catcher to president.  They have become the party of white supremacist Christian-right autocracy.  This election will likely decide if we are to exist in any form even remotely resembling the republic envisioned by our Founders.  Just imagine another four years of the BIC, but then without any restraint whatsoever and a sense of sovereign immunity (royal prerogative).  My long held, unwavering belief in the resiliency of this once grand republic has evaporated in less than a handful of years.  While the BIC is the face of that evaporation, it is the minority legions of his supporters that are the real source of the vanishment.

            My apologies for such a downer response but that is my mood as my fingers tap away on the keyboard this morning.  If the BIC is allowed to continue, we will likely cease to exist as Americans; we will complete our disintegration to parochial insulated tribes until some other dictator decides he has had enough of our drivel.  In whatever years I have left, I just want to live out in peace.  I feel a profound sense of regret that my generation failed so miserably.  I have failed my children and grandchildren in that I have not enabled them to have a better life than I had.

 . . . follow-up comment:

“It seems to me that the purpose of this blog is to discuss reality.  Given the current situation, I'd be astounded if you didn't have a certain level of apprehension and/or depression.  No apology is necessary.

“I have a kind of relative optimism.  This nation's best moments typically come after the most terrible times.”

 . . . my follow-up comment:

            Thank you for your generous words.  I still feel compelled to apologize even though it may not be necessary.  I am usually an optimistic, or at least guardedly optimistic, citizen who takes the long view.  These troubled times and the fomenter of chaos in chief has ruined my usual positive nature.

            I agree; that is a valid observation of the history of this once grand republic.  I thought the turmoil of the 60s was bad, but our current calamity pales the 60s, and we are rudderless.

 

Another contribution:

“I trust all is good for you.  This damned virus will not recede, we are entering another lockdown over here with panic stations implemented.”

My reply:

            As Sir Winston endured, I am having a "Black Dog" day, and it is only hours old.

            I would say we are headed in the same direction, but the BIC is determined to stick with his laissez-faire, it-is-what-it-is stance.  No lockdown for us; old folks are going to die anyway, so let’s get on with it; let the virus do what the virus does.  The United States has 4% of the world’s population and 22% of the world’s COVID19 fatalities; what is wrong with that picture?  I am sorry; I have got to stop here; this is just too depressing.

 . . . Round two:

“Cap, this evening our PM made a ministerial TV statement to the nation on Covid 19 and the way the nation will behave and fight this threat. Various new guidance and rules that will be followed have been issued and could continue for six months.

“Our hospital admissions have accelerated along with the death rate. But not as bad as some other nations.

“I can mostly certainly understand your anguish over the situation at home.  One day the tide will turn and the truth will be known.  Until then we must wake up in the morning to a rising sun and happier contented days.”

 . . . my reply to round two:

            Prime Minister Johnson is orders of magnitude more of a national leader than our BIC.  I am not keen on another shutdown for you or for us, but at least he is trying to get ahead of the virus.  Your countrymen are certainly doing better than mine; we passed 200,000 COVID19 fatalities yesterday.  It is very sad; the BIC is using our sense of freedom for his personal gain and against us; the data are crystal clear.  We cannot be rid of this malevolent fool soon enough.  The election is just over a month away, and the BIC has stepped up his attacks on our very election system & process (except if he wins).  He is perfectly content with burning the house down rather that lose.

            As I suspected and hoped, turning off the news and focusing solely on my evolving TSF Book 9 story helped substantially.  I will do the same today.  Yes, this too shall pass . . . none too soon.

            Cooling off here a smidge.  Some rain passed through the area yesterday, but we got none at the house.  It did clear the air of the California fire smoke—a really welcome relief.

            Jumped in the pool four times yesterday.  If I ignore the world around me, life is very good.

            The Russians are at it again, and the BIC is not just in full denial, he is actively assisting and encouraging them. He is a miserable human being.

 . . . Round three:

“Your words resound with encouragement to all who wish him as history.

“This came to me today as part of an astronomical ‘blog’ I receive daily. Now it’s fairly lengthy but I suggest you chill out and have a cool drink by the pool.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-endorses-joe-biden/?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=76b808896e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-76b808896e-394689513

 . . . my reply to round three:

            These are the times in which we live.

            Just yesterday, the BIC took the next step in declaring himself dictator for life, i.e., king of medieval days.  I say that not to disparage your Queen or her ancestors.

 

            My very best wishes to all.  Take care of yourselves and each other.

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)