Update no.977

Update from the Sunland

No.977

28.9.20 – 4.10.20

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

 

            To all,

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

 

            The first presidential debate took place Tuesday evening, the 29^th, at the Health Education Campus, Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio.  One short, exclamatory sentence can and will summarize the entire 90-minute event.

That was quite the shit show!

The whole event was genuinely painful to endure.  What was supposed to be a debate was a joke—a disgusting, contemptible, really bad joke.  It was only just a graphic demonstration of how a bully operates.  It was worthless.  The Bully-in-Chief [BIC] refused to answer proper questions put to him and only yammered on to prevent Vice President Biden from speaking, or to simply drown out his opponent’s words.  He had no substance to offer; therefore, he wanted to silence his opponent—basically scorched earth.  The BIC has no respect for anyone else beyond himself.  It was nauseating to watch and listen to; what a waste of an evening.  Thank goodness Vice President Biden found the strength to resist jumping into the gutter with the BIC.  The BIC has nothing substantive to contribute, so he sought to prevent anyone else from speaking including Moderator Chris Wallace.  The BIC agreed to the rules, and the BIC refused to abide by the rules because we all know no rules, laws, guidelines, traditions, or precedents apply to the BIC.  He thinks he is above God.  If anyone, and I mean any single person, wants to see why I use the BIC moniker and refuse to use his familial name, just watch the video of that event.  That is a disgrace to mankind.

            When pressed by moderator Chris Wallace if the BIC condemned white supremacists, the BIC said, “Proud Boys, stand back and standby.”  If you do not know who the Proud Boys are, please google it and learn.  I confess I did not know until this exchange.  Now, the BIC will make all kinds of post-utterance denials, deflections, and distractions, but at the end of the day, he is inciting a violent ultra-right-wing group to deploy their handiwork should he lose the election. And then, the day after, the BIC claimed he did not know anything about the Proud Boys.  If he did not know anything about the group, why or how could he say what he did?  He contradicts himself, but that is not new.  He did exactly the same thing on 15.August.2017, after the tragedy of Charlottesville.  The desperation of the BIC and the Republicans is going to get much worse before this is over.  Please review the history of Hitler’s use of such tactics in so many events like the Reichstag Fire, the Night of the Long Knives, the Night of Broken Glass, et al ad infinitum ad nauseum.  The BIC did not invent these tactics, but he is the current practitioner in our midst.

            Here is my take.  Joe Biden may not be the leader we need in these troubled times, but he is an infinitely better human being than the BIC is, ever was, and ever will be.  I cannot imagine any American citizen could possibly vote for the BIC, again.  He deserves nothing but a prison cell for the rest of his natural life.  But your vote is not up to me; it is your choice entirely.

            To the rest of the world, the BIC does not, never did, and never will represent American values or principles.  He is an unfortunate and regrettable aberration that will pass into the dustbin of history . . . hopefully soon.  He is not who America is.

 

            I hold considerable and sincere empathy for the many supporters of the BIC.  It cannot be a good feeling watching their man perform in that manner on the world stage.  Coupled with the evolving polling of the electorate has to leave his supporters with a deep sinking feeling; they saddled up to a boulder in the ocean.  I wish those feelings were not so, but reality is reality; we must all deal with reality.  I hope we can find our common ground and move on from this unfortunate episode in our history.

 

            It just dawned on me.  I think Republicans have instituted some kind of group training for their politicians and supporters to teach them how to talk over anyone and everyone to drown out any productive discussion or debate.  Far too many Republicans do exactly the same thing.  It is like some automatic go-to mode of speaking. The BIC has nothing to contribute, so he induces chaos to mask his inadequacy—just another form of scorched earth or burn the house down.  To avoid any possible redux of that fiasco and the use of those unethical techniques, I think the debate commission should put them both in soundproof booths, isolated from one another, and only switch on the microphone in the booth when it is that candidates turn to speak.  That must never happen, again, ever.

 

            A thread from another network may be useful to Update readers to another perspective regarding the debate debacle.

“One of my FB friends who I talked to on-air when he was a fairly popular AM talk host in San Diego, Stacy Taylor wrote this:

“Taking into account a pandemic, 4 years of Donald Trump, and 8 months of binge-watching Netflix originals, it's only natural that some folks have become a little grumpy.

“I posted here last night that I thought, among other things, that Biden deserved a nap after the debate, and a soon-to-be former FB friend said I was ‘bashing’ Biden and told me to fuck off.

“But in the afterglow of last night's shit storm, we are being ask to declare a winner and what I find interesting is how few people on social media or in news media seem very enthusiastic about Biden's performance.

“Aside from Mika Brzezinski who told her audience several times on Morning Joe that he was "great", most of the enthusiasm for Biden is rather muted this morning, along the lines of all he had to do was appear normal to ‘win’ the debate.

“Of course, most of the comments I've heard or seen today are the accurate portrayals of Trump's grotesque, petulant, and bullying performance.  And then there are the usual platitudes about Trump playing merely to his base and ignoring ‘suburban women’ and moderates.

“But we already know that Trump is one of the biggest assholes on the planet, and we all want to gouge his eyeballs out and cut off his tongue, so is that really enough to declare Biden the winner?

“I acknowledge that Trump's bellicose performance is probably everybody's takeaway from the debate, but I found Biden's performance to be a little too tentative, a little tired, not completely prepared for Trump's predictable behavior.  He landed a few jabs but failed to land any big punches.  Maybe in a candidacy revolving around the theme "I'm not him!', that's good enough.

“But, in my opinion, to declare anyone a ‘winner’ in last night's freak show is an exercise in futility.”

My response:

            No one was a winner.  We all lost.  The United States of America lost.  The man we duly elected to be our primary employee and represent us on the world stage demonstrated in graphic terms why I refer to him as the Bully-in-Chief (BIC).  The BIC did Putin’s heavy lifting, and ol’ Vlad’ did not have to lift a finger.  The BIC acted exactly as he did on 25.May.2017 before the world; he has not changed, and he is incapable of self-improvement.  What bullies do when they have nothing constructive or intelligent to say is stop anyone else from speaking.  He singularly negated the entire event by his toddler-level petulant conduct.  Unfortunately, Biden succumbed to the bully’s taunts; I expected him to stay above the BIC’s antics; he failed.  The BIC is way below asshole; the anus is a noble orifice.  The BIC is not even close to anything even remotely resembling noble.  But, the worst of it . . . the BIC is what he is; he has always been that way, but those who support and enable him do not speak well for the future of this once grand republic.  The BIC has singularly degraded the United States of America, and as I stated above, he has done ol’ Vlad’s heavy lifting.  We have been relegated to joke status.  At this stage, I do not expect greatness; I only want some stability and humanity.  Joe Biden is a far better human being than the BIC is, ever was, or ever will be; that’s good enough for me at this stage.  I do believe those right-wing extremists who support the BIC are a minority, but they will only be rendered to that status if we all vote.  They will vote, and I fear what he did at that so-called debate on Tuesday night along with all of his other voter suppression actions will so disgust many citizens that they do not vote.  We must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the BIC does not represent us, and he is actually the leader of a very small but vociferous minority.

 

            Then came the bombshell, the BIC and Melania tested positive for COVID19 on Thursday, after one of his favored aides, Hope Hicks, was feeling ill on Wednesday afternoon on Air Force One.  She self-quarantined herself and tested positive.  The BIC is in a high-risk category.  Given his defiance of COVID19 protection guidance and his tacit encouragement of his followers’ defiance of the protection guidelines, perhaps it is only fitting.  Even the almighty BIC cannot fool Mother Nature.  Nonetheless, I do not wish this on anyone including the BIC.  I hope he remains asymptomatic and does not infect anyone else, and if he develops symptoms, I hope they remain mild and do not require hospitalization.  We, none of us, do not need this complication within our government, the election process, or our lives, but it is what it is.  Now, he must deal with reality and so must we.

            The next day, Friday afternoon, the White House announced the BIC was being flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, out of “an abundance of caution.”  Then, later that evening, reports came out that he was having trouble breathing and being given some experimental monoclonal antibody medical treatment.

            We also received Press reports that a number of other people in addition to Hope Hicks (noted above) and in close proximity to the BIC have tested positive for COVID19—former advisor Kellyanne Conway, Campaign Manager Bill Stepien, Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, among others.  On Saturday, the Press reported that Chris Christie had tested positive and had been hospitalized.  All are Republicans, I must add; and, Lee and Tillis are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that is considering the BIC’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barratt for the Supreme Court.  The BIC’s nomination party in the Rose Garden at the White House for Judge Barratt appears to be a super spreader event.  The plot thickens.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.975:

Comment to the Blog:

“My father was in the U.S. Army Air Corps.  He was a B-17 pilot in WWII and flew 9 missions out of Ridgewell, England during WWII before being shot down. Fortunately, all nine crew members lived. My father spent a year and a half in a German POW camp at the age of 24 along with his crew members.  We visited the old air base in 2018 in Ridgewell, England, now a museum, which is mostly dedicated to American military.  They opened it especially for us.  We were treated like royalty.  We avoided political conversations with virtually everyone we met while in London etc mostly out of fear.  However, most, if not all people we met expressed their admiration and love for Trump for standing up to politics as usual. They actually started the conversations! In 2008 I had hopes for Obama even though I voted for McCain. Then I witnessed how Obama planted the seeds of tribalism and fundamental change where he knew they would grow. The media lapped up his narrative, unfortunately, and I believe the people spoke loud and clear when they elected Donald J Trump in 2016. Tired of politics as usual. Currently, our democratic leaders in Congress wrap themselves in the Constitution when it suits them, but stomp on it in order to meet their goal - a one-party nation or making Conservative voices irrelevant. Unfortunately, with the likes of Schumer, Pelosi, AOC etc and people like George Soros, mail-in voting, leftist activist judges who change laws vs interpreting the law, Republicans are just trying to hold up the dam right now for what is coming. Our democratic leadership is and always has been “party first.” Granted, dirty politicians on both sides. Another story. But if Democrats currently had the presidency and the senate, there would be absolutely no hesitation on their part to push through a new SC Justice. The right is violating the Constitution? I don’t think so. If and when Dems are back in power, they have already stated that they will pack the courts and make DC, Puerto Rico states. Look to California or even NY. What it used to be and what it is now. That’s what this great nation will turn into. I’m glad Trump is a disrupter. We need to shake up all the Bidens on the left. Trump connects with people. He may read a lot from a teleprompter but what President hasn’t? I found that an odd statement on your part since Biden seems to be confused even with a teleprompter! Anxious for debate! Your last paragraph are my sentiments exactly. I wish I embraced all my current knowledge years ago. Except then I was a Democrat then. I am now a proud Constitutional Conservative. I will vote for Trump. He is no more a dictator than Biden or Biden’s minions. But battleground states are right now being heavily influenced re mail-in votes, courts, etc and are changing the laws as they go along to assure a democratic victory. Heads, Democrats win, tails, Republicans lose. Trump will be called a dictator by the left regardless.  Media constantly ask if Trump will assure a peaceful transition.  Have they asked Biden that same question?  No.  That would never happen.”

My response:

            God bless your father for his service and sacrifice for this Grand Republic.  We are both very fortunate our fathers survived the war.  That is so cool that you got to visit at Ridgewell with him.  Great memories.

            I have been a long-term, outspoken advocate for rejecting the corruption of money and politics inside the Beltway.  It is tragic we have degenerated to this degree.  We certainly needed a leader to break the mold and lead us to a brighter, more progressive future.  Unfortunately, where our mutual agreement diverges is the selection of a deeply flawed (and in my opinion, unworthy) man to take on that task.  I have spoken out against the man, long before he ever declared his candidacy or ascended to the presidency.  For decades, I have seen and known him to be a fraud, con-man, and snake-oil salesman.  For months after his declaration, I ignored him as irrelevant and literally a joke . . . until Republicans started voting for him in the primaries.  Despite my revulsion for the man, I could not bring myself to vote for Clinton; she was equally unworthy.  I want a woman president but not at any cost.  Likewise, I want a leader to help us out of the ditch; regrettably, it is not the BIC.

            Like you, I voted for McCain in 2008; he will likely be the last Republican I will ever vote for in this life.  I was a Goldwater Republican in my youth.  The Republicans of today are not the Republican Party of decades ago.

            The seeds of our tribalism were planted and sprouted long before Obama stepped on the national stage or became president.  To lay our abysmal situation on his lap is simply wrong.  He played by the rules that Republicans created; I’m sorry it hurts.

            I urge caution in your loud & clear statement.  He lost the vote by 3M votes; that is not trivial.  OK, I’ll bite: how have the Democrats stepped on the Constitution?  Frankly, I will argue that is exactly what the Republican Senate Majority Leader did in 2016, and he is ignoring that precedent (his own precedent) in 2020 when it is convenient to him.  Not one word or even hint of political parties appears anywhere in the U.S. Constitution.  Justifying his actions as political consequence or expedient is flat wrong, and I will argue, it is unconstitutional.  Yes, the Republicans are violating the Constitution.  They use “originalism” when it is convenient to their tribal objectives and reject it when it is not.  Tribalism has brought us to a state that we accept abuses when our tribe does it and reject it when the other tribe does it.

            The Press has not asked Biden that question because he is not POTUS—only the BIC is.  And, the BIC’s answer does nothing but fuel our suspicions of him.  I am absolutely confident that he would answer the correct way, of course he will ensure a peaceful transition.

. . . follow-up comment:

“I’m not sure you’ll approve my comments, Cap, as it doesn’t fit the narrative, but I hope I’m wrong.”

 . . . my follow-up response:

            LIFO.

            My humble apologies for not picking up your comment earlier.  I did not see your comment to Update no.975 until this morning [Tuesday].  It will be in this week’s Update [977].  I shall endeavor to do better in the future.  Just a little FYI: Blogspot does not give us notice of comments; a simple eMail that you sent in a comment would be greatly appreciated and enable a prompter response.  My eMail addy: cap@parlier.com.

            I am terribly sorry you had to express your doubts in being heard.  I opened this Blog in 2006, with prior written versions going back to 2001, to be a forum for vigorous public debate on contemporary issues.  I have always and will continue to encourage anyone and everyone to voice their opinions.  So, yes, you were wrong; I gladly and eagerly publish your contributions to the Blog.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.976:

[Cap’s note: I did not receive permission to allow inclusion of the original contribution from a friend and former colleague.  However, my response may be useful given my opening paragraph in Update no.976.]

            OMG, I had no idea.  My little Black Dog moment was nothing compared to what you had to deal with; I’m so glad you were able to overcome that time in your life.  Your personal description is eerily similar to the words by and about Churchill.  Lord Moran, his personal physician during his premiership, had virtually no tools to help, so the counsel was giving him space and protecting him from stimulants (outside events).  Like FDR’s disability, people around him just knew to protect and insulate him.  He would divert his mind to painting, or gardening, or building a brick wall at Chartwell.  It worked for him.

            Thanks to the scientists that developed those medicines.  However, we are so far behind in our treatment of mental illness compared to our physical health.  We see so many reflections of that reality.  Far too many people have the image of mental health in the frame of the old mental wards and hospitals of a century ago, and the abuses thereof, e.g. “One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”  One day, hopefully, we will grow up and find a more informed and effective path to treat mental illness.

            My Black Dog day was nowhere near as debilitating as your experience.  I am embarrassed to even mention it in the same response.  My action worked for me.  I disengaged from the outside world and buried myself in my writing.  The characters of the story worked wonders for me—lesson learned.

 

Comment to the Blog:

“I hope the Black Dog has left you for now or leaves ASAP.  I’m very familiar with that, but seldom deal with it in any depth these days.

“The questions about social services, back to ancient times, boil down to, ‘What must those who own and operate society provide the rest of us in order to keep us working for their benefit?’  We shall see.

“A majority of the voters didn’t vote for the Chump.  I’ll say it again, the Constitution is flawed in its use of the Electoral College and in the strength of rural voters in the Senate.

“The revelation of Chump’s taxes puts him in a bind.  If he admits to massive failure, will cost him his base.  Those people’s respect for him rests on his aura of success.  The Chump’s other choice is to state that he made big money and committed tax fraud.

“If the Democrats can take the Senate and hold the House of Representatives, perhaps Congress can resume its duty and authority.  That might counter a Supreme Court appointment to some degree.”

My response to the Blog:

            Yes, it did.  As I suspected, disengaging from the world and withdrawing into the characters of my story (and current project) worked wonders for me.

            Interesting observations.  I never knew there were social services in ancient times.  Those social services, AKA feeding slaves, did not work so well in Nazi Germany.  The Nazis saw the untermenschen as a simple consumable . . . served two purposes for them.

            True, no argument.  We continue to disagree on the wisdom, or perhaps just worthiness, of the constitutional provisions for election of the president.

            No, he will never admit to failure, regardless of the facts; his malignant narcissism does not allow him to recognize reality.  I have believed he is a fraud, con-man extraordinaire, and consummate snake-oil salesman for decades, long before We, the People, duly elected him to be our primary employee.  My opinion has not changed a twit; he is the same man and not changed a sliver.  We must vote; it is our obligation and duty as citizens.  Further, he must be defeated overwhelmingly by our votes and the votes of the Electoral College, as the Constitution requires.

            That is my hope and prayer as well.  We must vote.  The only thing we can do to override the Supreme Court is to amend the Constitution.  I do not want to just see McConnell relegated to the minority; I want him defeated in the election and cast out of office; he has done enough damage.  What he did in 2016 was unconstitutional, and he got away with it (so far).

 

Another contribution:

“I know that you sent this out before info came out about dickhead’s taxes.  He has commented in the past only suckers pay taxes, I am personally glad that I help keep the country running, while assholes like him don’t.  I guess it was proven that he did not pay.”

My reply:

            Actually, I mentioned the New York Times article in last week’s Blog, but I did not expound on the revelations—too new for details.

            Yes, that is his opinion precisely, and I gladly acknowledge my status as a sucker—a proud former Marine and proud taxpayer.  I am with you there.  His malignant narcissism does not allow him to recognize reality.  We must vote him out of office.  The NY AG has an active investigation into the BIC’s taxes; I suspect tough days are ahead for the BIC.

            However, I must say partially in his defense that it is the tax laws that Congress passed, and previous presidents signed into law that are the ultimate fault for the abuses of the tax laws.  Our tax code is its own tragedy, not appreciably different from the grotesque Citizens United Supreme Court ruling—money is our royalty.  We see that reality in the BIC’s tax returns.

 

A different contribution:

“I am moved by your account of personal depression and proud of your characteristic resolution to deal with it honestly and sensibly.  Hang in there, and lean on close friends and our Creator.

“As for originalism, I am surprised at those (are you one?) who discount the wisdom of the founders in anticipating the need for evolving social values that call for new clarifications of rights based upon the principal of all members of mankind being created equal.  That wisdom left responsibility for change in the hands of ‘the people’ that you repeatedly refer to, and the mechanism provided in our constitution is amendment by Congress, not the judicial branch!  Your admiration of RBG and fear of Scalia and Thomas and Trump’s replacements is surprisingly unappreciative of this wisdom and beneath your own.

“As to Trump’s clever use of our abominable tax code, I don’t blame him any more than anyone else with smart accountants.  I blame our tax laws.  I say change the code to provide for a flat tax on income AND assets so that all adult citizens have an equally proportionate stake in their government.  1% should be plenty, and acceptable to the moguls and poor widows alike.

“Your wisdom is misdirected in these subjects, my friend, and your hatred of Trump had partially blinded you, temporarily I hope.”

My response:

            Thank you for your kind and generous words.  My most recent Black Dog day gradually disappeared when I decided to withdraw from the world and immerse myself in the characters of my current writing project—Book 9 of my To So Few series of historical novels.  Brian, one of the main characters, returns to his squadron and 1943 Europe.  Worked wonders.  Thank you for your thoughts.

            I appreciate your observations on originalism, and perhaps surprisingly, I do agree.  I have never been a fan of judicial legislation.  However, that is not the aspect of originalism to which I refer.  The issue for me has been this notion that if it is not explicitly written in the words of the Constitution, it is not a federal matter, e.g., a citizen’s fundamental right to privacy; the word privacy appears nowhere in the Constitution or the supporting documents.  A woman’s body is NOT an incubator for the State; it is her private domain.  To me, there are rights above and beyond the Constitution or any law—freedom of choice and right to privacy.  The Court has struggled with those things from time to time.  That is precisely why I read Roe v Wade in the larger context, i.e., it is not an abortion rights case, it is a right to privacy case (and the boundaries of that privacy).

            I am not sure what led you to believe I feared Scalia and Thomas.  I have written many times of my admiration of Scalia’s writing, although I rarely agreed with his reasoning.  Thomas has been a disappointment in almost every aspect of the judicial process, but he is an associate justice, and I am not.  I am sorry you feel my judicial opinions are beneath me; respectfully, I do not.

            Yes, exactly, as I write this week.  I blame the tax laws; I do not fault him for taking full advantage of the tax law his money can buy.  We do not yet have physical evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he abused (or even violated) those liberal tax code laws.  I suspect the NY AG may well lead the way to that end.  We agree.  I am in favor of a flat tax.  We will apparently argue where that threshold should be.  I suppose that determination depends upon what we expect from our federal government.  I cannot imagine 1% being sufficient, but that is a debate for another day, if or when a flat tax reaches the realm of possible.

            I truly have no idea why folks persist in attributing the word hate or hatred to my words, my opinions, or my thoughts.  I very rarely use that word.  I just see the BIC for who he is.  I am sorry you interpret my realism as hatred.  I do not hate him.  We shall see what rises from the rubble of the BIC era.

 . . . follow-up comment:

“I confess to misuse of two words, a result of the too-familiar mistake of hurrying with an email: fear and hatred.

“These are two words that, upon review, I suspect seldom apply to you, certainly in so far as your thoughtful correspondence is concerned, so I apologize for any offense.”

 . . . my follow-up response:

            Thank you for your message, but I must assure you, there was no need.  I was not offended whatsoever, but I did feel the need to correct what I believed was incorrect.

            I prefer your freely spoken words.  I am not keen on political correctness.  I appreciate the fact that the BIC is plain spoken; we see him for exactly what he is.

            I hope and trust we can maintain our discussions of contemporary issues.  Respectful disagreement and argument are vital to any democracy.  I would like it to be the same for our friendship.

 

Yet another contribution:

“Just read and re-read your current blog, thanks. I found your early comments moving, adequately describing the current turmoil and the state of your mind.

“You’re not old! You are young enough to verbally fight the dreadful all conquering attitude of your least favourite man. Keep up the effort!

“Yes ‘black dog day’ Winston did suffer from those as you quite rightly have said. But there are ways out of those, your concentrating on writing is as good as any, I’m sure. When I write I’m there with the characters, talking with them, we see them don’t we, feeling their pains and emotions, we become one of them and there is no room for unwanted ‘black dog’, none at all.

“I hope my friend your ‘black dog’ will be banished along with the man who is causing these un-democratic problems.”

My reply:

            Thank you so much for your kind and generous words.  Yes, the characters of my writing saved the day.  They do indeed work wonders, so they did in my instance.  Winston turned to painting, gardening, or building a brick wall at Chartwell to banish the Black Dog.  I prefer writing.  Yes, I feel them.  For those moments, I am them.

            We are just over a month away from the election.  Wish us luck and the will to do the right thing.

            I’m with you, brother.  I’m not sure we are allowed into your beautiful country at the moment.  The United States should be in quarantine because of the gross mismanagement of the pandemic . . . yet one more reason to be rid of this nincompoop as soon as possible.  We do need those pints don’t we.  The first presidential debate is tonight, so I will probably enjoy a beer as we watch and listen.  Shortly thereafter, a second attempt to launch a Delta Heavy Lift Vehicle rocket is scheduled; I will also attempt to watch that live as well.

 . . . follow-up comment:

“Trust you managed to watch the ‘debate’ last night-we never saw it over here but you can guess what the main topic of headline news is this morning. The recordings we heard were I suppose to be expected-a disgusting mess, domination would appear the dominant word, not debate’ domination. I can’t see who gained any advantage in the piece we. 

“I heard the statement ‘the worst President the nation has ever had’ all I can say as a complete outsider is ‘let’s hope you guys get it right this time’, I believe you will.

“Looking forward to your next blog, should be a good ‘un.”

 . . . my follow-up reply:

            It was not a debate.  The best summary of last night’s fiasco: it was a shit show.  Despicable, disgusting, embarrassing, and revolting.  I could offer many more descriptors, but it was terrible.  I would not waste your precious time on such a debacle.

            I’m with you.  I hope, despite all of the obstacles the BIC is throwing up against us, that we find the means to vote.  We need the best turnout in our history and an overwhelming defeat for the BIC to be rid of him.  The margins must be so great that any judge will throw out the inevitable court challenges from the BIC as irrelevant, meritless, and worthless.  We must be rid of this man . . . so he can stand trial and face the music for his crimes.

            I’ve already written too much and the contributions to last week’s Update were more plentiful than normal.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)