Update no.992

Update from the Sunland

No.992

11.1.21 – 17.1.21

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

 

            To all,

 

To be crystal clear, insurrection is defined as:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary = an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government

Dictionary.com = an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government.

Cambridge English Dictionary = an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence.

Legal Dictionary, The Free Dictionary = a rising or rebellion of citizens against their government, usually manifested by acts of violence.

Collins Dictionary = violent action that is taken by a large group of people against the rulers of their country, usually in order to remove them from office.

Vocabulary.com = organized opposition to authority; a conflict in which one faction tries to wrest control from another.

American College Dictionary = 1. act of rising in arms or open resistance against civil of established authority.  2. a revolt.

I could continue, but I do believe the consistent thread is quite apparent.

Under federal law, it is a crime to incite, assist, or engage in such conduct against the United States.  The relevant section is:

18 U.S.C. §2383 - Rebellion or insurrection:

Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

The true believers will defend the [person who shall no longer be named; Perpetrator No.1] regardless of the Constitution or the law.  It is up to the rest of us to enforce the definition of “incitement of insurrection.”  To me, there is no doubt whatsoever.  Nonetheless, I do not hold a seat in the Senate, so I have no vote.

 

            The follow-up news items:

-- In my listing of the enablers of the [person who shall no longer be named] who revved up the mob at the SAVE AMERICA MARCH rally on the 6^th of January [991], I left off one notable individual—Representative Morris Jackson ‘Mo’ Brooks Jr. of Alabama.  He is included now, and I might add Brooks and his actions are under investigation by the FBI and Capitol Police.

-- In the prompt effort to hold the [person who shall no longer be named; Perpetrator No.1] accountable for his incitement to insurrection [991], the House of Representatives introduced, debated, and passed H.Res.21 - Calling on Vice President Michael R. Pence to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments of the Cabinet to activate section 4 of the 25^th Amendment to declare President Donald J. Trump incapable of executing the duties of his office and to immediately exercise powers as acting President.  The House vote concluded on 12.January.2021, at 23:24 [R] EST—House: 223-205-0-5(2).  Five representatives chose not to vote—all Republicans.  One Republican representative voted in favor of the resolution—Representative Adam Daniel Kinzinger of Illinois.  Vice President Pence reportedly considered the House resolution but apparently believed it was not the appropriate path.

-- Further, to be crystal clear, the final, official, challenged, validated, and certified 2020 election results [982 & sub] were:

                        Electoral

Candidate       College   Vote %  Vote count  the math

Joseph Biden   306          51.4%   81,283,485  +7,059,741

Donald Trump  232          46.9%   74,223,744

There is NO doubt whatsoever that Joe Biden soundly defeated the [person who shall no longer be named].  The results were challenged in 60+ court cases; all failed to even reach the probable cause threshold (that reality alone speaks volumes).  Unfortunately, and regrettably, the malignant narcissism of the [person who shall no longer be named] prohibits him from recognizing or acknowledging reality and the truth.  Worse, his illness compels him to pollute and contaminate the minds of all those who have willingly consumed his toxic snake-oil elixir; they actually believe, truly and deeply believe him.  That simple, direct reality led to the tragedy we witnessed on the 6^th of January.  As a consequence, this true-believer situation persists to this very day and likely will for quite some time to come.

 

Here we go again.

When the vice president rejected House Resolution 21 (above), the House of Representatives proceeded with impeachment.  On Wednesday, 13.January.2021, the House introduced, debated and voted on one (1) article of impeachment—incitement of insurrection (H.Res.24).  The vote was: House: 232-197-0-4(2).  Ten (10) Republican representatives voted in favor of impeachment: 

Elizabeth Lynne ‘Liz’ Cheney of Wyoming (House Republican Conference Chair and daughter of former Vice President Cheney), 

Anthony E. ‘Tony’ Gonzalez of Ohio,

Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington,

John Michael Katko of New York,

Adam Daniel Kinzinger of Illinois,

Peter James Meijer of Michigan,

Daniel Milton ‘Dan’ Newhouse of Washington,

Hugh Thompson ‘Tom’ Rice Jr. of South Carolina,

Frederick Stephen ‘Fred’ Upton of Michigan,

David Goncalves Valadao of California.

The four (4) who chose not to vote were all Republicans.

The [person who shall no longer be named; Perpetrator No.1] gained a genuine first for the history books (rather than his false proclamations).  He is the first president in the history of mankind to be impeached twice.  Senator McConnell, the outgoing majority leader, refused to call the Senate back into session to consider H.Res.24, which de factokicked the can of the president’s trial to the new Senate.  As yet, there have been no clear indications when the Senate will take up the trial.

The [person who shall no longer be named] had his constitutionally protected time to contest the election.  He did so more than 60 times in courts across the country.  He failed on every single challenge in a court of law before a judge; they never achieved the probable cause threshold.  But that was not enough for him.  No, he chose to mobilize his militia army to storm the Capitol Building while Congress was performing its constitutionally mandated duties.  He sought insurrection.  What he could not accomplish in court he chose to attempt by force of arms.  If he had kept the mob at the rally and disbanded them when the speeches were concluded, he would not be in the trouble he is now.  That was not to be.  No, he ordered them (not him, of course; he never does anything that take courage) to march on the Capitol Building on that particular Wednesday.  It was a deliberate act—unleash the mob to attempt what he could not do legally.  Yes, incitement of insurrection is valid and quite appropriate.

By the arguments of the BICP members, Kanzler Adolf Hitler committed no crimes.  He did not pull the trigger.  He did not order people to commit crimes.  No, his words alone convinced his minions to kill more than 20,000,000 innocent non-combatant people.  What the [person who shall no longer be named] did was no different.  The BICP members are correct, the [person who shall no longer be named], like his predecessor idol, did not pull the trigger.  However, there should be no doubt that the [person who shall no longer be named] has nurtured his relationship with the right-wing militia groups like the Proud Boys, the KKK, Sovereign Citizens, the Aryan Nation, and all the other white supremacist, racist, xenophobic groups among us.  He has been nurturing his support for those groups [I refuse to regurgitate his long history; no reason to believe me anyway; you could start with Charlottesville (12.8.2017)] as much to inspire and encourage them, and as he said in public, “Stand back and standby.”  In essence, he wanted to reserve their violence until he really needed them.  That moment came on Wednesday, 6.January.2021—his last ditch convulsive reaction.  He unleashed the mob as cover for the assault force, and the assailants did not disappoint their Führer . . . well, other than they failed to overthrow the government or decertify the 2020 election results.  To the charge of incitement, it does not matter whether he was directly knowledgeable of the assault force.  Ignorance is no defense.  We have too many examples of protests and mobs degenerating into riots.  What is dramatically different with the 6^th of January event is, there was a significant portion of that mob that had planned, prepared, and executed their scheme to disrupt the election certification process at the behest of the [person who shall no longer be named].

The 1^st Amendment freedom of speech has its limitations as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court.  No one can shout FIRE! in a crowded theater, and then claim he was only kidding, or he never intended for people to panic.  I believe the evidence shows the intentions and objectives of the [person who shall no longer be named].  Whether he intended for his followers to commit the direct acts of insurrection is a judgement each of us can make based on the publicly available evidenced (his direct words).  What he cannot do is claim that he never intended to the outcome of his inciteful words.  He cannot claim he was just a common citizen exercising his individual freedom of speech.  No, he was the duly elected president; his words alone have serious consequences.

You know, if the [person who shall no longer be named] had just let their assembly, demonstration and protest speak at the Ellipse, he would not be in the position he is in from a week ago Wednesday.  No, he ordered his believers to march on Capitol Hill.  From that moment, he took responsibility for what that mob did.   No, we have more than sufficient evidence.  We do not need more.  There is more without a doubt, but we have more than enough.  Yes, the [person who shall no longer be named; Perpetrator No.1] is guilty of inciting insurrection; he deserves to be convicted by Senate trial, denied the benefits of former presidents, and prohibited from holding any other public office—local, state or federal.  And then, he further deserves to be charged, tried, convicted, and sent to prison for his crimes.

 

Many believers, supporters, and justifiers of the [person who shall no longer be named] like to say is, look at all he has done.  Yes, we should, just as we should with Kanzler Adolf Hitler.  After all, he built the structure of the autobahn—the first high quality, national highway system in the world.  He made the trains run on time.  He stimulated science and engineering to achieve multitudinous significant advancements that serve mankind to this day.  Do all his accomplishments justify what he inflicted upon humanity?  I suppose the answer depends upon perspective.  If you believe Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, dissenters, and common citizens who do not support your political ideology are vermin to be exterminated, then I guess the ends justify the means.  I was effectively taught as a midshipman and young lieutenant of Marines that there are rules of warfare and such a thing as proper conduct in combat, as hard as that concept may be to embrace or accept.  The ends do NOT justify the means!  Hitler deserves our resounding condemnation and history’s contempt, just as the [person who shall no longer be named] shall be condemn for history.  The good he has done is NOT and can NEVER be rationale for the abysmal conduct, behavior, and performance of the [person who shall no longer be named] over the last four (4) years.

 

Several of the assault force inside the Capitol Building screamed, “This is our house,” as rationale for their violence.  To those who espouse that argument, NO!  It is not your house, you ignorant idiots.  The building belongs to We, the People . . . to all of us, including me.  Most of us condemn what you did on the 6^th.  We, the People, did not sanction that assault on the People’s house.

For all the followers, believers, and adherents who chose to believe in the [person who shall no longer be named], I offer my sincere condolences.  He has proven himself so bloody unworthy of your faith in him.  It has to be very painful.  I am sorry he has lied to you so well that you actually believe his lies as truth.  The right-wing militias are using the [person who shall no longer be named] as their cover for their promised rebellion.  So it is, so it shall be.  Let them come.  Easier to deal with their malignant thinking out in the open.

It is really rich that BICP members after supporting, condoning, defending and encouraging the conduct of the [person who shall no longer be named], now demand unity and coming together.  I say, NO!  The BICP enabled criminal conduct.  He was not, is not, and never will be above the law.  They cannot or should not stand behind unity when the [person who shall no longer be named] did what he did to this country.  Congress absolutely must make a clear, strong statement of acceptable or tolerable conduct by the soon to be former POTUS and for all future presidents.  His conduct was reprehensible and criminal.  It cannot be just pasted over.  We are at a moment in history and the peg must be driven deep.  What he did cannot be tolerable ever again.  So to the BICP members, screw your unity.  You did not give a crap about unity for four (4) years.  That argument of yours in moot and rejected.  Wannabe dictators are no longer welcome in this once grand republic.

 

A friend, contributor, and brother-in-arms sent along the following message and attachment for our information:

“This is too good to not share.

“I am impressed by the thoroughness of this timely informative message and the apparent sincerity of its author.  You are well aware of most if not all of its content, but you may differ in your level of concern about some of its implications or may have reasons for doubting the author himself.  I am content to accept his claim of true patriotic motives.

“It is indeed lengthy, but it is worth reading carefully to the end (15-20 minutes?), even if you are already informed of all or most of the facts, as I suspect you are.  Of course, you are busily doing your best to share similarly important concerns via your blog.  This author, of course, is still in the public arena and, therefore, is more careful to avoid inflammatory language.

“I had heard, by way of difficult search of media accounts, of most but NOT ALL of the events described in this comprehensive letter.  I had to read some of it twice, even though most of it is well stated and only a few sentences are obviously grammatically flawed.

“If I had speed-read it, as is my habit and perhaps yours in order to cover the mass of information available to any interested patriot, I would have skipped over some items thinking I had already heard about them.  This would have been a mistake, and I hope you do not make it.

“I remain thankful for your ongoing unselfish dedication to truth and willingness to try carefully to convey it.  I hope at least some of this will confirm your suspicions that there are some other patriots out there still willing to adhere to constitutional means for addressing problems while also learning from history and trying to teach the rest of us.

“P.S.: Let's get busy finding a leader for a conservative government better than the presently dangerous Democrats and obsolete Repandercrats, if we must continue to suffer under party rule.

“BUT PLEASE DON'T LET THIS PARTING COMMENT JADE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF MY SINCERE SUGGESTIONS ABOVE!”

For those who wish to read Senator Langford’s words (and I do urge everyone to read them), I offer the URL for his entire letter.

https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=2133857&c=JLankford

My response:

Thank you for your kind and generous words, and forwarding Senator Langford’s 7.January.2021 letter.  It was too long for inclusion in the Update, but I have included a URL to the full letter for others.  Yes, most of it is a rehash of public information; however, he did induce me to read the Electoral Count Act of 1887 [PL 49–90; 24 Stat. 373], so I learned more.  Amid his extensive words, I have a couple of salient and arguable observations.

To be blunt, the notional election commission 10-day review of state results of which he espoused is, frankly, a joke.  To be clear, I support an election commission, but it must be a comprehensive review on the scale of the Roberts Commission (Pearl Harbor) or the 9/11 Commission.  If Congress wanted an election commission, the time to institute such a process was November, NOT January.  To me, it was just another lame BICP attempt to delay or negate the outcome.

Next, QAnon imaginings and accusations are NOT evidence of fraud or any other illegality beyond just wild conspiracy nightmares.  I have heard some of Langford’s accusations many times before his rendition, and yet, like all the previous versions, he offered not one scintilla of evidence.  The time to challenge the election results were in November & December (until the 8^th) as provided by the Constitution and law.  They did just that and failed on every attempt.

I did not like the results of the 2016 election, because my life experience told me that when a man with his faults wields powerful instruments, very bad things happen.  History has vindicated my experience in spades.  Nonetheless, I accepted his election by the proper exercise of the constitutional process.  In the same fashion, I accept the results of the 2020 election.  I urge you and every American citizen to do the same.  I’m not asking anyone to like the results, but we must accept them.

Re: election reform.  As I have long written and believe, I see the wisdom of the Constitution.  I am not in favor of a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College or amend the presidential election process.  However, reforms (improvements) can and should be made; perhaps federal standards for the states to use, or a federal process certification of the state processes including machine validation, would be useful.  There are many.  Invalidating selective results from the 2020 elections is NOT one of those reforms.

Lastly, to your postscript, if by “conservative government” you mean the imposition of conservative values, principles, morals and beliefs on all citizens, you will find considerable resistance from me.  This Republican notion of the villainous “socialist nation” is illogical, irrational, two-faced, hypocritical, and otherwise a really bad idea.  What the Republicans mean is corporate socialism is great and perfectly acceptable, but individual socialism is a Satanic evil.  As long as Republicans persist in their penchant for moral projection and outright hypocrisy, they shall have me as an adversary.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.991:

“Thanks Cap-my God what an edition.  Let us trust that once justice has prevailed your country and your people will again rise and shine the bright light of democracy to the world.  Rest assured my friend, it will happen.  Have faith in the future.”

My reply:

“Time shall tell the tale, my friend.”

 

Comment to the Blog:

“I need a name for each character.  I have been calling the central subject of your writing The Chump.  I tire of that, so I'll borrow a term from addiction studies and call him/it King Baby.

“Babies go through a stage of expressing their frustration via destruction.  So it is with King Baby.  That excuses nothing, but it explains much.

“One reason the realm of addiction studies relates to our national situation is that King Baby and his followers have many of the qualities found in families of alcoholism.  One of those traits is blind, unreasoning loyalty to dead or defeated (fired, imprisoned, disgraced) loved ones.

“I share with many others concern about the difference between the police response to the Proud Boys and their kind versus police responses to virtually any minority or ‘outsider’ protest.”

My response to the Blog:

Call him whatever you will.  He deserves no respect as he has repeatedly defecated in the office he was elected to hold.  He would probably like that moniker; he has always sought the title of king or dictator-for-life.  He never respected the title of POTUS.

Yes, he has a long history of acting exactly like a tempestuous infant or toddler—well documented and exhausting.

Good and accurate observations regarding the application of traits of addiction to the followers of the [person who shall no longer be named].  Those traits are not easily broken.

I join you in that outrage.  What exactly happened a week ago is still reaching the antiseptic light of day.  The exact sequence of police command is yet to be fully known, but early reports indicate the Capitol Police command recognized what was beginning to play out and requested the assistance of the DC Metropolitan Police and the DC National Guard.  Governors in both Maryland and Virginia mobilized their National Guard units.  But, the authorization to deploy the National Guard was withheld by the [person who shall no longer be named] because he was so absorbed watching his Proud Boys army do their dastardly deeds on Capitol Hill that he could not be bothered with authorizing the deployment of the National Guard for six hours.  The timeline and association with events on Capitol Hill will be fully known eventually, but at the moment, it does not look pretty for the [person who shall no longer be named].  That despicable man had no problem deploying the military when he wanted a photo-op holding a Bible upside-down at a nearby historic church.

 

Another contribution:

“I share your sentiments fully!!  Well stated.

“One very minor technical clarification.  Since David Perdue was defeated in the GA runoff, he is not part of the new Congress.  His successor’s election victory has yet to be certified so.  Hold not vote.  Kelly Loeffler was appointed to fill a term that has not expired and is part of the new Congress and therefore was eligible to vote until the runoff election result is certified.”

 . . . to which the contributor added:

“Re-reading my email...auto correct strikes again!!  Don’t remember exactly what I said where it reads “...so. Hold...” but the bottom line is that there are only 99 senators until runoff elections in GA are certified.”

My reply:

I must confess I do not know that level of subtlety to the law, and I do not have sufficient capacity to research the applicable law.  Thus, I shall accept your explanation as-is.  I stand corrected.

 

A different contribution:

“‘morning Cap, do you know over all the time we have corresponded, and it is quite a while, we have never gone through such a grave period as this.

“It’s quite enough with Covid raging war on humanity and now you our friends, colleagues and allies are entering a very important phase in your democratic future.  You know in the U/K the freedom to carry or even own arms is utterly forbidden, not just here but in a great many other countries.  Don’t you believe the time will have to come when the same rules will apply to your democracy.  If you are to avoid extremists from causing mayhem and murder this has to be the answer.

“One piece of very small but encouraging news this side is in our county where the rate of Covid infected individuals is very slowly on the decline. Early days yet but heartening to us all.”

My response:

Your observation is spot on, brother.  I have to have faith that we shall overcome . . . even though my current mood holds this once grand republic is not so grand at the moment.

The heritage of England and the United Kingdom is quite different from the United States of America.  I understand and appreciate your observations regarding firearms.  I share your revulsion regarding the consequences of firearm violence.  However, I cannot imagine such a consensus evolving in this republic in that respect.  I do believe we will eventually achieve appropriate firearms regulation to keep weapons out of the hands of people likely to execute acts of violence, but I cannot see it becoming a general prohibition.

From my observation point, I think the prime minister did what had to be done.  Our handling of the COVID19 pandemic will likely be recorded as a worldwide example of how NOT to perform in future pandemic events.  The conduct and performance of the U.S. Government in the last year is abysmal, embarrassing, and in fact deplorable.  We can only hope the new administration performs orders of magnitude better than the last one.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)