Update no.1029

Update from the Sunland

No.1029

27.9.21 – 3.10.21

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

 

            To all,

 

            The follow-up news items:

-- The so-called “week from hell” for Congress has come and gone. The earth continues to spin on its axis, and the sun continues to appear every morning on the eastern horizon. The one bill that needed to get passed was put in the can. Congress finally passed H.R.5305 - Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act [Senate: 65-35-0-0(0)]. Fifteen Republicans joined the Democrats and voted in favor of the bill after Division D, Title III [1028] was removed. President Biden signed the bill into law on Friday, the same day as the Senate’s approval. So, the U.S. Government will remain open and continue to operate for another fiscal year.

We watched some of the legislative convulsion regarding the various infrastructure bills. The bipartisan bill passed by the Senate remains in hostage status with the House progressives and the Senate Democratic moderates contesting the size of the separate human infrastructure bill. Senators Sinema and Manchin are trying valiantly to instill fiscal discipline to congressional legislation. I am for fiscal discipline. However, I do not understand why the Democrats must exercise fiscal discipline when the fBICP never did exercise restraint. This “my spending is OK, yours is not” nonsense is not acceptable. I think President Biden and the Progressives are correct; human infrastructure deserves as much attention as hard infrastructure. So, I say, pass both bills, and let’s get on with it.

-- History will record that the United States passed another grim milestone on Friday of 700,000 COVID-19 [946] fatalities—the most COVID-19 fatalities of any nation on the planet. That fact alone is embarrassing for one of the most advance nations.  Add in that only 55.8% of our citizens are fully vaccinated, the situation appears worse. The U.S. population is 330,000,000, which means 184,000,000 are fully vaccinated. A question that continues to pop-up: is the price of freedom our own demise? Apparently, freedom is more important than survival.

 

I watched an intriguing and thought-provoking documentary, PBS Nova “The Cannabis Question” broadcast on Wednesday, the 29^th. The program offered a forthright and balanced assessment. From my perspective, the Nova program is an excellent supplement to my newest novel—Indulgence. Intellectually, the program offers a poignant statement. We have suffered 50 years of ignorance over knowledge legally imposed by a willful minority of social conservatives. It is long past due that we opt for knowledge rather than ignorance. Informed consent is an essential element of our precious freedom of choice.

 

The fBICP remains very busy with their misinformation campaign in their desperate attempt to remain relevant and hold on what remains of their power and influence. The following article came from a different network I belong to for information.

“The Definitive List Of How We're Living In '1984'”

by Tyler Durden

Published: FRIDAY, OCT 01, 2021 - 04:20 PM

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/definitive-list-how-were-living-1984

To which, I added my opinion. This is typical double-speak by the [person who shall no longer be named] and his fBICP, e.g., the USG has not, and I'm not aware of anyone including United Airlines, making vaccination mandatory. The Press likes to use the word, but it is incorrect. Mandatory means you are restrained and given the vaccine against your will. Vaccination as a condition of employment is NOT a mandatory application. Every citizen has a choice: get vaccinated and enjoy the public space, or don't get vaccinated, and be denied the public space because you are a threat to public safety.

 

Friday and Saturday, to my disappointed surprise, Wikipedia was down. I do not use the website as a definitive source, but it is usually replete with good and worthy clues that help me zero in on historical, factual details across a very wide variety of topics. The Wikipedia articles are most often well cited for definitive sources. In my frustration, I did a Google Search with the query—Is Wikipedia down? There were numerous hits from a variety of sources that indicated Wikipedia had been the object of a cyberattack. The website was back up and on-line Sunday night. We never know how important something is until it is denied to us. I truly hope Wikipedia resolved their vulnerability, and the investigators can find and prosecute the perpetrators of the attack.

 

In the category of “what goes around comes around,” or “Karma is karma,”

Alexander Emerick ‘Alex’ Jones, an American far-right radio show host and highly prominent conspiracy theorist, lost his second defamation defense case— Pozner v. Jones [Cause No. D-1-GN-18-001842 (2021)]. Jones repeatedly and publicly claimed that the Sandy Hook massacre of 26 people including 20 young school children [574, 14.12.2012] was a giant hoax perpetrated by the gun control faction to seize private firearms. He deserves to be seriously punished for his blatantly false statements; bankruptcy seems quite appropriate.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.1028:

Comment to the Blog:

“The ‘duty’ argument for vaccination doesn't do much for me, but the New York Times Morning newsletter mentioned someone who claimed it worked on some of the ‘anti’ partisans. The same newsletter mentioned the bizarre conspiracy theory that Democrats want Republicans to blindly resist vaccination so that enough of them die to change election results. That wouldn't work. A friend of mine looked up the net death rate from that virus worldwide, and it's 1.6%. That won't do it. 

“The Arizona recount is admittedly expensive but is hilarious. Even with hand-picked people and all possible resources, the crazies can't support their own claim. 

“The entire budget process is an ongoing farce, largely because of the misguided law on debt ceilings.”

My response to the Blog:

Like most topics, we can respectfully disagree. I was only offering my opinion, my perspective, just as you have done.

Most conspiracy theories are worthless nonsense instigated and believed by those folks not willing to do the necessary homework or thinking. I do not want anyone to die unnecessarily, not even Republicans, anti-vaxxers, fBICP members, or even the [person who shall no longer be named]. I see our standing as the nation with the most COVID-19 fatalities in the world as a terrible consequence and an obscene reflection of the senseless political division in this once grand republic. I suppose COVID-19 fatalities do not matter unless we or our loved ones are among that morbid statistic.

Yeah, the Arizona Senate Republican audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County (only) would be laughable if it was not so sad. The grotesque expenditure of taxpayer funds without a shred of hard evidence (only wild, irresponsible, conspiracy theory accusations) is tragic on many levels. The Cyber Ninjas broke the chain of custody on all of the Maricopa County voting machines, which means Maricopa County—not State Senate Republicans—must buy, certify, and secure all new voting machines. And, we have a state-wide election coming up next month. I suspect we will be relegated to paper ballots again—a step back several decades. The tragedy of the BIG LIE is approaching incalculable extremes. And worse, the fBICP is not done yet. They want similar audits in other states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, et al. I suspect the [person who shall no longer be named] and his fBICP will strive mightily to perpetuate the BIG LIE through the 2022 election and into the 2024 presidential election. We must resist this threat to democracy and to this once grand republic.

The debt limit law may be misguided, but the fact remains; we cannot continue to just keep printing money. The national debt is an embarrassment. I doubt we will ever pay it off, set aside pay it down. I can support the US$3.5T human infrastructure bill if it is net zero over its 10-year span. If not, then it is more foolish largesse we cannot afford.

 . . . Round two:

“It's not as simple as the politicians fighting. Consider the roles of appointees who have technical responsibilities. They would be far better chosen by the Civil Service than by the politicians. Perhaps the Civil Service could come up with testing for high-level communication/marketing skills as well as for actual results in the technical fields.

“I favor paper ballots unless someone can come up with un-hackable, permanently recording voting machines. We're not there today.

“As far as the deficit, we have at least two choices other than enforcing and increasing taxation on corporations and the wealthy. We could take the bulk of the money from the defense contractor budget without the least risk to national well-being, or we could look at the deficits of other nations with more successful economies and look to them for what is reasonable. The debt ceiling law was enacted to slow social progress.”

 . . . my response to round two:

I cannot imagine the politicians relinquishing control of Civil Service hiring no matter how wise. The fBICP believes totally that the “Deep State” are those Civil Service employees who are not under their direct confirmation control.

If citizens would mark paper ballots properly, I might agree, but they do not. Most states (I believe) have sought to make their voting systems less error prone. I voted by mail in the last election. I was very careful to mark, check and re-check all of my marks before I submitted my completed ballot. In the past, I have used voting machines that recorded my votes electronically and simultaneously produced a paper copy, which was used for post-election audits. Nothing is unhackable, just as there is no security system that is perfect. Security provisions are intended to make manipulation (external or internal) far more difficult to accomplish, to buy time for security personnel to intervene with attempted intrusions. With human applications, there is no such thing as perfect. The fBICP are using these realities to press their voter suppression efforts, and so far, they have enjoyed some success.

That is an interesting position. You may well be correct, i.e., “The debt ceiling law was enacted to slow social progress.” Regardless, we must find balance. As for reduction of the defense budget, I will only say we do not need a warship or a division until we do. We have only to look at what happened during the euphoria of massive disarmament in the 1920s. Again, there must be balance. Case in point, Bush’s (43) disastrous incursion into Iraq in 2003. He tried to execute a far bigger military operation with 1/3 the combat forces than his pappy did a decade earlier. We paid a very heavy price for that mistake. If a marginal military is the desired status, then general mobilization is mandatory before any major military action. Bush (43) failed in that task. FDR was the last president to properly mobilized the nation for war.

 . . . Round three:

“Cap, I think you grossly underestimate the ability of Americans to mark a name on a ballot, regardless of Florida's Y2K debacle.

“Seriously, how many weapons do we need on hand (or provided at a profit to others) before enough is enough? I suspect that's far less than we have already.”

 . . . my response to round three:

In every election I have seen an audit since I started voting has illuminated ambiguous votes. I am not aware of any of those ambiguous votes even remotely affecting election outcomes. Perhaps the most infamous of those ambiguous votes was the Florida 2000 election and the “hanging chad” controversy. It is not a wide spread problem. It is just another opportunity for the naysayers like the fBICP to complain about outcomes. What the fBICP is doing in legislature they control is flat atrocious. I am all for improving election processes and equipment. I absolutely oppose making elections more difficult in the name of security as the fBICP is doing in Arizona and other states. It is going to take a long time to correct what the fBICP has done and is doing in some states.

I am not particularly concerned about the quantity or types of weapons our military has. I am only concerned with their preparedness. The best way to avoid war is to be prepared to win a war. Of all the things FDR justly deserves credit for accomplishing, the ultimate was defying the strong isolationist faction in the United States to sustain Great Britain when they alone stood against the Germans and especially mobilizing the United States. He gave us a year headstart, although we needed at least two years. Lastly, as is my nature, I prefer being over-prepared rather than risk being under-prepared.

 . . . Round four:

“You might do well to study that military budget. See what amounts go to preparedness and manpower versus other parts of the military-industrial complex that make more money for the contractors.”

 . . . my response to round four:

There is no question, no debate, that there is considerable pork in the Defense Department budget. To me, the bottom line is national defense preparedness. Just to be clear, the Defense Department does not set or fund the Department’s budget. That responsibility rest solely and completely with Congress alone. History is replete with defense expenditures that Congress has imposed on DoD. Porking up the defense budget is not limited to either political party; they all do it. They order more tanks, trucks, and supplies of all kinds that the military does not need for one reason only, to feed the businesses in their districts. Sadly, even the good folks are dragged into the process . . . to get their share for their districts. It is an irresistible temptation.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)