Update no.1221

 Update from the Heartland

No.1221

2.6.25 – 8.6.25

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

 

To all,

 

The Update [no.1221] was late hitting the Web this week and making distribution. I offer my humble apologies. The exigencies of life occasionally hit an amplified peak and so it was last week. Further, we are in a particularly vulnerable state at the moment. The combination proved to be more stressful and exceeded our capacity. The worst of the storm has passed, and we are all in fine fettle on the other side. Progress continues and stability is certainly closer but not here yet. Please be patient.

 

The follow-up news items:

-- The sad and wholly unnecessary saga of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia [1214] continues to play out before us. He was finally returned to the U.S. and immediately arrested for sex trafficking charges in Nashville. Attorney General Bondi offered a public statement claiming she had an indictment against Abrego Garcia. He was arraigned and faces a preliminary hearing on the 13^th. None of us has seen the indictment. The administration seems to be hell bent on digging the hole deeper and deeper. That is what vindictiveness, and vengeance does to careful contemplation.

 

If anyone needed a physical example of the Ugly American Syndrome, we have a plethora of such examples in just the last five months. I offer a recent such example (I cannot claim the latest instance since there are so many that come virtually every day, but this is a recent example). On Thursday (undoubtedly at the behest of der Lieber Anführer), Secretary of State Rubio issued official State sanctions against four judges within the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The four are:

-- Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda,

- -Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, 

-- Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and 

-- Beti Hohler of Slovenia.

What did the judges do to warrant State sanctions, you may ask? Well, Bossa and Carranza authorized an ICC investigation into the conduct of U.S. personnel during military operations in Afghanistan. Gansou and Hohler authorized ICC arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and former Defense Minister Gallant of Israel. The issue at hand is alleged war crimes in both instances. In an associated public statement, Rubio declared, “The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC. I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel.”

I will argue that the government’s action against the ICC is a direct effort to intimidate, cower, and obstruct an investigation into the conduct of the U.S. and Israel, like the big dog bully on the schoolyard playground. The U.S. would be in a far better position to allow the ICC investigations, argue the facts, and debate the conclusions from such investigations. Sadly, this looks like a blatant attempt to cover up malfeasance, which is not good for anyone, including the United States and Israel.

 

U.S. District Judge Allison Dale Burroughs of Massachusetts issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in the case of Harvard v. Department of Homeland Security [USDC MA Case No. 1:25-cv-11472-ADB (2025)]. The TRO blocks the USG from the personal vindictive action of [the person who shall no longer be named, AKA no name]. At least the Judiciary is standing up to the ego-maniacal con-man. What the president is doing is quite consistent with his conduct past and present (and quite likely in the future). He is blatantly attempting to bully Harvard into submission to his will. Hopefully, Harvard and Judge Burroughs will remain strong and resolute in their resistance to the juvenile, verging upon infantile, con-man who occupied the White House.

 

Then, we have more idiocy showing up at the state level. Raleigh County (West Virginia) Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman publicly stated that a woman suffering a miscarriage might face criminal charges under the state’s anti-abortion statute, although he proclaimed that he would not do so. Truman was reflecting indicates he has received from other prosecutors in West Virginia.

The ignorance and insanity of such an action is incomprehensible and beyond adequate description. First and foremost, a woman does not decide to have a miscarriage. Other biological and physiological forces are at play in such occurrences. She is not (cannot) committing any crime. Perhaps an argument can be made that her body is committing a crime (in West Virginia), or perhaps, God is committing a crime. This nonsense has gone way too far.

 

Like true dictators before him, [no name] manufactured a crisis and then deployed the federal military to ‘fix’ the problem. The crisis was not the fact that individuals had entered and remained in this country illegally, i.e., without permission. It was the aggressive, cast the net, willy-nilly action of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service, which has a mounting reputation for scooping up legal as well as illegal individual. This whole ICE action began with a noble purpose—remove violent criminals in this country illegally. That noble purpose soon degenerated into this trawling exercise that ignores due process of law and assumes everyone is guilty until they can prove they are not. Proving a negative is never easy in any circumstance, e.g., Abrego Garcia noted above. Now, watch, as with his dictator predecessors, he will claim he and he alone saved the day and saved Los Angeles, and therefore, we need more of his definitive action.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1220:

Comment to the Blog:

“SpaceX’s spacecraft development process costs billions, but Muskrat comes out ahead. You pay, not him.

“The Felon wins some of the legal actions; in the CBS case, via meddling in corporate oligarchy.

“The Felon knows no public response to reality other than to attack some person or group. He’s suffering with that approach on the international front.

“I’m seeing an ad on local TV (right now) featuring a betrayed Republican who stands to lose his job in solar thanks in part to our Republican US House Representative’s vote on the budget. The tide may turn in time.”

My response to the Blog:

I do not think it is that simple.

I imagine that man is a subscriber to the Rasputin Hypothesis, i.e., for every 100 law suits he files, he will win one . . . and, he is probably content with that ratio. He will be stopped eventually.

I suspect the number of citizens who voted for him and are now disgusted by his conduct is growing . . . perhaps not enough to overcome the 18M disinterested citizens who did not vote in the last election. But, that is the nature of democracy. I suspect there will be a prolonged blowback period once he is gone. Other countries may well be reluctant to stand with the United States after being burned by the fickle isolation foolishness of this administration. We shall see.

The tide will turn in time—always does. And, if all citizens voted, we would not have to deal with this nonsense ever again.

. . . Round two:

“I think it’s that simple. SpaceX and the others receive massive subsidies; Musk and Bezos aren’t paying for this. The wealthy pay lower and lower rates. The middle class is left holding the bag.

“The citizens who didn’t vote probably aren’t ‘disinterested.’ Like me, they likely didn’t see a good choice between the two major parties. Major electoral reform must occur before most people will vote.

“Recovery will take time. Probably we’d be ahead to stick to humility as long as we can.”

. . . my response to round two:

I am not sure what you expect. Any customer, including the USG, pays a contractor to develop a specific type of vehicle, fighter jet, aircraft carrier, bridge, dam, or spacecraft. It is no different here. There is little question that development by failure is less expensive and faster than the traditional process, e.g., NASA’s Apollo System development.

We have had this discussion about voting for the candidate I like versus the best of the available candidates. I have nothing new to add. The former approach has given us our current predicament. Go figure!

Humility is an admirable trait.

. . . Round three:

“I’d love to see an unbiased cost comparison report based on actual documentation of capitalist versus government space programs. ‘There is little question’ just means the marketing works. Corporations must make profits, and that likely cancels any savings.

“You may continue to criticize non-voters, but it won’t change anyone. No motivation = no action.

“Humility is more than just admirable. Its opposite, egotism, got us into this mess.”

. . . my response to round three:

I am with you on that one. I would love to see a comparison like that. I come from the world of Defense acquisitions. I have a pretty good idea how they work. I cannot say you are wrong in your assessment. I just see things through a different lens, I suppose.

Quite so. That is the very nature of democracy. I am certain all 18M of those good citizens who chose not to vote had very good reason(s) for not voting. I am only saying we have what we have today because of their choices. So it is with democracy—every democracy, from the Greeks onward.

Al-righty-then. I cannot and will not argue against that view. I agree. I value humility a great deal, above many other human attributes.

. . . Round four:

“You ask that people vote for the lesser evil. Nope.”

. . . my response to round four:

Ah yes, the classic conundrum, is the glass half empty or half full?

I am not arguing with your personal choices. They are your choices entirely.

I am wrestling with the cause & effect reality of voting in a closely divided democracy. Today, we have another classic demonstrable consequence of not voting. There is a monumental different between voting for some other candidate you do like and not voting for anyone. If those 18M citizens who chose not to vote in the last presidential election had voted for anyone, I would have a far weaker argument. But no, they chose not to vote at all. They voted in 2020. They chose not to vote at all in 2024. And, today, we have arguably the most corrupt, abusive, defy-the-Constitution administration in all American history. Cause & Effect.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)