Update no.569

Update from the Heartland

No.569

5.11.12 – 11.11.12

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

To all,

For our Marines and those who appreciate what Marines do for us all, here is the Commandant’s birthday message to celebrate the 237^th anniversary of our United States Marine Corps – in service to this Grand Republic since 10.November.1775 (as recorded in the Journal of the Continental Congress, vol. III, pg.348).

http://www.dvidshub.net/video/158810/honor-country-2012-marine-corps-birthday-message

Semper Fidelis, Marines.

PS: an interesting PSA (Public Service Announcement) and tribute to our Marines:

http://www.godaddy.com/holiday/usmc/usmc-2012.aspx?gdx1116d

The following day, we celebrated Armistice Day – Remembrance Day in Great Britain and Europe, and Veterans Day in the United States – 11:00 [A] ECT, 11.November.1918, the end of the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, or what all too soon became known as World War I.  May God bless the immortal souls of those who served and sacrificed, as well as those who continue to serve in defense of freedom.

The follow-up news items:

-- We watched the Weinstein/Stockwell movie “SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” [568] – a credible job although inevitably hokey in a few spots.  The television broadcast rendition represented the essential facts fairly well from my understanding of events.  History shall tell the tale eventually.

-- The murderer Jared Lee Loughner, 24, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the assassination of United States District Judge John McCarthy Roll of Arizona, along with five others, and the attempted assassination of United States Representative Gabrielle Dee “Gabby” Giffords, along with 12 others, including a 9-year-old girl [473].  Loughner escaped the death penalty via a plea deal by pleading guilty to his crimes.  I hope he suffers daily pain in his purgatory.

This is getting ridiculous!  Who the f**k cares whether the President called the Benghazi attackers terrorists?  Will calling them a name alter the outcome?  Will it stop us from hunting them down?  Will it make them any more dead when we find them?  I see no purpose in this ludicrous line of questioning.  Cover-up . . . surely they jest.  What purpose would be served by attempting such a foolish endeavor?

The 2012 election, oh my, where do I begin?  At 23:18 [R] EST, Tuesday, 6.November.2012, CNN projected President Barack Hussein Obama as the winner of the election and approved for a second and final term; more on that element below.  The Electoral College will actually do the deed on 17.December; the Senate will confirm the Electoral College vote on 6.January.2013.  Governor Romney graciously conceded the election and said, “I pray that the President will be successful in guiding our nation.”

            The election results yielded a treasure trove of potential issues.

-- Colorado and Washington voters approved laws enabling recreational use of marijuana.  Both states are now in direct conflict with the Federal Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 [PL 91-513; 84 Stat. 1236; 27.October.1970].  I suspect these new state laws will exceed the threshold of tolerance by the Federales.

-- Maine, Washington and Maryland approved marriage laws establishing equality for all residents regardless of sexual orientation or identity.  Minnesota voters rejected a constitutional ban on non-heterosexual marriage.  The states are gradually overcoming the Federal government’s legal homophobia.

-- California voters approved Proposition 30, a measure to increase state taxes for a time amid the state’s fiscal crisis, and defeated Proposition 34, the death penalty prohibition initiative.

-- Publicly homosexual senators and representatives were elected in Wisconsin, Colorado, New York and Rhode Island. 

-- A number of Tea Party favorites were defeated.

-- Puerto Rico voters narrowly approved a non-binding referendum to become the 51^st state, and in a second question to choose one of three options, 61% chose statehood, 33% chose sovereign free association, and only 5% chose independence.  Formal action by Congress is required.

A related query from a long-term friend and contributor to this humble forum:

Subject: Election

From: johnjrust@cableone.net

Date: Wed, November 7, 2012 9:08 am

To: "cap"

Cap,

“I’d really like to hear your take on this election.  To be honest, I am floored that so many people have no problem with high unemployment, high gas prices, a lousy economy, high debt and a health care policy that makes you a criminal if you do not buy health insurance.  Have they not been seeing what has been going on these past four years?  Do they want this country to fail?  Honestly, I hate Barak Obama.  I despise him and his entire administration for what they’ve done to this country.  I have written one of my state legislators and urged him to use the 10th Amendment to block Obamacare and these other extremist federal mandates.  The states must exercise their sovereignty, and if the DOJ and SCOTUS tell us no, then I think we should ignore them.  I feel we are at the point where we must start resisting this federal government that is now whole-heartedly against the best interests of this country.  I have also written my congressman, Paul Gosar, and told him to urge the Republican majority to block everything Obama wants, since nothing that gutterrat wants is good for this country.  There have also been some high school and college students I know through my work who were very depressed about last night.  I told them maybe what is needed is a social revolution akin to the 1960s, though with an anti-socialist philosophy.  Most importantly, I am trying to tell as many people I can to speak out against this corrupt leadership we have in Washington.  Some people have told me to shut up and get over it, but I will not!  Maybe I could be doing more, I don’t know.  But as a writer, maybe I feel that words are my most effective weapon in this fight.  If my words have an effect on one person, they may have an effect on another and so on.  I call it the link in the chain philosophy, and I’m just one link.  Most importantly, we must resist the Obama regime up to and including acts of civil disobedience.  This election was close, going by the popular vote.  I feel we have to do everything we can to convince more people about the ills of socialism so we can turn this country around, and do all we can to impede Obama’s anti-American agenda.”

My response:

John,

            Seek and ye shall find.

            My response may not be what you expect.  You asked, and I shall endeavor to respect your query.

            First, “hate” is a very strong word I confine to threats or need for deadly force.  The best I can say is, try to take a wider view.  We can find negatives in every human being . . . me included.  There are many positives, if you choose to see them.

            Second, you are entitled to speak out, as you have done.  You are also conveying your opinions to your designated state and Federal representatives, which every citizen should do.  Good on you for expressing your opinion.

            That said, we shall respectfully disagree.  While there are things the Obama administration and the President specifically have done that really jerk my chain taut, in general, Barack Obama is a good man, a good father raising what appears to be two very stable, peaceful, law-abiding children, and he is doing what he thinks is best for the Nation.  Can anyone ask more of him or any of us?  He is the man in that office, and he deserves our respect.  I do not believe or even think that Obama wants this Grand Republic to fail.

            We have discussed the PPACA before.  I think it is a laudable effort even with its flaws.  It is a damn sight better than the status quo ante.  Unless we are prepared to not treat injured or ill people without health insurance, I see no other choice.  I am not keen on the individual mandate from an intellectual perspective, but the reality is the other choices like single-payer, et cetera, are far worse.  I am far more apprehensive about the windfall for medical insurance companies and the lack of substantive reform in that industry than I am about the individual mandate.  I say, let us be realistic, leaving the uninsured hidden in the hospital overhead expenses, allocated against every single dollar spent by the rest of us, does not sound like a wise path to me.

            Respectfully, my friend, I urge you to recall the enormous uncertainty that erupted to public awareness on 15.September.2008.  As for me, that time was the scariest in my lifetime.  I would also urge you to look at the legislative history that set us up for the crash and the Great Recession.  Our current economic state was not caused by President Obama.  President Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 [PL 110-343; 122 Stat. 3765; 3.October.2008; [355], two hours after Congress passed the bill and initiated the massive Federal spending to dampen the financial panic.  President Clinton let slip the dogs of financial greed when he signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 [PL 106-102; 113 Stat. 1338; 12.November.1999] [353] that essentially pulled out most of the remaining stops instituted by FDR with the Banking Act of 1933 [PL 73-066; 48 Stat. 162; 16.June.1933].  I could go on.  A major contributor to the Federal debt and our current state was directly due to President Bush’s decision to borrow money to fund the War on Islamic Fascism rather than mobilize this Grand Republic for a protracted war.  So, let us not be so quick to condemn President Obama.

            The sovereignty of the states is limited, just as the Federal government’s authority is limited.  The 10th Amendment is NOT license for the states to do as they please.  We can certainly argue whether the PPACA exceeds the authority of the USG under the Constitution.  The Supremes rendered partial judgment – NFIB v. Sebelius [566 U.S. ___ (2012); no. 11–393; 28.June.2012] [554].  We do not have the option of ignoring the USG.

            John, I urge a more moderate and malleable position.  “Blocking everything Obama wants” will simply add to the intransigence and stagnation in Congress.  We need solutions, not calcified drivel of polarized political ideology.  If you want to talk about political corruption, let us go back to the insanity of rampant, unchecked, congressional earmarks and the contribution of that mindless spending by both parties, along with a president who refused to stand against that corruption.

            I know the Right loves to keep throwing that sticky bomb – socialism – at President Obama; but, it just doesn’t stick.  I will argue the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act [PL 111-203; 124 Stat. 1376; 21.July.2010] [468, 544] went nowhere near far enough with necessary financial industry reform.  Conversely, I will also argue that the Obama administration, while aggressively prosecuting the financial shenanigans that got us in this situation, has not gone anywhere near far enough in prosecuting the individual executives who so eagerly moved us along the way to near financial collapse.  I am with you in resistance to socialism.  I truly believe it saps the energy out of society.  Likewise, I will also argue capitalism has no conscience, no morality.  Stability and equality lays somewhere on the middle ground.

            As a related side note, to spread the blame in this exchange, the Supremes created an unleashed, amoral monster when they decided Citizens United v. FEC [558 U.S. ____ (2010); no. 08-205; 21.January.2010] [424].  Corporations cannot go to prison.  Citizens go to prison for wrongdoing.  Corporations get fined, the cost of which is simply passed on to their customers as a cost of doing business.  This whole notion of corporations having the benefits of citizenship without the responsibility, accountability, or threat of punishment is simply unconscionable.

            Lastly, I reject your statement that Obama has an anti-American agenda.  Quite the contrary!  I will argue Operation NEPTUNE’S SPEAR was as close to perfect as Operation EAGLE CLAW was an abysmal failure; and the credit for knowing his place in the operation and the courage to authorize the mission goes solely and directly to President Obama.

            As I said at the outset, I urge you to take a wider view.  He is not as bad as you make him out to be.  He is far better than he is given credit.

            You asked.  This is my response.  Thank you for asking.

            “That’s just my opinion, but I could be wrong.”

A series of articles regarding marriage and marital relationships offer us some intriguing topics for public debate.

·      “The End of ‘Marriage’”
by Laurie Shrage
New York Times
Published: November 4, 2012, 5:00 pm
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/the-end-of-marriage/?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20121105

·      “Poly Living Styles: Should we all live together?”
by Kathy Labriola, Counselor/Nurse
Loving More, lovemore.com
as of: 7.November.2012
http://www.lovemore.com/articles/plstyle.php

·      “The Poly Love-in: Share Sacred Sexuality & Poly Vetting Checklist”
by Janet Kira Lessin
School of Tantra, schooloftantra.net
Published: October 31, 2012
http://schooloftantra.net/wordpress/2012/10/31/the-poly-love-in-share-sacred-sexuality-poly-vetting-checklist-by-janet-kira-lessin/

The floor is open.

Mindful of the foreboding fiscal cliff, President Obama invited congressional leaders to the White House next week to restart negotiations and find a solution to avoid the hefty impact on our struggling economy. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated inaction would drive the U.S. economy back into recession and the unemployment rate would increase to 9.1% by the end of 2013.  The President insists any compromise would have to include higher taxes levied on wealthier Americans.  House Speaker Boehner repeated that Republicans would not agree to higher income-tax rates, but might agree to plugging loopholes by tax code reform.  And so it goes.

Prior to a looming deadline of 16.November, Governor Jeremiah Wilson “Jay” Nixon of Missouri and Governor Samuel Dale “Sam” Brownback of Kansas notified the Federal government their states would not participate in health insurance exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) [PL 111-148; 124 Stat. 119; 23.March.2010] [432].  I am not sure what this means other than a petulant political statement of defiance, but it sure does seem like cutting your nose off to spite your face.   We shall see.

Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) General David Howell Petraeus, USA (Ret.) {USMA 1974 [Cousin Greg’s class, BTW]} resigned abruptly on Friday, citing poor judgment related to an extramarital affair.  I am not sure the details really matter much, beyond the fact that an accomplished leader has resigned his high office.  The details behind his stunning resignation are trickling out.  The trigger was apparently a complaint to the FBI by Jill Kelley, the State Department's liaison to the military's Joint Special Operations Command and a Petraeus family friend [not to be confused with Jill Kelly, the accomplished erotic film star], regarding threatening eMails she received from Petraeus biographer Paula Dean Broadwell, née Kranz, [LtCol, USAR; USMA 1995] {Broadwell co-authored “All In – The Education of General David Petraeus”}.  The FBI opened an investigation presumably on the basis of counterintelligence concerns relative to the potential threat of compromise with the DCI.  There is much more to this story than we know so far.

            As an interim postscript, adultery, like homosexuality, excessive debt and other factors, are seen by the counterintelligence services as vulnerabilities capable of being exploited by intelligence operatives from hostile as well as friendly nations.  I doubt General Petraeus would have or could have been compromised, but the rules of the classified information business are rigid and unforgiving.  I believe the rules that led to the demise of David Petraeus are and should be outmoded – a remnant of Victorian morality.  However, no one asked me.

Earlier this year, the Supremes decided an important State-religion question in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC [565 U.S. ___ (2012); no. 10-553].  The stimulant for the original legal action was a claim by Cheryl Perich for wrongfully dismissal from her teaching employment with the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in violation of:

·      Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) [PL 101-336; 104 Stat. 327; 26.July.1990]

·      Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) [PL 75-718; 52 Stat. 1060; 25.June.1938], as amended by Equal Pay Act of 1963 [PL 88-038; S.1409; 77 Stat. 56; 10.June.1963]

Perich had been designated by the church as a “called, Minister of Religion, Commissioned” and thus qualified for the “ministerial exception.”  Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the unanimous Court, and concluded, “The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important.  But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission.  When a minister who has been fired sues her church alleging that her termination was discriminatory, the First Amendment has struck the balance for us. The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way.”  In this instance, the Court was spot on correct.  However, the case and more specifically the justices’ reasoning that do raise some interesting societal questions

            As with so many constitutional questions, there must be a threshold of tolerance that human rights exceed the Constitution, e.g., does the ministerial exception protect human or even animal sacrifice?  Or, does the ministerial exception protect fraud in the name of religion?  The answers are (or should be) self-evident.  If so, then how far can the ministerial exception protect the religious ministers when their actions impose upon the basic human rights of individual citizens?  The Supremes decided in Hosanna-Tabor that the ministerial exception exceeds individual rights, at least in this case.  The Court did not make any attempt to determine where that critical threshold exists, but it is out there somewhere and religious organizations will surely test those boundaries.

News from the economic front:

-- The Greek parliament narrowly approved their latest austerity package, opening the way for international lenders to transfer a long-delayed €31.5B funding and to move toward easing the terms of the country’s €174B bailout.

-- The European Central Bank (ECB) kept its main refinancing rate at 0.75%, dismissing concerns that the slowdown across the eurozone is now affecting Germany, its biggest economy.  Speculation suggests the ECB wants to give its Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) scheme, its as yet untested bond-buying program, more time to work.

-- EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht requested direct EU / U.S. talks for a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement “as soon as possible”, to stimulate transatlantic trade that has languished for years.

-- The national statistics bureau of the PRC reported consumer prices rose 1.7% last month from a year earlier, down from September’s 1.9% rise and below the forecasts of many analysts, indicating the country’s inflation rate slowed.

No comments and contributions from Update no.568.

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

Cheers,

Cap                        :-)