Update no.906

Update from the Sunland

No.906

13.5.19 – 19.5.19

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

            To all,

            First and foremost, if any readers of this humble Blog did not or have not seen and listened carefully to the CNN AC360° Town Hall with Former FBI Director James Comey broadcast on Thursday evening, 9.May.2019, at 20:00 EDT, with Anderson Cooper expertly moderating, I strongly, emphatically and enthusiastically urge everyone to do so as soon as possible.  To use the British profane, this is too bloody important to not do so.  I will be so bold to say, I think it is an obligation as a citizen to properly appreciate the man We, the People, elected to be our leader.  I also think every teacher of U.S. history and professor of ethics, especially in public service, should make the one-hour video recording a mandatory, prerequisite for passing the course of study.  I had to DVR the town hall due to our journey to Wichita [905] and viewed it several times this week. Comey was calm, measured, and precise with his words that were pleasantly devoid of hyperbole inflation, so common to our public intercourse these days, especially, primarily, and most prominently from the BIC.  There were numerous key and illuminating points made by Comey; I cite just a few below.  He said:

“Accomplished people lacking inner strength can't resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump, and that adds up to something they will never recover from.  It takes character, like Mr. Mattis', to avoid the damage because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.”
(My emphasis)

That snippet phrase is perhaps the best descriptor of how the BIC is able to compromise the ethics of so many good intelligent people.  Related to Comey’s observation, he recently wrote an opinion piece.

“James Comey: How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr – Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive this president.”

by James Comey

New York Times

Published: May 1, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html

Comey also said:

“But you don't interrupt the president of the United States and say, ‘Mr. President, I saw the tape, you made fun of a disabled reporter.’  Instead, it washes over you.  And all of a sudden, you finish the dinner or the meeting and you realize, ‘Oh, my god, I'm part of a silent circle of assent. Did I just agree that that's true because I didn't speak?’  And then, there are ritual -- these rituals of praise of the leader.  And pretty soon you're wrapped so tightly in this web that there's no way out for you.”
(My emphasis)

He went on to observe:

“I think everybody in leadership roles in American life ought to read the Mueller report and then answer this question: Is that behavior consistent with what we should expect from the president of the United States?”

That, to me, has been the salient question for all of us since the BIC declared his candidacy [16.6.2015]; in 2016, 62 million American citizens literally said, I don’t care! I am not one of those.  I answer Comey’s rhetorical query with an emphatic, hell NO!  I have read the public, redacted version of the Special Counsel’s Report [898, 902].  Further, I believe any inquisitive citizen who reads the Report will reach exactly the same conclusion.

            At the more controversial level, Comey added this keen observation of American history.

“Every so often in our nation's history, the giant, which is the great lump in the middle of America where a bell curve stirs -- in 1963, little girls were murdered at the 16^thStreet Baptist Church in Sunday school and the giant stirred.  And Republicans and Democrats voted for the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act and changed our country.

“The images and the reality of children in cages at our border is a stain on this country.  And if there's anything good that can come from that, it will be a stirring of the giant.  Torches in Charlottesville, children in cages, wake up.  Think about what America is and vote those values.”
(My emphasis)

A stirring of the Giant indeed!  Comey’s words offer shades of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto musing after the Pearl Harbor attack: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”  While pressure is mounting on Congress to take constitutional action against the malfeasance of the BIC, I suspect judgment will only come on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 2020.  I truly hope Director Comey is spot on correct, but that decision is 16 months away and rests with hundreds of millions of American citizens who are eligible to vote.

            The follow-up news items:

-- Swedish prosecutors reopened their investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange [480, 901, 904].  We do not yet know how the Swedish action will affect the U.S. government’s effort to bring Assange to trial for espionage over the theft of a massive quantity of classified documents almost a decade ago.  The legal action of both countries will likely have to wait for a year, as Assange serves his nearly year sentence for flight to avoid prosecution in England.

-- The PRC announced it will increase tariffs on U.S. goods in retaliation for the BIC’s increase of U.S. tariffs [844, 905].  So, the trade war with the PRC ratchets up.  Contrary to all the BIC’s worthless “truthful hyperbole,” We, the People, will pay the price for the BIC’s saber-rattling.  Walmart announced it is increasing its prices (to pass along the costs of tariffs).  There is no end in sight, yet; so, there is more pain ahead for all of us.

-- The BIC offered a meager four-page “immigration reform” plan on his campaign website.  I could not copy the title exactly, so I attempted to recreate the document title as best I could.  Just the construction of the document title speaks volumes.

TRUMP

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

IMMIGRATION REFORM THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/Immigration-Reform-Trump.pdf

The self-proclaimed plan is more “truthful hyperbole” from the snake-oil salesman in chief. With the exception of a few obvious platitudes, the BIC’s plan is none of what he suggests.  It does not reform our immigration system and does not address some of our most pressing immigration concerns.  If it was anyone else presenting a document like this, I would say, this is a joke, right?  Unfortunately, this is the BIC.

            Alabama and Missouri passed strict anti-abortion laws in direct conflict with the Supreme Court’s relevant decision in Roe v. Wade [410 U.S. 113 (1973)] [319], with the apparent objective of challenging the Court’s decision in light of how they perceive the BIC’s two nominated associate justices have slanted the Court.  The new state laws essentially prohibit all abortion with no exceptions, not even for rape, incest, and in the case of the Alabama law even the life of the mother.

            The direct assault on a woman’s fundamental right to privacy is staggering beyond the imagination.  The government’s intrusion into the most intimate of a woman’s bodily functions has profound impact beyond a woman’s uterus. These Draconian laws are not about the sanctity of life; they are a half-century regression to a time when men controlled women as chattel—property to be managed.  No, this issue goes much, much deeper into our human condition than abortion.

            The proponents suggest they simply want the federal government out of the question and allow the states to decide this question for themselves.  I am normally and generally a state’s right person, who believes in minimal but essential federal government.  One of many exceptions is the protection of each citizen’s individual rights.  From my first full reading [2008], I have seen Roe for what it is—an individual rights case in the guise of a common sense abortion limits definition—carefully reasoned and precisely defined.

            Then, we have the almost serendipitous announcement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics reporting that provisional data show an estimate 3.79 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2018—a 2% decline from the previous year, the fourth year in a row that the birth rate decreased, and a 32-year low.  The deepening U.S. fertility slump is reshaping America’s future workforce and in an indirect way immigration policy.

            Unfortunately, I am the suspicious type.  I do not see the imposed morality of white men sitting in judgment of all women in terms of the paternalistic Doctrine of Coverture [452].  These men are not righteous.  They are simply moral projectionists who seek to impose their choices, their value, their morality on every human being.  As a man, their laws do not directly affect men.  However, their moral projection does affect me and every citizen, and for that, I strongly object to these excessive laws in states I do not reside.  I see these laws for exactly what they are.

            Comments and contributions from Update no.905:

Comment to the Blog:

“The only reasonable assumption is that those 7 representatives not voting on the contempt of Congress resolution against AG Barr lack the moral fiber to take a stand for or against Chump and his minion.

“This process is taking a long time, but prior impeachments took longer.  It’s not time for this to end.

“The example of Andrew Johnson’s impeachment without conviction fits our current situation.  Johnson’s subsequent efforts to take unpopular actions fell flat. Even if Chump escapes the vise of impeachment, his term will be shaped by it.  I don’t want a President Pence.  I worry about Chump’s mental state, though.  That level of self-pity could lead to suicide in the event of a trial.

“The context for the trade war: China uses a different strategy from the USA in the effort to dominate (or ‘lead’) the world.  The U.S. has used an aggressive, often military, approach.  China seeks economic and other ‘soft’ bonds with vulnerable states.  So far, China’s style works better.  Of course, China behaves no more ethically than any other nation determined to control the world.  Chump’s ‘war’ approach to that conflict will cost Americans dearly.

“Similar power struggles are the history of empires all the way back to Sumer.  One rises by using a new strategy as others fall when old methods fail through overreach.

“Your discussion of aircraft safety shows that self-regulation and, more broadly, unregulated capitalism fail even those using them.”

My response to the Blog:

            Well, we have to accept that there could be other reasons for not voting in such an important question, e.g., illness, higher priority conflict; the BIC summoned them, who knows.  I thought it was odd to have so many absent, so I illuminated the count.

            Re impeachment.  Agreed; not time, yet, not ripe enough, as the Judiciary says on occasion.

            Re: Pence.  I am not a fan, either.  He comes across as a staunch, sanctimonious, moral projectionist, and you know how I feel about moral projection.  However, one thing I think Pence would provide that the BIC cannot is stability.  The BIC is chaos.  Pence is order; we may not like his order, but he is still for stability.

            Interesting observation.  I’m not sure it applies in general, e.g., the PRC is using the People’s Liberation Army (in all its facets) to take squatter’s rights on coral reefs in the South China Sea in direct defiance of everyone, and specifically against the other claimants in the region.  The BIC is consistent; he’s a bully with female talk show hosts, gold star families, and other nations . . . well, except those he admires, e.g., Russia, PRC, Saudi Arabia, and DPRK (all dictatorships).  The BIC is certainly moving us closer to war in several areas.

            Well, yes, perhaps . . . an adaptation of the Tytler Cycle, or Glubb’s seven stages of empires.  Perhaps, we will be the exception; perhaps not.

            The problem I have with your indictment of self-regulation is the expanse.  Not all aviation manufacturers (most of whom use the DER system) are as compromised as apparently Boeing has become.  Further, it is not “self-regulation” in the sense I think you are using the term.  It is supervised regulation.  I can assure you the independent FAA engineers are involved in all certification projects, and I do believe they were involved in the B737MAX certification, so they are not without responsibility in this instance, and perhaps not without culpability.

 . . . Round two:

“I'll only reply to one piece of this.  How can you show that the self-regulation issue (yes, it is) is limited to Boeing or to aircraft?  For example, we have much-increased recalls of food and pharmaceuticals only after the fact of defects in quality are discovered and publicized.  Automobile recalls follow the same pattern.”

 . . . my response to round two:

            In principle, I agree.  However, there must be a balance.  As I read your words, I think you are suggesting a level of regulation that could be oppressive, unaffordable and unrealistic. Yet, every failure raises serious concerns that the balance between regulation and freedom is not level.

 . . . Round three:

“I didn't say (and don't have) anything about specific levels of regulation of the various industries.  The basis, though, is simple.  The executive level of a corporation, left to its own devices, is as reliable and ethical about money as an alcoholic who wakes up in a well-stocked bar is about booze.  Regardless of claims or intentions, either will get the most possible of what it seeks.”

 . . . my response to round three:

            You said it a little more harshly than I would, but at the bottom line, I would agree.  Favoring cost in the engineering process over all other factors is all about profit & money.  Raw capitalism, left to its own devices, favors profit above all else.  Further, that ideology takes far too long to correct mistakes.  I see no choice other than State regulation to ensure capitalism is fair, reasonable, for the common good, and most importantly not injurious (in any form).  It is the same discussion we had during the banking crisis in 2009.  So, at the end of the day, I do believe we agree in principle.  The only point of debate is where does the proper balance point lay?

 . . . Round four:

“Precisely. The question is indeed where the balance lies.  The current Boeing mess is merely another example.  The near-continuous automobile recalls, the many large incidents over tainted food and a variety of other evidence argues that regulation doesn't reach nearly far enough in the USA.  Let's not leave Wall Street out, either.  The failure to restore Glass-Steagall after 2008 and the LIBOR revelations tell us the financial industry is also out of control.  Nations with more success, especially Germany and the Scandinavian countries, have considerably more regulation of organizations.  Unfortunately, the parties we’re discussing own too many politicians (both parties) for this discussion to omit the need for campaign finance reform.

“We already agree that none of that applies to individual personal behavior.”

 . . . my response to round four:

            Re: Boeing mess.  Based on what facts we have so far, I think the fiasco qualifies as a mess.  From my experience in that world, I have seen similar phenomena . . . when cost as a design decision parameter outweighs other factors.  The Boeing situation, as I see it so far, lies at the extreme end of that conundrum, i.e., cost appears to have compromised logical, long-standing, safety concerns and analysis.

            Oh my, we are in absolute agreement regarding the weakness of financial industry oversight and regulation.  Spot on!

            Yes, we are agreed.

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

Cheers,

Cap                        :-)