Update no.914

Update from the Sunland

No.914

15.7.19 – 21.7.19

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

            To all,

            If anyone has not seen the CNN Apollo 11 documentary film, I strongly urge you to do so—an impressive piece of work. We celebrate 50 years since the first human being set foot on the moon.  The CNN documentary is entirely archival footage and audio tracks from those days, splendidly edited into what I think is a masterpiece. I have watched the program three times already, and I will probably watch it a few more times before we eventually delete it from the DVR.  At the time of the flight and landing, I was a midshipman first class on summer cruise aboard the USS Mississinewa(AO-144) in Civitavecchia, Italia.  To say the least, the Italians of the port city were as excited about the event as we were.

            You are free to leave, if you do not like this country.  This is NOT a worthy sentiment for any democracy and especially for this Grand Republic. We are better than this, and such expressions should not be condoned or tolerated . . . from ANYONE!

            We cannot know what is in his heart, in his thoughts; we must accept that he might be saying and doing what he does for political expediency.  Only he knows that.  Regardless, if he writes and talks like a racist and xenophobe, and he acts like a racist and xenophobe, then he is a racist and xenophobe, period, full stop. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck—a simplistic version of Occam’s Razor.

            By his use of racist, dog-whistle words and phrases, he has brought the whole lot of white supremacist, racist, xenophobic people in our society into the open in full public view.

            The people I know personally who support the BIC are not racist or xenophobic; they have never said or acted in that manner around me, in communications with me, or that I can detect.  And yet, when those staunchly loyal supporters of the BIC maintain that loyalty despite the racist and xenophobic things the BIC says and does, they are condoning his deplorable conduct.  If he is saying these things for political gain, what does that say about us?

            On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed H.Res. 489 [240-187-0-6(2)] that states:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) believes that immigrants and their descendants have made America stronger, and that those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations;

(2) is committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum from violence and oppression, and those who are willing to work hard to live the American Dream, no matter their race, ethnicity, faith, or country of origin; and

(3) strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should “go back” to other countries, by referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as “invaders,” and by saying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America.

Four Republicans plus one (newly declared) Independent voted with the majority to condemn the BIC’s outrageous words; other than the five exceptions, the vote was along strict party lines.  Those facts speak volumes.

            The follow-up news items:

-- Following the BIC’s racist & xenophobic tweets [913], I listened intently and completely to the Monday evening news conference held on Capitol Hill by:

Representative Ayanna Soyini Pressley of Massachusetts

Representative Ilhan Abdullahi Omar of Minnesota

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) of New York

Representative Rashida Harbi Tlaib (née Harbi) of Michigan

All four female representatives are American citizens; their country is THIS country—no other.  They were dignified, elegant and articulate in dramatic contrast to the BIC’s juvenile, xenophobic, racist tweets from Sunday [913].  The women refused to take the bait, and offered noble words and principles. Brava!  I STAND WITH THESE FOUR GLORIOUS AMERICAN WOMEN!  [emphasis intended!]  I repeatedly took a solemn oath of office to defend them with my life, if necessary, and so I shall do my minuscule part.  I do not agree with their politics or the social change for which they advocate, but I absolutely agree with their right to speak and debate for the things they believe in.

            The BIC’s words represent a divisive, desperate minority within this Grand Republic (and others) and do NOT represent the United States of America in any form or fashion.  He is a contemptible, repulsive, and reprehensible person, who deserves our full and absolute condemnation.  To say I am outraged by the BIC’s disgusting, vile, destructive words is a grotesque understatement. To the citizens of the world: I offer my most humble apologies for the BIC’s abysmal behavior; he does NOT represent We, the People, of the United States of America.

            Further, I condemn the words of Senator Lindsey Olin Graham of South Carolina who chose to emulate the BIC in his very lame attempt to downplay the outrage.  Monday morning, on Fox News, he publicly stated: “We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country.  They’re calling the guards along our border, the Border Patrol agents, concentration camp guards.  They accuse people who support Israel of doing so for the ‘Benjamin’. They’re anti-Semitic. They’re anti-America.” Graham threw out the communist epithet at the four female representatives, as if it was 67 years ago, and the height of the McCarthy hearings and red-baiting, and poured gasoline on the fire.

            For those who subscribe to the BIC’s un-American, divisive rhetoric and Graham’s deeply erroneous statement I ask, are our beliefs in liberty and justice for all so fragile that we cannot tolerate dissent or controversial political intercourse? We, the People, are better than this.  This Grand Republic is stronger than this.

-- Representative Alexander N. ‘Al’ Green of Texas filed H. Res. 498, titled: Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, of high misdemeanors.  The House voted on a motion to table the resolution [332-95-1-4(3)].  I certainly agree that the BIC “has, by his statements, brought the high office of the President of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace, and disrepute, has sown seeds of discord among the people of the United States . . . .” However, I do not think the charges against the BIC [705, 778] have ripened to a sufficient level to yield his conviction in the Senate, and thus I believe Green’s initiative is premature.  I agree with the action of the House.

-- The House of Representatives passed a contempt of Congress resolution—H. Res. 497 [230-198-0-4(3)], titled: Recommending that the House of Representatives find William P. Barr, Attorney General of the United States, and Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., Secretary of Commerce, in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with subpoenas duly issued by the Committee on Oversight and Reform [903].  The enforcement power of the House is limited.  Whether the House precedes to the next step of seeking relief in federal court is yet to be determined.  We shall see.

-- A shooting war with the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) just got a little, perhaps more than a little, closer as the Iranians upped the ante in the game of chance [854] they have chosen to play with the BIC. IRI Revolutionary Guard commandos seized two British oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, under the pretense the ships had violated maritime law by colliding with a small boat and not stopping to render assistance.  More realistically, the move was retaliation for the British seizure of an IRA tanker [913] illegally carrying oil to embargoed Syria.

            In all my years of being an attentive citizen and as a novice student of history, I have never seen or heard of governmental employees acting with such defiance and confrontation.  Even at the worst of Nixon’s paranoia (1972) or the Teapot Dome Scandal during the Harding administration (1922), it was never this bad.  So, I suppose in his own inimitable fashion, the BIC is establishing himself like no other president who has ever served in the office.  If this is the infamy he seeks, then he is doing a masterful job of it.  The BIC loves to play oh-woe-is-me, no-president-has-been-treated-with-such-disrespect card of late, as if he so mistreated.  When in fact, he has brought this on by his conduct, his behavior.  No one is doing this to him.  He is inducing all of this all by himself, and worse, he is dragging down many other people with him. The BIC is not the victim; he is the perpetrator.  I sincerely believe and genuinely trust he will get what he deserves and what is coming to him.

            Comments and contributions from Update no.913:

Comment to the Blog:

“On the unfortunate resignation of the British Ambassador, this bears on our discussion of secrecy and whether that's even possible today.  Sir Kim's discussion of Chump's character and abilities is exactly what diplomats are expected to report to their superiors.  Such reports have always been kept secret, and that's an appropriate use of secrecy.  However, secrecy, appropriate or not, may not be possible any more.

“The relationships among Putin, Erdogan, and Chump are unknown to the U.S. public.  Good luck to the subjects of all their nations.

“It's interesting that Chump stated those minority Congresswomen come from ‘countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe . . . .’ given that all of them come from the country where he's the head of government.  (One was born in Somalia, which arguably also has a troubled government.)

“I was not joking about either the origin of the swastika or the racists' use of the Betsy Ross flag.  Either of those facts can be easily researched on your choice of sources.”

My response to the Blog:

            You may well be correct; however, I sincerely hope not.  That was my impression and opinion of Sir Kim’s reportage to HMG; he was doing his job and accurately reflected the BIC.  Unfortunately, the BIC is such a small man that he cannot tolerate criticism or the truth in any form.  The BIC is such a small-minded man.

            The dictators and the BIC . . . quite so. I am far more concerned about the health and welfare of this Grand Republic, not the dictators of his world and our times.  I will confess to my concern and apprehension about the people of those countries that must suffer dictators.  I know the Russian people to be good, decent and endearing people that do not deserve the dictator they have.

            I listened fully to the news conference of the four female representatives.  They demonstrated far greater dignity, grace and nobility than the BIC ever possessed in even the slightest level.  I was very impressed by their words, their message, their conduct, and most of all by their request for all of us to not take the bait offered up by the BIC and his minions.  Like the BIC’s birthright accusation against Barrack Obama, his foolish accusations about the four female representatives are equally false, wrong and disrespectful.  As I have written for this week’s Update, I stand with those four women (and all the others who stand up to power).

            The original, circular, 13-star Union flag may have been absconded by white supremacists, but it is also the symbol of the Founders/Framers who fought for and won our independence along with the recognition of our inalienable rights.  Surely, you are not suggesting we indict the whole for the misguided conduct of a minority within the future Grand Republic.

. . . follow-up comment:

“The notion of ‘indicting the whole for the misconduct of the few’ is a legalistic notion that seems out of place here.  We're discussing symbolism, not law or morality.  The symbolism of the flag in question has been changed by its association with racists.”

. . . my follow-up response:

            With all due respect, I am not using what may be a legalistic term to forward a legal argument.  My ancestors immigrated to this land before it became this Grand Republic and fought the British with the North Carolina militia. I have no evidence or even hints that my ancestors owned a slave or condone slavery.  Subsequent generations fought to abolish slavery once and for all in the Civil War with Company ‘C,’ 152nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  The original flag belongs to them and as a result belongs to me.  The rejection of that symbol of the Revolution and the Founding of this Grand Republic is an insult to those who fought for our freedom, including the descendants of indentured people brought to this country against their will.  I condemn slavery.  I condemn the political ethos that caused Americans to kill other Americans over this issue.  I cannot stop contemporary white supremacist, racist xenophobes from their despicable use of our historic symbol of the Revolution and Founding that brought them the freedom to speak as they choose.  The original flag is not racist—it stands for freedom.  That flag still stands for the sacrifice of our ancestors who finally enabled citizens with dark skin pigmentation to realize the freedom the Founders and Framers sought to ensure for all citizens.  The history of this Grand Republic is not without mistakes and sins, but generations have sacrificed to make this a more perfect Union.  Yes, we still have a long way to go, but let us not deny our history or disrespect the sacrifice of those who won our freedom.

Another contribution:

 “Yes Cap it was a pretty ‘robust’ period in our history.  We need some determined leadership right now but I can’t see it happening.  Later this week we will hear who will be our next Prime minister.  Many of us feel that neither candidates are top-notch one, especially who I wouldn’t trust to run a stall at a Boy Scouts fundraiser.  However the choice will be made by conservative members not just members of Parliament.  We just do not have a re-incarnated Winston-unfortunately.

“Your man is making all the wrong headlines over here and deservedly so.  Is there nothing he will do to grasp another session in the White House?  Well I look forward to your views on that subject Cap.”

My reply:

            Oh my, yes, we both need a leader who can unite our countries.  The days of Sir Winston and his friend FDR are long gone.  Our silly season has begun a year and a half before the election.  It will be another 9 to 11 months before we know who will challenge the BIC in our election.

            It looks like Boris Johnson may well have the edge with the obstacles of Brexit still ahead.  Tragically, he reminds me far too much that he may be the British version of the BIC.  Hopefully, saner minds will prevail.  I anxiously await the outcome.

            The BIC is making all the wrong headlines over here as well.  Re: “Is there nothing he will do to grasp another session in the White House?”  The short answer: no, there is nothing he won’t do.  As we now know in evidence, he engaged the Russians and lied profusely in the last election.  He also sought to play to divisions in our society and accentuate those divisions.

            This too shall pass.

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

Cheers,

Cap                        :-)