Update from the Sunland
No.969
3.8.20 – 9.8.20
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- The police finally released (or leaked) the officers’ bodycam videos from the George Floyd [959] tragedy. I see that incident in a much different light than I did initially. We see now that Floyd refused to comply, and persistently and actively resisted. Floyd’s behavior escalated the incident. Now, that said, those officers failed to protect Floyd, and they have been appropriately charged. I understand and appreciate their frustration with Floyd’s continuing resistance, but that does not justify their excessive force that led to Floyd’s unfortunate death.
My message to ALL citizens: comply with police instructions. Do not question or confront law enforcement officers. You do not know what they know, or what they are responding to in any situation. All of us should be helping law enforcement officers rather than arguing with them or resisting them. No police officer has any obligation to inform you why they are instructing you to do x, y, or z. Just do what you are instructed to do when you are told to do it. It is really that simple . . . to avoid situations like Floyd found himself immersed.
Circa 18:00 [B], Tuesday, 4.August.2020, 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in a Beirut, Lebanon harbor warehouse. The various video clips of the explosion resemble a 3.0 KT tactical nuclear explosion, complete with massive shockwave condensation dome and mushroom cloud. The explosion left a large crater where the warehouse once stood and flatten virtually the entire waterfront area, killing hundreds, injuring thousands, and causing extraordinary damage to the city. The ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) in that warehouse had been offloaded from a confiscated Russian freighter in 2013 and had remained in the warehouse since the seizure. Ammonium nitrate is used as an agriculture fertilizer but also has a well-known explosive potential. A brief note of historic events might be helpful to put this most recent incident in perspective; all of the events noted below involved ammonium nitrate explosions.
21.9.1921 Oppau, Germany; 4,500 tons [4.5KT]
16.4.1947 Texas City [near Galveston], Texas; 3,260 tons [3.3 KT] + 1,800 tons of sulfur loaded in two different ships, docked adjacently
19.4.1995 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; 4,800 pounds [0.002 KT]
17.4.2013 West, Texas; 30 tons [0.030 KT] [592]
Ammonium nitrate is an important agricultural product, but it is also a substance that must be respected and handled properly. For the record, the first two events noted above were recorded as accidents; the last two were criminal events. Hopefully, a thorough investigation of the Beirut episode will establish which category the latest event goes into for history.
With all the religious and political strife, Lebanon has now descended into anarchy as years of pent up frustration boiled over after the explosion. Ministers have resigned and the government as ceased to function. Regrettably, the United States has begun to resemble Lebanon. The BIC did not create the distrust of government, but he has most certainly amplified and capitalized on that fundamental dissatisfaction. Instead of helping to fix the problem, he alone has made the situation far worse and brought the disintegration of Lebanon closer to us.
On Monday, New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney (DA) filed a motion to dismiss yet another attempt by the Bully-in-Chief (BIC) to block access to Trump Organization records as part of the on-going criminal investigation—Trump vs. Vance [USDC SDNY Case No. 1:19-cv-08694 (VM)]. The latest legal gyrations come in the wake of the Supremes action sending he case back to the lower court on remand—Trump vs. Vance [591 U. S. ____ (2020); No. 19–635] [965, 966]. Of particular note, the Supremes were unanimous on rejecting the BIC’s unfounded claim of his possessing “temporary absolute immunity” as president. The essence of the Supremes ruling was their dissatisfaction with the lower court’s handling of the separation of powers aspects of the DA’s subpoena order. We see in the Second Amended Complaint (SAC) dismissal filing the recognition and illumination by the DA that their investigation goes well beyond but does include the “‘hush-money’ payments to silence two women made by Michael Cohen on behalf of Plaintiff in 2016” and other unspecified “possible criminal activity” of the Trump Organization. Hopefully, the judge will make quick work of this latest delaying tactic and get onto the root issue for clearance of the Supremes’ objection—separation of powers. Regardless, we are not likely to see this legal dispute reconciled before the election, and further, we are even less likely to see the evidence until it is presented in court. This case is not going to go away regardless of whether he remains president.
The BIC’s malignant narcissism causes him to persistently shoot himself in the foot. The phenomenon is truly sad to witness. Once he latched onto the quantity of testing as his only quasi-redeeming facet of the far broader enormous failure of his laissez-faire COVID19 pandemic response, he has been like a bad dog on a good bone—he cannot let it go—no matter how intellectually vapid or corrupt his arguments. He persists in public claiming that testing is the problem, i.e., stop testing equals no cases. He apparently continues to believe the number of cases is the issue. The reality is and has always been hospitalizations and fatalities that absolutely nothing to do with the quantity of testing. HBO/Axios reporter Jonathan Swan interviewed the BIC and challenged the president’s claim that the pandemic was “under control” in the United States.
Swan: “How? A thousand Americans are dying a day.”
BIC: “They are dying. That’s true. And you – it is what it is. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it.”
The callousness and the paucity of any sense of reality displayed by the BIC in just the above statement is mind-numbing, irrational, and devoid of truth. The BIC’s persistent and continuing denials are a clear and present danger to We, the People. Is it any wonder to anyone (for or against the BIC) that we have such an abysmal state of affairs regarding the pandemic response? This is the man we hired and installed to lead us through difficult times. The BIC loves the trappings and inherent power of the office, but he refuses to take responsibility or do his duty. Not only is he the antithesis of anything even remotely resembling leadership, he is actively working against the proper handling of the pandemic, which threatens more people, thus my contention that he is a clear and present danger.
As is usually the case at this particular time of year, we look back to historic events that specifically occurred 75 years ago. On Monday, 6.August.1945, the United States dropped the “Little Boy” uranium (235U) bomb on Hiroshima, Imperial Japan, virtually eliminating the entire city in a flash. Three days later, after the Japanese government refused to surrender, the United States dropped the “Fat Man” plutonium (239Pu) bomb on Nagasaki, Imperial Japan, essentially repeating the earlier results. A third device was en route to Tinian for deployment, and several additional weapons were at various stages of manufacture and assembly. Even though confronted with the enormous destruction of the two attacks, the Japanese government struggled to accept the terms of surrender. It was an attempted coup d’état by a hardline military faction against Emperor Hirohito that swung the decision. On the 15th, in Tokyo, the emperor made an unprecedented radio broadcast to his nation and the world that the Japanese accepted the terms of surrender, ending the most devastating war in human history. It can be argued that those two special weapons ended the war, or that they were merely contributors. In the latter hypothesis, the questions remain: when and at what cost?
A friend and frequent contributor sent along two related on-line articles:
“The Hiroshima Myth”
by John V. Denson
Mises Institute
Published: 08/06/2020
https://mises.org/library/hiroshima-myth
“A Look At The History Of The Nagasaki Bombing, 75 Years Later”
by Geoff Brumfiel
National Public Radio (NPR)
Published: August 8, 2020; 7:55 AM ET
I noted in both articles biased selectivity regarding the facts to construct the implied conclusions. Both articles, from different perspectives, paint the picture that neither bomb was necessary and leave the reader with the impression that rogue military elements dropped those weapons. While most of the facts in both articles are correct, the authors failed to present a complete picture of the broader facts whether intentionally or by neglect. I resoundingly reject the presentations in both articles.
Full disclosure: my father served as a sergeant in the 96th Infantry Division (96ID) and nearly lost his life during operations on Leyte Island (Operation KING TWO). If he had not been seriously wounded and medievac’d to the States, he would have been with the 96ID during the bloodbath of Okinawa (Operation ICEBERG). If he had survived Okinawa, he would have been with the 96ID for Operation CORONET—the invasion of Honshu. I know how my father felt about Truman’s decision. I have been reading, researching, and learning about those times since my childhood. I make no claim to being an expert or even a historian about those times, but I have collected a large body of facts. I have tried to understand the dissenters as well as the proponents. I freely and openly acknowledge that more than a few knowledgeable individuals argued strongly against offensive use of those weapons, but ultimately, I believe President Truman made the difficult decision to save lives, both Allied and Japanese; he did what had to be done.
One last note: as the Japanese government waivered with acceptance of the Allied terms of surrender, the 20th Air Force launched a 1,000-bomber raid on various targets on the main islands of Japan on the 14th. By the time the last of the bombers landed, the Japanese surrendered. If we are going to debate the wisdom or correctness of Truman’s decision to employ nuclear weapons, let us do so with the sum of the collected facts rather than selectively picking out those facts that support one position or another.
Comments and contributions from Update no.968:
Comment to the Blog:
“The Chump is an outcome of our two-party privately funded system of choosing leaders.
“The Chump revels in having enemies. “Us versus them” is his theme, his strategy, and almost his entire being.
“If we must rank speakers on sheer eloquence, I see Obama as the peak of modern oration. Unfortunately, that doesn’t add substance to his accomplishments, which were limited by the DNC.
“The face mask doesn’t insult my machismo if it exists. However, anything that limits the flow of micro-particles necessarily slows airflow. This is aggravated in my case by surgical damage to my nose and in many others by various issues. All the shaming in the world won’t change that. On top of that, my experience with irritants that affect my asthma tells me that any ‘non-medical’ mask has no medical purpose. I wear whatever I can as needed to avoid conflict with people like you. I also carry an effective mask at all times in case of an emergency.
“The correct path/best practice is to provide real personal protective equipment (PPE) to every worker and every other person at risk and to test, trace, and isolate at a far higher level than we’re doing. That’s working elsewhere. (A friend in the medical industry tells me the testing that is occurring here in the USA is in fact being falsely reported due to the flow of money to those testing and treating the virus. To what degree, nobody knows. Capitalism at its finest.)”
My response to the Blog:
Oh my, I would not and cannot go that far as your indictment. Our evolved two-party political system has many faults, of which the selection process is one of those flaws, but to lay the cataclysm of the BIC on that flaw is a bridge too far for me. I see his candidacy, nomination, and subsequent ‘service’ as far more basic and rudimentary. The BIC phenomenon is not a fluke; it reflects palpable dissatisfaction with the performance of the federal government among the citizens who vote that they were able to set aside their values, their beliefs, their wants and needs to grasp for a piece of flotsam floating by on the water.
Yes, I agree. He was an absorptive student of Roy Cohn who was a consummate lie-deny-defy lawyer of the McCarthy witch hunt era. That was Cohn’s MO, and the BIC learned well.
Yes, I would also agree that Barack Obama is certainly at the top of contemporary oratory list. I’ve been impressed with his communicative skills since I first heard and became aware of this public speaking (2004). He delivered another impressive speech at the Lewis Memorial. Yet, one of my greatest criticisms of his presidency was the inability of his administration to negotiate compromise with Congress; a harsh criticism, yes, it was what it was. I cannot place blame for that failure on the DNC. Further, every president has had to deal with internal politics as much as external politics—that’s the job, for better or worse, e.g., DNC selection of Truman as FDR’s VP for his 4th term.
Oh my, “people like” me . . . that’s a rather stiff accusation. So far, I have not confronted another citizen, but I most definitely note my observations. Most folks in the community where we live are respectful citizens; I’d estimate 95% wear masks; something like 20% wear eye protection . . . in restaurants, stores, post office, et al. My observations are from the myriad video clips from across the country, from many different sources (some professional, some not), and from other on-line information networks. I do not include my many exchanges with other citizens who write and speak words of machismo. You are not alone with respect to your physical need for selectivity regarding masks; I am sorry you must deal with those complications. At least you do wear masks. Masks are not necessary when no one is around you. Lastly, the positive infections, hospitalizations, and COVID19 fatalities are physical, hard evidence that far too many American citizens do not follow the USG guidelines; there are more than a few who truly believe the COVID19 crisis is a hoax, as the BIC claims.
Unfortunately, a significant chunk of our citizenry believes they are invulnerable to COVID19, disregard in toto their infection transmission potential contribution, blindly follow the BIC’s negative example, or are simply ignorant of the situation around them.
. . . Round two:
“The two-party only system and the unrestricted and unaccountable funding of candidates and campaigns has pretty much ‘evolved’ (or degraded) to this point since at least Reagan. The Chump’s minority election isn’t the first manifestation of that particular Electoral College phenomenon, and the dissatisfaction with the result of these elections is simply the best tool for the more-capable party.
“The Chump instinctively surrounds himself with others like him. His combative approach is a feature of his personality, which came before his study under Roy Cohn.
“Obama’s failure came not due to his inability to compromise with Republicans but because of a DNC that refuses to risk alienating large donors. FDR achieved much more in policy, which is all that makes history.
“You may or may not confront people in public, but that attitude is what I fear much more than the virus. I maintain my position that non-medical masks do not serve medical purposes. Social distancing/isolation does more to prevent contagion, but it carries serious mental health/behavioral risks, as demonstrated by spikes in domestic violence and overdoses. Government could do much more for us, but government is not playing its part. See above.
“I believe there is a highly contagious virus among us of natural origin. Actual reliable figures about that virus in the USA are subject to many issues not limited to manipulation. As nearly as we can determine, a significant number of people actually don’t (or didn’t) have symptoms if they get the virus.
“Yep, you could be wrong.”
. . . my response to round two:
The two-party system has dominated our political system for a lot longer than the Reagan administration. I welcome other parties. I have voted for other party candidates. While I tend to agree with you regarding dissatisfaction, the flaws of the two-party political system is a minuscule threat compared to the malignant narcissist who occupies the Oval Office. It is hard to see any other threats that are orders of magnitude less than the BIC.
Yes, exactly, his malignant narcissism affliction demands constant adoration and idolatry. He instinctively throws away the naysayers until he finds the sycophants his ego thrives upon. His malignant narcissism was born in his childhood, and we have his parents to thank for that.
I do not let Obama off the hook that easily. A true leader inspires people to overcome obstacles.
I do not share your opinion of the value of non-medical masks. Please remember that non-medical masks are more to protect others from each of us; they significantly attenuate debris from a cough, a sneeze, or just the normal spittle of talking, shouting, or cheering. Masks are respect for others. Yes, exactly, agreed in full; the USG has failed miserably on multiple fronts in our pandemic response, and we have one person to thank for that failure. The BIC is incapable of doing what a decent president should and would be doing.
Agreed. While positive infected cases have relevance, the key for us is hospitalizations and fatalities. As we have argued from the get-go, the most threatening parameter is the saturation of our intensive care capacity. It is not infections. As you properly note, the significant majority of infected citizens are asymptomatic or recover without medical intervention. When the number of hospitalizations (which are a mere fraction of infections) exceeds the treatment capacity, more people will die. It is not the infections as the BIC like to tell us; it is our treatment capacity.
I am humble enough to recognize, acknowledge, and taut my fallibility. I make no claims to being correct on any topic, including a few where I once might have been considered an expert. My fallibility does not dampen my eagerness to debate important issues or write about sensitive matters. We must not be afraid of being wrong. The key, it seems to me, is our fundamental curiosity and willingness to learn.
. . . Round three:
“I never said the Chump wasn’t a threat. I said he was the natural outcome of our system.
“There’s more to it than the overwhelming need for adoration. He also needs to defeat enemies continually.
“If we follow the money, the medical industry picture changes. I’m sending you a link from NPR in Facebook Messenger to a story about how nursing homes move ordinary people out of the way to make way for COVID patients because the COVID patients pay a great deal more. There’s more to the money story, but it’s a start.”
. . . my response to round three:
I rarely make accusations. I respectfully do not agree with your statement that the BIC is the natural outcome of our two-party political system. The disastrous phenomenon of the BIC is a consequence of many other factors not least of which is a minority that is desperate to retain the power they wielded for centuries and the consequent tribalism we must endure. He has latched onto divisions within our nation to use that minority for his personal power.
I will grant you that. All wannabe dictators need enemies or adversaries to show how powerful they are. The BIC certainly fits that paradigm.
As I read the NPR article, I do not see it in the same light. Your words suggest this is some inhuman capitalist motivation. However, it could be that facility greed to be outsource supplemental to a local hospital and don’t want to mix infected with uninfected people especially in a high-risk population. It could be as you suggest, but it might be something else entirely.
. . . Round four:
“I'm not getting a meaning from your paragraph on the NPR article about nursing homes pursuing the money around COVID-19 patients to the detriment of ordinary nursing home residents. I read the article to mean that nursing home operators seek higher profits regardless of the well-being of their usual residents. I'm can't understand your response.”
. . . my response to round four:
Ina Jaffe states that she does not know the motivation despite repeated attempts to learn why. The available evidence does not substantiate jumping to the conclusion that the facility’s motivation is inhuman capitalism. I was only attempting to observe that there could be other motivations other than money. Further, this is one facility among thousands. An interesting and applicable crosscheck might have been queries to the local hospitals treating COVID19 cases, i.e., did they request additional space? We saw the phenomenon in NYC with the deployment of the USNS ships to New York and Los Angeles along with the diversion of public facilities to the treatment of overflow cases. These are the kinds of things that happen when we foolishly saturate our hospital treatment capacity, and thus, why I continue to harp upon hospitalizations rather than cases (as the BIC does) as the critical criterion.
. . . Round five:
“There's no sound information about any of this. I'll note that the hospital ships went unused. If you choose to believe in the humanitarian motives of people who make a great deal of money by their choices, go for it.”
. . . my response to round five:
Whoa dawgy! Now that was a jump too far. I never even suggested “humanitarian” motives for that nursing home. I am only offering that there could be other motives beside money. The suggestion that money is the only motive for this action is just another conspiracy theory from my perspective. Let’s get the facts before we condemn them.
. . . Round six:
“Where would conspiracies come into it?”
. . . my response to round six:
Conspiracy theories in the common contemporary form imagine all kinds of causes, sometimes despite the facts and often for the lack of facts. The article does not tell us, and we do not know, so we guess why? As always, you have the right to believe what you wish for whatever reasons you wish, as do I. In this instance, we have insufficient evidence to jump to the money-money-money motivation.
. . . Round seven:
“A conspiracy theory by definition supposes a conscious multi-party collaboration for some nefarious, typically political purpose. How does that fit the case of nursing homes having ordinary capitalist greed?”
. . . my response to round seven:
Exactly. You are accusing that nursing home of a conspiracy to kick out paying, presumably contracted residents to make more money treating COVID19 patients. That is a conspiracy. I am only saying we do not see the evidence for such an accusation . . . not even probable cause, set aside beyond a reasonable doubt. Do the facts we have warrant an investigation? Yes. I’m all for that. But accusing an organization of money-grubbing with such insufficient information is wrong (from my perspective). I just went through a right-wing conspiracy theory video that was far worse but still a conspiracy theory.
I’m just sayin’ . . .
. . . Round eight:
“No, that's not a conspiracy, that's simply a management decision. I'm not sure why you seem to need a conflict this morning, but I'm merely speculating, not accusing in any formal sense. I hope you feel better soon.”
. . . my response to round eight:
Very well, then. I bow to your infinite wisdom.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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