Update no.970

Update from the Sunland

No.970

10.8.20 – 16.8.20

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

 

            To all,

 

            It is official!  Vice President Biden selected Senator Kamala Devi Harris of California to be his running mate for the upcoming presidential election.  The selection will be approved and become the Democratic Party nomination at next week’s national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  She is a native-born American citizen and daughter of emigrant parents—father Jamaican, mother Indian.  Kamala had also been an opponent of Biden during the primaries.

            The Republican national convention will be held the following week to nominate the BIC and Vice President Pence as their candidates.  The dance card is nearly set.

 

            At the Monday evening Presser (Press Conference), our resident “stable genius,” AKA the Bully-in-Chief (BIC), proclaimed (among so many other gems):

Nobody’s ever seen anything like this.  Right?  The closest thing is, ah, in 1917, they say, the great pandemic.  It certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people, probably ended the Second World War.  All the soldiers were sick.  Ah.  It was, that was a terrible situation.  This is highly contagious.  This one is highly, highly contagious.  You know, if I would’ve listened to a lot of people, we would’ve kept it open, and by the way, we keep it open now, all the way, we keep it open.  But we would’ve kept it open and you could be up to a million and a half, two million people right now, one and a half to two million people."
[emphasis mine]

WHAT!  Really?  There is a reason they refer to that disastrous episode in history as the 1918 Pandemic.  Patient zero is believed to be Private Albert Gitchell, a company cook at Fort Riley, Kansas, who was identified on 4.March.1918.  Second, we do not need more evidence that the BIC is not and never was a student of history, but this is just too much.  The Second World War began in 1939 (or 1931, if we choose a more expansive definition) [most high school students know that] and did not end until 1945.  Oh wait, he was just kidding.  No, no, he told us himself that he never kids or jokes around.  Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt and claim he just misspoke, the 1918 Pandemic did not and could not have ended the First World War; all of the soldiers on either side were not sick.  The meat grinder of the Western Front churned on until virtually the last artillery shell was fired at the 11^th minute of the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of November.  My great uncle was wounded in combat twice in just that span of time—March to November 1918.

            WTF!  The doctors need to find a more effective cognitive impairment test [967]; the one they used obviously yielded a false negative.  He clearly is neither stable nor a genius, and I highly doubt his mental health and stability.

            Just an odd but related footnote: the BIC’s speaking is so bloody disjointed that transcribing his exact words is unusually difficult.  In addition to history, I wish he had paid just a little attention in English class as a student . . . or perhaps, I am using the word student inappropriately here in reference to the BIC.

 

            I will now freely and openly confess to my very dark thoughts this week.  The plethora of right-wing conspiracies, misinformation campaigns, voter suppression, and outright lies have taken their toll on my usually plentiful optimism; Josef Goebbels would be proud of those folks—tell a lie enough times and the people will believe it.  I have historically believed in the inherent strength of this once Grand Republic.  But the relentless deluge of QAnon, right-wing talking heads, conspiracists, BIC loyalists, anti-vaxxers, and whatnot have corroded my usual “we shall overcome” belief.  They attack knowledge, science, and facts, and they actually tout ignorance just as George Orwell so perfectly predicted.  The insanity of it all is just too much.  The worst of it is not the free speech of the extreme right-wing, but it is the BIC giving voice and amplification to that bunch; they were once a distant fringe.  Today, they have become mainstream thanks in toto to the BIC and the BIC alone.  The BIC ran on a campaign slogan four years ago that persists to this day and is actually the absolute antithesis of the reality he alone has brought to our country.  I have recognized and acknowledged that he is a clear and present danger to the republic.  Even more discouraging than all of that . . . if the Republicans are successful in suppressing the vote with their multi-faceted, aggressive plans and efforts, we may well be faced with another four years (or more, if the BIC is successful) of this absurd insanity.  I have listened to these right-wing crazies incessantly telling us we are doomed; the nation is failing.  I always sloughed off such ridiculous nonsense.  But as I began, my dark thoughts brought for the first time ever the thought that we deserve to fail, to cease to exist.  We deserve this!  We are our own worst enemy.  I also had an additional dark thought that maybe we just need to let this go.  Let the virus kill off all these crazies, and perhaps in the rubble of what is left, the rest of us might rise again to greatness.  The BIC has been the single most effective wrecking ball to this once Grand Republic—single-handed; he is the greatest.  I can only hope enough saner minds prevail to record the history of this country’s downfall.  We deserve what comes!  It truly pains me to say that aloud, but these are the dark days of my depression.

            [NOTE: I wrote the paragraph immediately above on Thursday.  As I finalize this week’s edition of the Update, my opinion has not changed.  The election is not coming soon enough, and the longer this goes, the more the BIC, his magic snake-oil elixir, and his small army of enthusiastic sycophants will erode whatever confidence there is in the integrity of our elections.  They are doing a near perfect job for their true leader NKGB Colonel Vladimir Putin and his gargantuan efforts to discredit western democracies.]

 

            On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected a direct urgent appeal by the Republican National Committee in their effort to block Rhode Island from using mail-in ballots—Republican National Committee v. Common Cause Rhode Island [591 U.S. ___; 20A28].  The state sought to use mail-in ballots to lessen the risk of spreading the COVID19 contagion during voting or discouraging citizens from voting, while the RNC sought a stay in a lower court order.  Those who follow the Court can guess who the three justices were who would have granted the request for a stay.  The result is Rhode Island can proceed with their intended use of mail-in ballots.  This latest ruling comes six (6) weeks after the Supremes granted at stay in a lower court preliminary injunction in the case of Merrill v. People First of Alabama [591 U.S. ___; 19A1063].  In the Merrill case, the lower court issued an injunction on the state’s requirements for absentee voters to include a copy of their photo-ID and the signatures of two witnesses or a notary public to validate the ballot.  The difference in the two cases is the involvement of the state.  In Rhode Island, the state chose to support the challenged decree allowing mail-in ballot process, while in Alabama, the state defended its process.  Another series of back and forth court judgments in Texas Democratic Party v. Abbott proved more convoluted than I had time to sort out, but it is another state voter suppression case like the cases noted above.  I imagine there are other legal actions but I cannot see them. Whether the Supremes can collect all these up in the next month or so to be of any benefit in settling the BIC’s induced chaos surrounding the pending election is yet to be seen.

            The Republican Party is conducting a broad, general campaign to suppress the vote and discredit mail-in balloting . . . well except for the BIC’s personal absentee ballot and those of his immediate family (they are all OK, because he says so).  And leading the Republican onslaught is their idol, savior, and all-around-badass, AKA the BIC, who seeks to deny funding to and downsize the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to prevent them from handling the projected flood of mail-in ballots.  On Thursday, the BIC told Fox Business:

They want US$25B—billion—for the Post Office.  Now they need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of the millions and millions of ballots.  If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money.  That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting.  They just can’t have it.

The outrageousness of the BIC’s transgressions is unprecedented in this once grand republic (unfortunately, not so in autocratic nations or dictatorship oppressed countries; the BIC continues to degrade and corrode this country to third-world status; make America great again indeed).  With the BIC’s mounting shenanigans, I am reminded of the Imperial Chinese punishment, death by a thousand cuts.  President Obama offered the best observation of the BIC’s misdeeds.

What we've seen in a way that is unique to modern political history is a President who is explicit in trying to discourage people from voting.  What we've never seen before is a President say, 'I'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it.'  That’s sort of unheard of, right?

There should be no doubt remaining that the BIC is an extraordinary, unique, clear and present danger to this once grand republic.  He is destroying the country we once loved.

            As has regrettably become the pattern for the Republicans these days, they attempt to destroy or render worthless something rather than try to improve it, make it better, to fix whatever the problem may be.  So it has apparently become with our election system and specifically mail-in voting.  What they cannot destroy they cast relentless doubt about whatever is left.  We have seen the process too many times—just the latest being the voting system.  Mail-in ballots make sense during a pandemic, forcing citizens to risk infection to vote when mail-in voting avoids the risk.  To my Republican friends, let us improve the system, fix whatever problems may exist, and not destroy the process.

            This is exactly what the BIC does so well; he creates chaos, confusion, doubt, and uncertainty in everything . . . except himself.  He is the only one—the only savior, the only messiah.  Yes, absolutely, the BIC is a clear and present danger to whatever is left of this once grand republic.  This insanity must end!

 

            The president and his administration achieved a significant foreign policy success with the announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would establish diplomatic relations, exchanging ambassadors and opening embassies.  The UAE joined Egypt and Jordan in normalizing relations with Israel.  The president also forecast that other Middle Eastern countries would soon follow the UAE, potentially creating an atmosphere for peace in the region.  It is a little too early and perhaps premature to offer such an optimistic prognosis, but given the accomplishment, he is entitled to such optimism.  We shall hope the projection comes to fruition.

 

            I offer my sincere condolences to Donald Trump and his family for the passing of his younger brother Robert Stewart Trump on Saturday.  His cause of death has not yet been disclosed.  May God rest his immortal soul.

 

            On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals issued their unanimous ruling in the case of National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System [5CCA No. 19-20272 (2020)] that reversed a lower court decision declaring the exclusion of women from Selective Service registration was unconstitutional.  The judges cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Rostker v. Goldberg [453 U.S. 57 (1981)] that declared male-only draft registration constitutional.  The judges of the 5^th Circuit stated that only the Supreme Court can overrule its precedent; they stood firmly on stare decisis.  The 5^th Circuit’s judgment was rather non-descript; however, it does raise a very important societal issue.

            I have been and remain an ardent advocate of House Joint Resolution No. 208 [22.3.1972]—the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).  The ERA states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”  After the Supremes’ decision in Bostock v. Clayton County [590 U. S. ____ (2020)]  [962], the definition of ‘sex’ in this context includes the full spectrum of gender identity.  Further, equal rights are equal rights in toto, or not at all.  A lot has changed since 1981. Rostker must be overturned, but as the 5^th Circuit properly noted, only the Supreme Court can do so.  Respectfully, the Supremes must do just that.  As such, all citizens, including women as well as any variant in between, must be included in the draft registration requirement.  The time for equal rights is long overdue, and the time to close the door on the past notions of chivalry, the Doctrine of Coverture, and social paternalism is long overdue as well.

            With respect to this topic, I am compelled to illuminate an essay I wrote and published on 25.August.1998, titled: “Limits on Gender Integration.”

http://www.parlier.com/essay-1.html - gender

Please note my Postscript (2015) at the end of that essay.  I believe the time has come (actually very long overdue) for true, genuine equality under the law.  There are no longer any reasons for discrimination.  We are either equal, or we are not.  Full stop!

 

            Here in Arizona, this coming November, we will vote on Proposition 207—the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.  In the Thursday edition of the Arizona Republic (published on-line the day before), Lisa James and Todd Griffith offered us their opinion regarding Proposition 207.

“What proponents aren't telling you about Prop. 207, which would legalize pot in Arizona”

Opinion: Proposition 207 claims to offer protections if voters agree to legalize marijuana. But there's a lot more in the act that advocates aren't mentioning.

by Lisa James and Todd Griffith – opinion contributors

Arizona Republic

Published: 6:00 a.m. MT; Aug. 12, 2020

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2020/08/12/smart-and-safe-arizona-act-neither-marijuana-legalization-risky/3342111001/

Lisa James is the chair of an organization known as Arizonans for Health and Public Safety.  Todd Griffith is the retired director of the Arizona State Crime Laboratory.

            A wide variety of reasons compelled me to submit my opinion to the Arizona Republic.

            James/Griffith provide us well-crafted words, but unfortunately, the meaning of their words is just more of the same fear-mongering moral projection nonsense that has kept this country in the obscenely expensive, oppressive, and failed war on drugs—50 years and going.  Nearly 90 years ago, our ancestors learned that prohibition does not and cannot work in a free society.  We would be far better served by respecting the fundamental freedom of choice and right to privacy of all citizens, and work on ways to make consumption safe, while eliminating the criminal subculture that supplies illegal substances to satisfy demand.  We found ways to do so for alcohol and tobacco.  We can do the same for psychotropic substances.  Let’s grow up.

            Readers of this humble forum may recall my notice of completion for my next novel [967].  While the notional system offered in the book may not be the answer and likely is not the answer, at least it is an attempt to take a more progressive approach to respect the freedoms and rights of all citizens.  There has to be a better way than the failed war on drugs.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.969:

https://news.sky.com/story/kamala-harris-takes-aim-at-donald-trump-in-first-speech-as-joe-bidens-running-mate-12048125

“who’s this lady Cap-haven’t heard you mentioning her.”

My reply:

Kamala Harris is a U.S. senator for California.  I've mentioned her a few times in the Update, since she was a presidential candidate until she dropped out last December [936].  She is a former state attorney general for California and a formidable person--a good choice from my perspective.

 . . . Round two:

“Good show then-if you approve of her then she must be ‘up to scratch’.

“I will watch out for her. She could be a future U.S. president then-the first female leader? You remember our Margaret Thatcher, she was a strong decision maker with a robust personality, if she didn’t like something she would say so and wo-betide those who failed to adhere to the nations’ plans. That’s what leaders should do, unlike some others who wallow around trying to gain adoration and deceitfully generating false hopes and expectations.

“Still in Wiltshire SW. U/K where finally the heatwave has de-generated into Cumuli Nimbus. We are back home for a service with the legion and our padre on Saturday at the village war memorial-the final end of WW2. We are not permitted more than 30 to attend with no singing or music with social spacing upheld throughout. We cannot conduct this event in the church. I am required to provide hand sanitiser, why I don’t know because we don’t make any contact what so ever but rules is rules.

“I was reading an interesting article re the nuclear end of the war and the desperate decisions that had to be made by your leaders at the time. And even after the nuclear bombing heavy raids were needed to obtain the final surrender.”

 . . . my reply to round two:

            Yes, she is someone to watch.  The BIC and his supporters wasted no time in attacking her, displaying their sexist, racist bent.  As I write this week, this once grand republic may never recover from this tragedy—very sad.  The BIC has been and remains Putin’s greatest single asset.

            Yep, VJ Day 75 years on will be celebrated tomorrow.

            As I wrote last week, Truman’s decision to deploy the newly proven atomic weapon was not easy, but it had to be done, and God bless his immortal soul for having the strength of character to do so.  So many lives were saved, and I dare say, the outcome for the Japanese was far better than would most likely have been the case if Operation DOWNFALL had been executed.  Yes, exactly, as the Japanese government waivered, a 1,000-bomber raid on various targets using conventional munitions was executed the day before the surrender; the last bomber had not yet landed when the surrender was broadcast.  Nasty business . . . warfare.

 . . . Round three:

“Thanks for your reply, that is an immense subject indeed, one I believe I would like read more about especially as, in later years, the weapons used were part of my service experience.”

 . . . my reply to round three:

            Yes . . . an enormous subject from the physics and engineering to the political and moral aspects of the decision to employ.  I never got that close to those weapons, but I do know a little about them and their effects.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)