Update from the Sunland
No.986
30.11.20 – 6.12.20
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- I watched the 1st segment of Sunday’s (29.11.2020) CBS News 60 Minutes program (S53, Ep13) that was an interview with tweet-fired Christopher Cox ‘Chris’ Krebs [984], former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSCISA). The Bully-in-Chief (BIC) fired him for telling the truth. Krebs has proof, physical evidence, and a small army of experts to substantiate his facts, including all 50 of the state secretaries of state (Democrat and Republican). The BIC has his imagination and hot air. Krebs speaks in calm, measured tones with complete sentences. The BIC shotguns sentence fragments and warrantless accusations. Which are we going to believe?
-- Much to the BIC’s ranting consternation, U.S. Attorney General Barr [883] declared that there was no voter fraud that would have affected the outcome of the election. To be clear, I think there are cases of fraud, intentional and unintentional, in every election. There are always anomalies. One person who tries to vote twice is wrong and should be appropriately punished; however, one person does not represent systemic voter fraud. Perhaps the worst example of voter fraud in recent elections was the 2018 election for the North Carolina 9th District, using an absentee ballot scheme in favor of now disgraced Republican candidate Mark Harris. After the 2020 election [982], the BIC and his minions filed 43 lawsuits so far, contesting different aspects of the election in numerous states; as of Thursday, the BIC’s win-loss tally with those lawsuits is 1-42, winning only one on a minor observer access challenge.
-- On Wednesday, 2.December.2020, the United States of America had more COVID19 deaths in just one day than Japan has had total, across the entire pandemic—3,157 Americans died (2,161 Japanese have died during the entire 10 months of the pandemic). Taken another way, as of 2.December.2020, the United States has suffered 273,847 COVID19 fatalities in toto. The United States has three times the population of Japan. Even on a per capita basis, the United States has 86 fatalities per 100K and Japan has 1.7 fatalities per 100K so far in the pandemic. What’s wrong with this picture? Go figure!
A relevant newspaper opinion article:
“Trump turns on Gov. Ducey for certifying Arizona's vote. Gee, who didn't see that coming? – President Trump predictably turned on Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey because the governor did his job.”
by Laurie Roberts
Arizona Republic
Published: 6:03 p.m. MT Nov. 30, 2020; Updated: 12:29 p.m. MT Dec 1, 2020
We see this a lot; the BIC attacking Republican politicians and specialists who do their job and tell the truth, instead of doing the BIC’s bidding. This is just one of a seemingly infinite number of reasons we cannot be rid of this man afflicted with malignant narcissism soon enough. He needs serious psychological treatment. Unfortunately, the BIC’s affliction will not allow him to even acknowledge or recognize his illness, and thus treatment is impossible. So let’s just be done with him.
A few relevant observations or thoughts as we near a transition to the next phase of the current COVID19 pandemic might be useful for public debate. We appear to be on the verge of having several effective vaccines in our efforts to overcome the viral pandemic. Current polling indicates roughly 40% of the American population will refuse to use a vaccine—any vaccine. They cite a host of reasons to rationalize their choices; most of them boil down to a distrust of government. Those so inclined are often referred to as anti-vaxxers. I am a staunch and vociferous supporter and advocate for every citizen’s fundamental right to privacy and freedom of choice. I will not be one of those yammering for a vaccine mandate. If anyone does not want to take the vaccine as the medical experts suggest, that is and should be your choice. However, without a vaccine, you remain a potential carrier and transmitter of the virus, and as a consequence, I think the anti-vaxxers should prepare themselves for being denied access to public forms of transportation and public venues where the potential for transmission of the virus are high. No one should be forced to use something they do not want to use; however, that right does not give individuals the right to endanger other citizens. There is nothing in the Constitution or the law that requires anyone to defend or protect other citizens; that fact does not infer an individual has any right whatsoever to endanger others.
Another relevant and timely article for your cogitation:
“Coronavirus makes all of us potential killers”
by Michael J. Stern USA TODAY
Arizona Republic
Published: 3 Dec 2020
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-arizona-republic/20201203/281728387087237
Exactly the point! The virus has a low mortality rate, so the likelihood of the virus seriously affecting any particular individual is low. The issue is not the deadliness of the virus; the societal issue we face is the contagiousness of the virus. The virus will not adversely affect the majority of people, but it is so easily transmitted to others who may be more susceptible to the ravages of the virus. Further, the virus may seriously affect sufficient people to saturate the medical treatment capacity, and thus cause knock-on collateral mortality that might have ordinarily been remedied.
One more news article to stimulate your rumination:
“Freshly pardoned Michael Flynn shares message telling Trump to 'suspend the Constitution' to hold a new presidential election”
by Kathryn Krawczyk
Yahoo! News
Published: Wed, December 2, 2020, 10:48 AM MST
I cannot fathom a former military officer even thinking, set aside saying, such a ridiculous notion. He clearly and obviously did not take his oath of office seriously. And this man was recently pardoned by the BIC, which speaks volumes about the character and substance of the BIC. These are the times in which we live.
A friend, fellow brother-in-arms, and frequent contributor said in part, “All good here, somewhat fed-up with the restrictions imposed on us all-but what else can we expect. The inoculations become closer, I’m in the upper age bracket with [my wife] to follow-think I’ll hang on for a week or two, although my senior manager opposes that view!” To which, I replied, “Allow me to offer a thought for consideration. A generation before us endured serious, if not severe, rationing of everything from petrol to sugar, and just about everything else. Those restrictions made life difficult, uncomfortable, and frustrating. But our ancestors endured those constraints, not without grinching and grumbling, but they endured.” We are capable of doing the correct things to protect one another, if we only have the will.
Comments and contributions from Update no.985:
Comment to the Blog:
“Trumpery continues to the bitter end.
“My holiday season, as always, will be colored by the capitalist distortion of my pagan holiday under its Christian name.
“I, of course, have plenty to say about Biden as the DNC tool he’s always been. Many of his appointments are holdovers from Obama’s Wall Street-powered administration and/or come through the corporate revolving door.
“I didn’t comment until I’d read my morning newsletters. Fivethirtyeight has an interesting piece on one-term Presidents, and Popular Information has studied whether Senator Perdue’s (R-GA) lucrative and-well timed investments were controlled by someone else, as he claimed. (Spoiler alert: no.) The GOP can’t afford to lose both Perdue’s runoff and the other Georgia Senate seat held by Kelly Loeffler, who has endorsed Q-Anon among other dimwit positions.”
My response to the Blog:
Trumpery indeed! I suspect we will not be rid of him until he is incarcerated for his crimes and is denied access to Twitter, the media, his sycophants, and his other enablers.
I share your revulsion of capitalist distortion of our holidays—religious and non.
I suspect your characterization of President-elect Biden’s supplication is overstated. For now, I shall hold my evolving opinions. I cannot say they are non-traditional since we just came out of a non-traditional period that did not turn out so well, but he is breaking some molds for the good.
I will argue the GOP is no longer the GOP as it once existed. It is now the BIC Party (BICP). His personality flaws are going to dominate the BICP for years with or without the BIC to sell them his magic snake-oil elixir they depend upon to feel good. We will have to deal with the new reality for some time to come.
Why do I say what I do in the paragraph immediately above? We see the embodiment of the BIC-like behavior in Perdue & Loeffler, but we also see it in Arizona representatives re-elected to the House—Schweikert, Biggs, Gosar & Lesko. All of them exhibit different variations of the BIC’s character flaws, and they were all re-elected. These Arizona examples are not the only ones. It is this reason I believe we will be dealing with BIC-esque behavior for some time to come. It is a substantial portion of American society who support and encourage their behavior. It is going to take far longer to diminish the influence of that tribe in this once grand republic.
. . . Round two:
“I'm not seeing how Biden breaks the mold in policy at all with his appointees. The revolving door continues. The one bright light in the group is Janet Yellen. She's likely to be a true and useful leader at Treasury, but she's an old DC hand, so that's not breaking the mold. Gender and ancestry don't matter to governance.
“For more clarity on strident Republican politics, I recommend any source with a list of cognitive biases. The first five or so items listed in the Wikipedia article ‘cognitive bias’ pretty much explain the GOP's entire electoral success back to Reagan. Democrats keep insisting that a vague opposition to hatred will win them votes. They fail to address the real issues of ordinary voters, so on balance, they can't overcome the Republican Party's use of simple psychology and electoral-system manipulation.”
. . . my response to round two:
Perhaps your threshold of “breaking the mold” is much higher than mine. Some of the folks he has appointed or nominated so far are unknown to me (at the moment). Others are well known; you cite the most obvious, so far. I tried to give the BIC a break when he started (although he made that process extra hard); I shall endeavor to do the same for President-elect Biden.
Actually, we agree on “cognitive bias” as applied to the BICP. However, I do not agree on your accusation of fecklessness for the Democrats. The Georgia senatorial runoff outcome will have significant if not pivotal impact on the potential of the new government.
. . . Round three:
“My view of breaking the mold is less a threshold than a focus. I'm about policy, not publicity.
“As I keep stating, my political opinions are based on history, not rhetoric. The Democrats have a dismal record of policy achievements that goes back to the Clinton takeover.”
. . . my response to round three:
OK; I can buy that. I’d say I’m more about substance than bluster.
OK, again. I suppose we shall respectfully disagree.
Another contribution:
“It’s not all about Trump as you keep regurgitating.. it’s about a fraudulent election .. fraud of which has been occurring at least the last 20 years .. it’s how they got our Kenyon President in .. who did absolutely NOTHING for the black people.
“Suppose you didn’t watch the AZ hearing today that took place at the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix for 12 hours ? With that much testimony and evidence of fraud you can bet our legislators are going to be calling for a complete audit in Arizona !! And a resulting overturn of the election certification.”
My reply:
I agree in part; it is not all about the BIC. He is only a symptom. However, he is the most notable spokesman simply because of his office, his penchant for Twitter, but perhaps also because of his outrageousness.
As always, opinions and accusations are not evidence. I continue to encourage everyone who believes there was any fraud in the last election to gather up their evidence, file the necessary charges, and stand up in a court of law to present their case for judgment by a judge or jury. The BIC and the BIC Party (BICP, formerly the GOP) have submitted nearly three dozen cases; they filed suits in state and federal courts across the country. They are now appealing the negative court judgments. All of those cases have been thrown out for lack of evidence. Is the Judiciary now part of this grand conspiracy against the BIC? If so, how did so many BICP members get re-elected? How does that happen? I have not yet seen one scintilla of evidence (real factual evidence beyond opinion, supposition, and innuendo)—NONE! I have only seen sound and fury.
Also as always, you are entitled to believe what you wish to believe for whatever reasons you wish to believe them. You are also welcome and encouraged to speak your mind about what you believe. I will listen and try to understand.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
2 comments:
Good morning, Cap,
When Bill Barr turned on the Chump, all I could think of was Pinocchio wanting to be a real boy. Sometimes even the best puppet doesn’t work anymore.
Perhaps those insisting that others get the vaccine should get it themselves so they don’t have to worry about whether others are carriers. That’s my plan.
Enjoy your day,
Calvin
Good morning to you, Calvin,
Short one this week. Thank you for your contribution (of any length).
LOL Interesting observation. Thx. I do not give Barr credit with seeing the light. I will only say I give him credit for some degree of integrity unlike the fellow he works for in the government. He should be working for We, the People, but we have witnessed far too much of his bowing to the BIC.
“Insisting” is perhaps too strong of a word. Encourage is a better word it seems to me. I am against a vaccine mandate for the most part. Just an FYI: I advised and encouraged our youngest son to take the anthrax vaccine as a Marine because it was required for the job. I would not insist that a citizen take the anthrax vaccine; I might encourage a citizen to do so, depending upon circumstances. I am waiting to see the efficacy and side effects of the COVID19 vaccine before I take it, but I expect to do so as soon as it becomes available to my risk group. As I wrote, I will defense any citizen’s right to reject a vaccine, but I will also defend governmental restrictions to minimize the threat of any citizen being a carrier-spreader. Every citizen has a right to decline vaccination, but no citizen has a right to infect other citizens.
“That’s just my opinion, but I could be wrong.”
Stay safe. Take care and enjoy.
Cheers,
Cap
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