Update no.1010

Update from the Sunland

No.1010

17.5.21 – 23.5.21

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

 

            To all,

 

            The follow-up news items:

-- A friend from the Motherland sent along this URL:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57166735

And asked, “Is this the final answer to the future of your unnamable former leader?”

To which I responded:

Yeah, been on the news this morning.  No, the final answer will be when he enters federal prison for his crimes.  It is getting closer.

He has always been a charlatan, huckster and con man (since he was a boy) [705 through 993] who convinced 74M citizens to drink his magic snake-oil elixir and believe.

I predict, even after he is sent to federal prison, he will try to conduct business like an incarcerated mob boss, and there will be believers standing in line to do his bidding.

Damn, that's a rather bleak prognostication.

-- On Wednesday the 19^th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3233 – National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act, to investigate the genesis and action of the insurrection [991].  The vote [House: 252-175-0-3(5)] included 35 Republicans, who defied their party leadership and their disgraced leader, to vote in favor of the bill.  House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Representative Bennie Gordon Thompson of Mississippi and Ranking Member Representative John Michael Katko of New York had negotiated the text of the bill jointly in good faith and in a true bipartisan manner, only to have it fall victim to the whims of the [person who shall no longer be named].  Of course he does not want an investigation; he is a principal object of such an investigation.  What is really staggering is both McCarthy and McConnell who argued vociferously on the floor of their respective chambers in favor of a thorough bipartisan investigation, now salute their führer.  You know, the dictator Putin may well be correct—democracy is dead.  Quite a few former Republicans publicly supported the need for the commission, only to have the party leaders pull fingernails to ensure compliance with the dicta of der führer.  The bill goes to the Senate for consideration.

 

For history aficionados, I strongly recommend a PBS Nova program titled Hindenberg: The New Evidence, broadcast on Wednesday, 19.May.2021.  They presented new experimentation to demonstrate the likely cause of the 6.May.1937 disaster—the destruction of the Nazi, hydrogen-filled, airship Hindenberg on landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, after completing a trans-Atlantic crossing.  The combination of circumstances based on the known facts is replicated and establishes the likely cause of the disaster—static discharge near a hydrogen leak in the tail containment bag.  And, as they say, the rest is history.

 

From an on-going exchange from a different network regarding the confluence of Law Enforcement (LE) and mental illness, I have extracted a portion of the thread that is relevant to this forum and based upon an encounter between LE and a mentally ill woman.  

I said: 

“Mental illness does not entitle to or absolve her from breaking the law.  If she is that incapacitated, she should not be wandering around in public; such incapacity is a threat to public safety.  On the flip side, LE must have some humanity.  We really need an in between, mental health professionals, like EMT, to avoid these LE confrontations.”

To which, the contributor replied: 

“I think what needs to be addressed in law enforcement training/tactics for officer safety framework, is who is a potential threat and who likely is not a threat. I realize on initial contact, lawmen cannot make that assessment as easily as they might like.  I've watched the subject video a few times and think the male officer was far too heavy handed with an elderly lady.  Of course he had no way of knowing she had dementia.  My problem I had with the male and female officers is how they seemed to celebrate watching their badge CAM videos once the woman was in a holding cell, injured, in distress, and that is what decided for me, my opinion that I don't think the male and female officers belong in law enforcement nor upholding the age long mantra: "To protect & serve". The male officer, furthermore, was far too interested in impressing upon his female partner, while an elderly woman with dementia, and an injury resulting from the arrest, sat in a cell while cold, scared, confused and likely in great pain.

“In San Diego, both our SDPD, sheriff's department, and local agencies, for years have deployed PERT volunteers as ride-alongs with patrol officers.  PERT= Psychiatric Emergency Response Team. Trained professionals in psychology, intervention, substance abuse, and more. Plus most the departments have trained negotiators who get extensive education on deescalation goal communication.  I believe our society in the future will need much more of this, the problem of course is you cannot have a PERT member in each patrol car, and as crime is rising along with mental illness, how do you cover each 911 call?  Maybe more officers/deputies/troopers/agents will need to get personal training to be both a PERT kind and COP kind when/if needed.

“[Another contributor] has pointed out something important, which is America has an enormous amount of guns, both legal and illegal, and lots of violence.  Understandably, cops are on the defensive when they first stop a vehicle, or respond to a husband vs. wife argument.  Things can go south as quick as an airplane stall/spin.  Enough case evidence where husband beats on wife, 911 call is made, cops response and peacefully take husband into custody for DV, then ‘victim’ wife all of a sudden grabs a kitchen knife and is advancing on the arresting officer.  Like in flying airplanes: Expect the unexpected!”

I replied:

Good points all.  LE usually does not get involved unless there is some infraction or violation of local law, e.g., broken taillight, jaywalking, public intoxication, walking in traffic, and such.  We can argue about whether LE should get involved in minor misdemeanor violations, but the law is the law.  If we don’t want the law enforced, don’t make the law.  The law is not the deterrent; LE is.

Yes, their reaction to her detention was disgusting.  It is precisely that kind of inhumanity that alienates LE from the society they are sworn to serve.  It was the paucity of any humanity in the George Floyd case that was the most damning to me; he enjoyed what he was doing; to me, Chauvin’s conduct was verging upon sociopathic, if not psychopathic.

The inclusion of PERT volunteers seems to be a worthy first step.  But, there are more steps needed to help avoid confrontations between LE and the mentally ill.  If someone is that incapacitated to not understand basic safe, respectful, public conduct, then respectfully, those individuals should be in an environment more compatible with their affliction, not in the public domain.  The laws are intended for public safety and good order & discipline for everyone’s benefit.  Mental illness cannot and never should be an excuse for aberrant or unlawful conduct.

That said, resistance and non-compliance are a direct threat to LE, who are just trying to do what we have asked them to do.  If we don’t want LE doing something, don’t make laws.  Yes, absolutely, de-escalation is an essential skill for professional LE.  Yet, there are always bad men and some actually make it into LE with a badge & a gun.

The contributor added:

“[M]ore and more cops may need additional training on evaluation, communication and de-escalating skills (often by the very words one chooses).  That balance between being PERT and COP is vital as any mentally ill (or drug/alcohol induced) subject, can quickly go from sitting and having a chit-chat about the benefits of San Diego Zoo, to going absolutely wild with super-human adrenaline kick-in, where it takes literally 10 cops to control that subject and get a set of cuffs on them.  Or, that same person can pull a knife, grab a hammer, and be an absolute deadly threat to officers.  I know you know of the 21-foot rule, and many times cops breach that in order to communicate with a subject/suspect, and attempt to humanize things and de-escalate the trend-vector. If any of the readers here do not understand nor value the 21-foot rule, I suggest some further research on the well documented rule."

I responded:

“Yeah, but even with PERT at the scene, mental illness does not give anyone a pass when breaking the law.  Some type of diversion/assistance/restriction is needed.  Whether PERT or LE, their first priority is self-defense, self-protection; second priority is public safety.  When any perp, mentally ill or not, violates those thresholds, action to diffuse the situation becomes paramount.  The 21-foot rule is time—time to react appropriately.  It is not particularly different from any other security system; there is no such thing as perfect security.  And, any system is intended to buy time for appropriate reaction.”

 

On Thursday the 20^th, President Biden signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act [PL 117-xxx; S.937; House: 364-62-0-3(6); Senate: 94-1-0-5(0); 135 Stat. xxx] by a substantial bipartisan majority.  The text of the new law is more apple pie and motherhood.  While the purpose of the law is relevant and appropriate given the flare up of discriminatory violence against American citizens of Asian ancestry, it does not do much other than illuminate the mindlessness of hate crimes.  Of course, what would life be during these days without Senator Joshua David ‘Josh’ Hawley of Missouri standing as the lone BICP senator voting against the bill?

 

After nearly two weeks of combat, the Hamas Palestinian terrorist group sponsored by the IRI & the Israelis agreed to a ceasefire on Thursday, 20.May.2021, in the latest flare-up in the region.  As with all things, there is plenty of wrong on both sides.  However, boiled down to its base elements, I see the hand of the Republican Guard of the IRI.  They are intent upon stirring things up and imposing just another obstacle for the Biden administration to deal with along the way.  I have never been a fan of Prime Minister Netanyahu and especially the damnable Israeli settlement policy.  The intractable violence in the region has stopped for this tenuous moment, but the underlying root causes have not changed.  This is only a temporary respite.

 

Among all of the ridiculousness we are immersed in these days, I have seen the same words—“Masks are slavery.”  Then we have that outrageous woman in the House of Representatives who repeatedly tried to compare the requirement for masks in public contact situations to the murder of 11M people including 6M Jews during the Holocaust.  What struck me is such statements are the definition of insanity—not based on fact, only emotion.  Worse, the emotion is misguided and fueled by the nonsense of ihr anführer.  The end of these foolish notions is not in sight, which makes me wonder how long we must endure this idiocy.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.1009:

Comment to the Blog:

“I have been considering indoctrination lately, in light of its failure as a virus response.  One issue with both that and King Baby’s ‘big lie’ approach is that we have many more voices than we had even as recently as the Clinton Administration.  The Big Lie is premised on a society having only one dominant source of information.

“The letter signed by conventional (non-cult) Republicans probably will not affect anything.

“I have no idea, other than indoctrination, why people profess surprise that the restrictions are failing.  I’m surprised indeed that they lasted longer than six months.  Our governor here in Ohio made a simpler announcement.  All the restrictions will be removed by June 2.”

My response to the Blog:

Indeed!  All of that you say and the BIG LIE depends upon believers who do not question information.  Some folks simply do not care to take time to learn, to research, to question the accuracy and reliability of the information they are being fed.  Some of this nonsense is easily refuted.  Other bits are far more difficult to refute since the source is hidden or masked.  The BIG LIE is an excellent example—slivers of truth to validate the LIE.  Was there attempted fraud in the 2020 election.  Yes, absolutely.  I suspect there have been fraud attempts in every election since elections were conceived and performed.  The question is really, were the fraud attempts successful?  If so, were they relevant or substantive.  There are examples of success, e.g., the 1960 presidential election in Chicago, Cook County, and Ballot Box no.13 in Texas (1948).  Such success inspires nefarious fellows to take the risk.  The issue has never been whether there was fraud; it has been and remains whether the fraud could even remotely affect the outcome.  There is zero evidence that any attempted fraud in the 2020 was successful and more importantly had any effect on the outcome.  At the bottom line, the BIG LIE stays alive because sufficient believers do not question the information they are being fed, or they have nefarious or malevolent purposes.

Yeah, probably not.  From what I see, the size of the sanity movement is insufficient to overcome the forces that enabled the [person who shall no longer be named] to achieve power.  Those forces have not gone away.  It is going to take a lot of time to overcome those forces.

You call them restrictions, which implies the force of law—true in some places, not in others.  There is no federal law.  I see them as guidelines intended to protect the public . . . all people in public spaces.  I am grateful we have achieved what we have, but I think the guidelines are being lifted too soon for one reason alone—far too many people refuse to be inoculated against the virus.  That reality makes that segment of our society a fertile ground for perpetuation of the virus and worse they enable the inevitable mutation of the virus.  The virus is going to adapt and find a way to overcome the vaccine or antibody immunity.  I suspect this rush to abandon the guidelines will give us another spike of cases.  I truly hope not, but that is my worry.

 . . . Round two:

“Those restrictions have had the force of law in many places including here.  Much of that was misguided, and the agencies issuing them long since lost credibility.”

 . . . my response to round two:

Let’s accept as a given that you as well as most folks do not like the CDC guidelines for a host of reasons (some valid, others not).  The question that keeps coming back to my consciousness is, what would you (or anyone else) propose we do differently?  Surely, you are not signing up to the do nothing, every man for himself, laissez-faire approach advocated by the [person who shall no longer be named].  I will point out that much of the confusion and conflict in the current status of the pandemic response was induced by the prior administration.  The scientists, with the quiet support of the current administration, are working to climb out of the hole dug for them by the previous administration.  If anything, I think they may be trying too hard.  Those responsible agencies (NIH, CDC, FDA, HHS) lost credibility directly because of the [person who shall no longer be named], and his overriding narcissism and egocentricity.  He was literally desperate to avoid being held accountable.  I know and acknowledge that you do not want to talk about him, but he is the root cause for what we are dealing with today (in many more ways than one).

 . . . Round three:

“That people ‘do not like’ the mis-guidelines is a given.  What I said is that the agencies lost their credibility.  Their insistence on making people afraid, their claims of efficacy for useless masks, and their extended focus on minor risks such as droplets wiped that out.  What we should have done is what other, more successful nations have done.  They provided real personal protective equipment to at-risk workers, closed borders, and focused on all forms of congregate living, not just nursing homes.”

 . . . my response to round three:

A couple of further thoughts, if you will allow me.  1.) I read your words and what I perceive is, your position is all or nothing.  You see no value to something is better than nothing.  2.) What got us to this position was the USG lack of preparedness and logistics failures, not the science.  The scientists were left with trying to make lemonade out of the lemons they were handed because of the politicization.  3.) “Real PPE” is a symptom, not the root cause.  The objective was to break the chain of infection.  4.) The pandemic response (or rather lack of proper response) has been and remains predominantly political, not scientific or factual.

So, with that said, are you suggesting the proper going forward position should be to issue every citizen a dozen N95 masks?  Or perhaps even hazmat suits along with disinfecting stations to avoid the objectionable properties of facial masks?

 . . . Round four:

“(A) My ‘no value’ position on lesser masks comes from personal experience with PM2.5 particulates, exactly the size we're discussing.  Non-medical and cloth masks do me no good with that.

“(B) I object to the use of the word ‘science’ to describe correlations (weak ones, at that), educated guesses, and never-investigated claims by pretty much anyone.

“My statements stand.”

 . . . my response to round four:

My apologies.  I did not realize we were discussing your personal position.  You know best what you need.  The USG must provide generally applicable guidance, not individual prescription.  Certainly, some of the masks in use are of far less value than the N95 variants, but I still content that something is better than nothing.

With respect, my friend, we do not know as a fact that black holes exist in the universe; we see collateral effect that lead us to conclude they do.  We do not know exactly how single cells divide to form specific tissues, but we know that they do.  However, science entails collecting facts and rendering judgment based on the facts we have.  As new facts become available, we refine our conclusions.  We are dealing with the behavior of microscopic single virus cells in the living tissue of a human host.  The scientists make the best judgments they can based on the facts they have.  Science, or scientia in Latin, means knowledge, and is the testable examination of facts.  Most of medicine is based on examination of the facts we have.  The science of epidemiology is no different.

My statements stand.

 . . . Round five:

“Enough discussion of masks.  Your discussion of black holes etc. is a diversion and perhaps a failure to understand the scientific method.”

 . . . my response to round five:

As you wish . . .  I offered an analogy, not a diversion.  I see no reason to defend my understanding of scientific methods.  I recognize and acknowledge your medical reasons for doffing the facial mask.  You are vaccinated, so I believe you can lose the facial mask except when using mass transit systems or in close contact situations.  ‘Nuf said.

 

Another contribution:

“Four Horsemen of Calumny?  You have me their Cap.”

My reply:

Yeah, not a common term in your country or mine.  However, the word is quite descriptive and appropriate.  She spoke those words 70 years ago, but they are spot on accurate with today’s malfeasance.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)