Update no.1011

Update from the Sunland

No.1011

24.5.21 – 30.5.21

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

 

            To all,

 

On Wednesday, 26.May.2021, another celestial event occurred—an eclipse of a Blood Supermoon.  Unfortunately, I had to contend with a high, cirrus overcast as well as the obscuring lights of Phoenix to our southwest.  Even with the interference, I could still watch the eclipse.  This one was odd from others I have been able to witness.  The eclipse peak for our location occurred at 04:15 [T] MST with morning nautical twilight beginning at 04:16 and moonset at 05:26, thus the moon was low on the western horizon.  Despite all those negatives, it was still great to watch.

 

            The follow-up news items:

-- Another step closer.  The Manhattan (New York) District Attorney has reportedly impaneled a 23-citizen Special Grand Jury to consider felonious criminal charges against the [person who shall no longer be named] [236 to present] and others for fraudulent business practices.  The Grand Jury will sit for six-months (if not extended), so the clock is ticking.

An interesting twist: the action of the [person who shall no longer be named] to move his residency to Florida [September 2019] may well have been motivated as much to avoid extradition to New York given the development of this investigation.  He presumably saw the handwriting on the wall, when the Supreme Court decided the New York Country district attorney had the authority and right to the subpoenaed tax returns (multiple years) of the [person who shall no longer be named] {Trump vs. Vance [591 U. S. ____ (2020); No. 19–635] [965]}.  His bosom-buddy DeSantis may have already made the commitment to block extradition.  Who knows?

-- On Friday, the Senate voted [54-35-0-11(0)] in favor of insurrection commission [H.R. 3233]; however, the vote was insufficient to break BICP anonymous filibuster (60 votes in favor required).  The vote was technically a vote to reject the cloture motion to override the filibuster.  Six Republican senators voted to invoke cloture—Cassidy of Louisiana, Collins of Maine, Murkowski of Alaska, Portman of Ohio, Romney of Utah, and Sasse of Nebraska.  Eleven senators chose not to vote, presumably to avoid having their vote recorded, of those, two were Democrats—Murray of Washington and Sinema of Arizona, very disappointing.  I imagine the BICP sees their defense of the BIG LIE is vital to their survival; it that, they may well be correct.  What action Congress will take as a consequence of this foolish rejection of the January 6^thcommission is still unclear, but I hope this is not the end of it.

On top of this moral failure of the BICP members to face the truth, we have the Gaetz-Greene traveling clown show in the BICP’s effort to perpetuate the BIG LIE.  I only report this aspect to record the words of Representative Matthew Louis ‘Matt’ Gaetz II of Florida.  The accused pedophile publicly shouted to the gathered believers, “This is [the person who shall no longer be named]’s party.”  You got that right Gaetz.  He went on to declare, “We have a Second Amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it.”  [cheers]  “The Second Amendment, this is a little history lesson for all the fake news media, the Second Amendment is not about . . . it’s not about hunting, it’s not about recreation, it’s not about sports.  The Second Amendment is about maintaining within the citizenry, the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary.  I hope it never does, but it sure is important to recognize the founding principles of this nation, and to make sure they are fully understood.”  The Gaetz statement represents the precise dilemma and conundrum we face in the current political situation.  In a broad sense, Gaetz is correct; however, his intent is for a white supremacist minority to dominate political influence to protect white privilege, and that objective is unconstitutional, immoral, and otherwise an unacceptable notion.

 

I will state here for the record that I strongly and emphatically encourage the U.S. Senate to abandon the anonymous (no effort) filibuster.  I favor returning to the standing oral filibuster of 50 years ago.  If the Senate cannot return to the old form, then I say end it entirely.  The U.S. Constitution never enabled a single anonymous senator to require the entire Senate to vote in a 3/5^th majority for simple legislation.  So, I say make senators stand up and be counted for what they believe or screw them.  This nonsense must end.

 

A week ago Sunday, 23.May.2021, the Belarus dictator Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko ordered a Belarus Air Force MiG-29 fighter to divert Ryanair Flight 4978 from its flight path to Vilnius, Lithuania, to Minsk, Belarus.  The grounding occurred under the pretense of a bomb, but actually the action was to arrest Belarusian dissenter and opposition activist Roman Dmitriyevich Protasevich.  The audacity of the operation is staggering.  They poison dissenters in other sovereign countries, and they order their fighter jets to bring down commercial airliners to arrest those who speak out against the dictator.  Both the EU and the U.S. have proposed heavy sanctions against Belarus and its dictator.  I am not sure how that will work since Belarus receives most, if not all, of its support from Russia.

 

The Biden administration has agreed to a summit conference between President Biden and the dictator Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, next month.  I suppose it is not a surprise that some have begun to criticize President Biden for “rewarding” the Russian dictator with the legitimacy of a summit conference.  I find such actions really bizarre in the light of the previous president’s conduct on the world stage, and especially with the behavior of the [person who shall no longer be named] around and in response to the dictators—Putin, Xi, Salman (Salman), Kim, and Erdoğan.  At least at this stage, there is no reported agenda.

 

It is curiously intriguing that the BICP (former Republican) members of the Senate stand against an independent, bipartisan commission to record what happened on the 6^th of January (a real factual event) and scream at the top of their lungs for the “fraudit” in Arizona on what happened in one county on the 3^rd of November last year (based on false accusations of QAnon and the [person who shall no longer be named]).  The hypocrisy is barely dripping it’s so thick.

 

With insurrection now an acceptable path for the BICP (Republicans), I have been reminded of the Tytler Cycle, again.  Law professor and lawyer Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee observed, “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.  From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”  Tytler went onto note, “The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.  During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;

From courage to liberty;

From liberty to abundance;

From abundance to complacency;

From complacency to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependence back into bondage.”

At 232 to 247 years depending upon event you choose for the beginning of the republic, we are passed Tytler’s longevity threshold for a republic.  Further, what we endured for the last four years and especially after the 6^th of January, we are well into the dependence phase and headed to bondage.  The ready embrace of the BICP (Republicans) ihres Anführershas led that substantial segment of our citizenry to the comfort of dictatorship.  I imagine Valodya Putin has been a diligent student of Alexander Tytler . . . or perhaps it was Josef Stalin.  To Tytler, the most stable, enduring, and efficient form of government is a monarchy.  To Putin, Xi, and the [person who shall no longer be named], it is a dictatorship—the ultimate in bondage.  The question before us is, are we strong enough to step back from the precipice to prove Tytler and the believers of the [person who shall no longer be named] wrong?  Will we preserve what is left of this once grand republic, or will we complete the Tytler Cycle?  It is up to the rest of us to save this once grand republic, and hopefully, return the country to grand and stable status.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.1010:

Comment to the Blog:

“The Democrats will not have a January 6 investigation without ending or modifying the filibuster.  McConnell holds the power in the Senate despite leading a minority party.

“On the discussion of law enforcement: A) any training in threat assessment should somehow overcome in-group thinking.  That ‘us against them’ approach colors all of these events.  B) Your point about law enforcement getting involved only when infractions are involved is unrealistic.  If there’s no infraction available, taillights will be kicked in or some ‘discretionary’ ordinance invoked.  Been there, had it done to me, and I know I’m one of many.  C) Not ‘any’ mentally ill or addicted person can or will suddenly become violent.  A few might.  Not even close to all.  That’s another reason for people with mental illness training to be involved somehow.

“The Middle East has been inflamed since the Canaanites returned from Egypt.  We’re not going to change that.

“The New York Times' ‘Morning’ column points out that the vaccination ‘gap’ correlates more to class than race or party.  I’ve been going unheard for several years on the class strife issue.  At least we’re almost done with the damn-fool masks.”

My response to the Blog:

You may well be correct.  Time shall tell the tale . . . I hope soon.  Every other similar commission of which I am aware of did great job—Pearl Harbor, JFK assassination, Watergate, Church Committee, 9/11, et cetera.  None of them were perfect.  We need the 6th January commission.  It will not be perfect.  I want to see how the Majority Leader handles this situation.

To your 2^nd paragraph comments:

A. Yes, absolutely!  Unfortunately, easier said than done.  I have heard too many chiefs parroting the party line and not enough chiefs willing to take on the status quo.

B. I am not quite so pessimistic.  A LE officer who will “kick in” a person’s taillight is by definition a bad cop.  As long as we accept bad conduct, we will continue to get what we’ve always got.

C. I don’t think any responsible person claimed ‘all.’  Those who do resist, are non-compliant, and/or resort to violence seem to have mental illness and/or intoxication involved, but certainly not all.  Sure, I imagine there are substantive numbers of incidents that claim mental illness, but they have no clinical mental illness.  We see too many resisters using the “I can breathe” excuse.  Mental illness seems to be becoming a defense for felonious conduct.

So, should we just give up and tolerate this intractable violence?

I’ve seen stronger evidence the vaccine gap correlates closely to political alignment.

We’re not discarding our unused masks.  Class strife has been a plague upon us since before the founding; yes, absolutely, it remains an issue to this very day and will likely continue to be an issue, e.g., systemic racism.  Now, “that group” is resisting vaccine passports.  Why?  Because they know there are restrictions coming for those unvaccinated citizens.  And, I will say rightly so.  I can and will argue that unvaccinated citizens are a threat to public safety for a host of reasons.  As such, they should face restrictions.

 . . . Round two:

“What Mitch McConnell does will serve his own purposes, not the national well-being.

“The ‘bad cop’ argument is flawed.  Even if they were unusual, systemic issues attract and protect them.

“The person who said ‘all’ mentally ill people and addicts were dangerous was you.  Did you read what you wrote?

“We must treat police violence separately from society’s violence.  If there’s any relationship, the brutality of law enforcement gives people less hope of justice, leading them to resort to violence.

“You may keep wearing your masks until banks and others recognize the risk of masked customers.  For my part, I’m vaccinated but not indoctrinated.”

 . . . my response to round two:

Oh my, you got that right.  Spinelessness, fickleness, arbitrariness and hypocrisy are certainly not obstructions to the pursuit of power for McConnell and his ilk.

What I cannot accept is the indictment of all law enforcement for the actions of a few.  I advent of cellphones with still & video cameras has alter the landscape in this particular debate.  We watched Chauvin murder George Floyd.  We have witnessed bad cops.  We know they exist.  But, their existence does not color the whole of the law enforcement profession.  We also witness heroic action of law enforcement to save individuals from danger and to protect us.  I am not trying to dampen the outrage over the actions of bad cops.  I am only seeking balance.

Yes, I read what I wrote numerous times.  Please pardon my ineptitude with the English language, but I cannot find my use of “all” with respect to mentally ill and gun violence, or even an implied “all.”  Please help me see the error of my words.

There may well be a correlation between societal violence and LE violence.  After all, the correlation exists in history, e.g., the Wild Wild West.

I am also vaccinated but not indoctrinated.  Full stop.

 . . . Round three:

“The notion of ‘indictment’ off all officers is in itself an attempt to assign individual responsibility for a systemic problem.  The system is the issue, not the individuals.  We need change, not blame.

“In my reading of your very complex post, I lost track of your quoting some anonymous contributor to some other blog.  Here's the sentence in question: ‘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 the 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.’  It was indeed someone else's statement.  The reading comprehension level here is even beyond mine sometimes.”

 . . . my response to round three:

I can agree with your assessment with one proviso—such systems are people.  As Lao Tzu observed 2500 years ago, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”  Democratic change (small ‘d’) is inherently slow, but we must persist.  We shall overcome.

Thank you for the acknowledgment.  Beyond that, in the contributor’s words, I do not see the word all—explicit or implicit.  The contributor was discussing the potential of any given encounter turning violent or bad.  Is that not a true statement?

 . . . Round four:

“It's important to distinguish the law-enforcement system (policies and procedures) from the individuals who compose it in order to address the issues.  The pretense that removing a few ‘bad apple’ individuals will bring about real change has cost us decades of failure.

“The person you quoted used an absolute about mentally ill or addicted people: ‘any mentally ill (or drug/alcohol induced) subject, can quickly go from sitting and having a chit-chat about the benefits of the San Diego Zoo, to going absolutely wild with super-human adrenaline kick-in. . .’ They said ‘any,’ not some or those with specific diagnoses, etc.  I read that literally, of course.”

 . . . my response to round four:

With respect, my friend, I think you are excessively simplifying the situation or circumstances.  Removing a few bad LE officers will not solve the systemic racism problem in law enforcement or any other segment of society.  Again, with respect, racism is a learned (taught) trait.  Parents teach their children.  Racism has not been in the law for decades, and not in the U.S. Constitution for 153 years.  Systemic racism is in the minds of the people who implement and execute policies developed by men with racism in their hearts.  Yes, systemic racism is far larger than a few “bad apples.”  But, removal of bad officers before they kill someone is a really good place to start.  Lastly, also with respect, removing “bad apples” is not a failed process because it has not been executed in far too many locations, e.g., Minneapolis; they knew Chauvin was a “bad apple” a long time ago, and they refused to intercede.  I fear your words imply throwing the baby out with the bath water.  We cannot disband or terminate police functions to rebuild/reform a new system.  And, there will still be flawed men with racism in their hearts that they learned from their parents.

In my understanding of the English language, the contributor’s words were not absolutes, but rather an obvious potential.  There is a huge difference between an absolute and a potential.  The law sees mental illness in general as a potential, e.g., innocent by reason of insanity, or mental incapacitation.  I do not read the contributor’s words the same way that you apparently do.  The only people I know who resort to absolutes are at the political extremes—both left and right.

 . . . Round five:

“Removing ‘bad apples’ is a failed process because more of the same events continue to happen.  Apparently, bad apples are still in the system even after we remove the most prominent ones.”

 . . . my response to round five:

I agree, and that is because the police unions and impotent chiefs have not broken the shell.  That’s all people.  Perhaps it will take the law to break the grip of the police unions, but I would like to think there is a more productive process.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)