Update no.1019

Update from the Sunland

No.1019

19.7.21 – 25.7.21

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

 

            To all,

 

We completed our Midwest family visit on Tuesday. We enjoyed our last supper with middle son and family at Matt’s El Rancho restaurant.

I was informed that the unnamed globular cluster I referred to in Update no.1018 was M13 (AKA NGC 6205, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, or the Hercules Globular Cluster). The image shown in this URL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_13#/media/File:M13_crop.jpg

was roughly what we saw last Saturday night. Thank you, again, Bob.

Blessedly, the flight home was equally uneventful as the outbound flight—no delays, no turbulence, and no Karens.

We arrived home safely and were excited to see the dogs, who were very well taken care of at home. Thank you, Tori.

We are most grateful that we were able to visit with virtually our entire immediate family. Y’all made our 10-day visit perfect. We love you all.

 

Due to our travel schedule, we had to watch the launch of the Blue Origin, New Shepard, RSS First Step flight at the airport gate on the departure concourse in Austin, Texas. The passengers on the first manned flight (no pilots required) were:

-- Jeffrey Preston ‘Jeff’ Bezos né Jorgensen – the owner of Blue Origin

-- Mark Bezos – younger brother of Jeff

-- Mary Wallace ‘Wally’ Funk – a veteran aviator, Mercury-13 astronaut candidate, and now the oldest person to reach space

-- Oliver Daemen – 18-year-old son of Joes Daemen, formally joined the crew on 15.July, after the person with the winning US$28M bid in a 12.June auction [1016], declared “scheduling conflicts” and chose to fly at a later date. Daemen’s father had the second highest bid and elected to have his son take his seat. Young Daemen became the youngest person (so far) to reach space.

The spacecraft launched at 08:12 [S] CST on the NS-16 mission from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas, near Van Horn. They reached 351,215 feet (107 kilometers) at apogee and then descended by parachute to a soft landing. Congratulations to Blue Origin and their flawless mission.

Next up in this money space race is SpaceX mission SN16, which is reportedly being reconfigured for an orbital flight and reentry; no launch date or mission details have been disclosed, as yet.

 

            The follow-up news items:

-- The National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act (HR 3233) [1010] was passed by the House and sent to the Senate where it failed to achieve the necessary super-majority by Senate rules [1011], although six (6) Republican senators did vote for the act. As a consequence, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Patricia Pelosi née D'Alesandro of California decided that if the Senate fBICP members could block a bipartisan national commission on the facts associated with the 6^th of January insurrection, then the House would go it alone. The Speaker promptly appointed the commission members assigned to her. House Minority Leader Representative Kevin Owen McCarthy of California eventually put forth his five nominees for the Insurrection Commission in accordance with the rules:

-- Kelly Michael Armstrong of North Dakota

-- James Edward ‘Jim’ Banks of Indiana 

-- Rodney Lee Davis of Illinois

-- James Daniel ‘Jim’ Jordan of Ohio 

-- Troy Edwin Nehls Texas 

In accordance with the bill passed by the House, Pelosi objected to two of those nominees (in red above), rightly so; those two are hardly impartial seekers of the truth—and that is on the public record. Impetuously, McCarthy withdrew all five. Representative Cheney of Wyoming laid into McCarthy hard and rightly so. As of this writing, it is not clear whether Speaker Pelosi will appoint other Republicans to the commission in place of the five withdrawn members. With or without additional Republicans, the commission is scheduled to hear the first testimony this coming Tuesday.

Footnote: While I hold onto hope we shall eventually see the facts associated with the January 6^th insurrection, we must not forget that we bear witness is the corrosive acid of tribalism, and the continuing destruction wrought by the [person who shall no longer be named] and the fBICP he still commands.

 

I watched the CNN Presidential Town Hall with Joe Biden held at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday, 21.July.2021. CNN news anchor Don Lemon hosted the town hall event. President Biden’s hereditary speech affliction does not help him, but it is his use of fillers, e.g., “seriously,” “I’m not joking,” “I’m serious,” “here’s the deal (thing) (whatever),” “I really mean it,” et cetera, that offend my ears and sense of effective oratory. He has a good message, but he must work on his delivery. He has a good heart, but his use of fillers in his speech obscures that reality. The man has infinitely more compassion than his predecessor and displayed a quality I admire that was completely devoid in his predecessor—humility. All in all, it was a good event in my humble opinion.

 

A friend and former colleague offered up an opinion on Critical Race Theory (CRT), which has been made a hot-button issue for the fBICP and so-called conservatives. S/he made a Facebook post on the following article:

“Biden admin promotes radical group pushing critical race theory in schools – A critical race theory handbook is intended to disrupt Whiteness and oppression”

By Ethan Barton | Fox News

Published: 21.July.2021

https://www.foxnews.com/us/biden-admin-promotes-radical-group-critical-race-theory-schools?fbclid=IwAR0QAP0Pt9mjmrMfMRa8gLDadHdQVbDL_x3Mhx35V_HwoAri4qJbY2c-yE8

 . . . to which I replied:

Ignorance over knowledge

 . . . followed by this response:

“[T]his (CRT) is not helpful in anyway, it is creating division and essentially teaching kids to judge people by their skin color and their ethnicity…how will this impact the hundreds of thousand bi-racial families? Who get’s the label? Dad? Mom, Cousins? Brothers? Sisters? Grandparents? 

“Kids don’t give a damn about color, why teach them make it a consideration about their friends or anyone else?

“Ignorance is not understanding the long-term affect of categorizing people by their color or ethnicity and/or holding current generations responsible for acts/history from previous generations.”

 . . . and my follow-up reply:

I shall respectfully disagree. I think you are misreading the essence of CRT. First, CRT is not taught in elementary or secondary schools; it is a university level hypothetical intended to examine the issue. This is a boogeyman red herring. Second, children should be taught that white privilege is wrong. White folks, in general, are no better or worse than citizens with dark skin pigmentation. Children are taught hate; that is exactly how racists are created. To deny, the vast weight of institutional discrimination and white privilege is exactly choosing ignorance over knowledge. As Justice Brandeis who eloquently and succinctly stated, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

 . . . the exchange degenerated from here.

 

On Friday, 23.July.2021, we had rain for most of the day including flash flood warnings. The rain was a very welcome change. Lightning and thunder peaked in the middle of naptime, and then, just when the thunder was moving away, Sadie started barking—a habit she has when she needs to adjust her stomach. Oh well, I am grateful; we needed the rain. The rain continued off & on through the weekend. In a very unusual event, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning for a life-threatening situation, along with this warning, ”Do not attempt travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.” Our pool is close to overflowing. The last few days appear to be a “be careful what you wish for” occasion. The NWS has recorded more than six inches of rainfall in areas that will go a good way to filling up the reservoirs.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.1018:

Comment to the Blog:

“I'm glad you enjoyed your family. It's a shame you have to travel so far to see them. I have not flown since the Department of Homeland Security was formed, nor will I.

“I have noted a large increase in 4-wheeler recklessness and have also seen news reports on that. The situation of trucks blocking all lanes of a freeway is something I've never encountered for more than half a minute.

“I have noted here that I have benefited from white privilege and been aware of it especially in police situations. I agree that we all need awareness of those issues. Critical Race Theory, in and of itself, doesn't address that and isn't what Republicans have been representing it to be. Their presentation is one more wedge issue.

“‘The Motherland’ like the Fatherland is a term with a history.

“The central difference between Hitler and the Chump is that Hitler's operation was more organized and coherent. That may be all it takes to defeat him, but the Internet is a major wild card.

“Term limits will not change the fact that power is for sale in DC. Only addressing the flow of money in politics will do that. Distributing that power via a “one voter, one vote” set of policies would help a bit. That said, I would like to see a mandatory retirement age of 70 or 75.”

My response to the Blog:

Yeah, it has been a bit of a journey, but well worth the effort.

I am sorry you have been limited in your travel options. I am not sure why the creation of the Department of Homeland Security is such a dramatic demarcation, nor why the resistance for commercial flight, but I certainly respect your choices. We went through the qualification process for TSA Pre-Check, which gets us about as close to pre-9/11 ease of airline travel as we can at this stage.

You are fortunate to have had a better roadway experience than what we encountered on this trip. I hope it continues to improve. We have a short journey to the airport and turn in our rental car for the flight home this morning. We are ready to be home with our dogs.

Exactly, the fBICP & QAnon crowd have maligned CRT to stoke the white fear, white rage and xenophobia that sustains the fires of hatred among that group. They are desperate to find any angle, any toehold, they can to divide us and mobilize the believers. They know they are a dwindling political party, and they need a force-multiplier. I am not yet a student of CRT, but I know enough to recognize the reality as you state it. Our future generations must be more knowledgeable and informed than we were.

Absolutely! We must not forget our history.

Excellent observation of history. Hitler’s NSDAP Nazis knew precisely what they wanted and had to do . . . become the state and use “state security” to enforce their ideology on everyone within their reach. One of their first objectives was the free Press, which they eliminated by assassination and imprisonment. Yes, the Internet is a monstrous wild card; the Web allows amplification of propaganda by orders of magnitude compared to what Hitler and Goebbels had available to them. We bear witness to the consequences. But, the answer is not censorship; it is knowledge and enlightenment.

I cannot disagree with your statement. Money corrupts, period, full stop. Yes, term limits alone will not solve the problem. Citizens United altered the political landscape substantially, if not monumentally. Stare decisis and the stolen seats (plural!) on the Supreme Court bench will block amendment or elimination of that myopic ruling, so only a constitutional amendment can produce the necessary reform. I think 70 or 75 is too much, but coupled with term limits, it might be useful.

 . . . Round two:

“The Department of Homeland [in]Security, from the name onward, is a menace to a free society. Both keywords of the name have long histories of abuse, and the nature and mission of the agency enable that.

“The issue about misinformation on the Internet is the multitude of sources. People can stay in that ecosystem of distortion and never realize that they are losing track of reality. For example, a Pentecostal friend sent me links to four articles yesterday. One came from Forbes and was at least worth reading. The other three were from Fox "News" and two unknown sources. The content of those three was not related to the reality that I know.

“I hope your trip to the airport and your flight go/went well.”

 . . . my response to round two:

“A menace to a free society,” well, I am afraid I cannot agree with that rather stark assessment. I can and will agree there have been abuses, but to me, those abuses are reflections of the flaws of the people charged with operations. I do not see DHS in any different light than I do DoJ and state AGs who zealously expand their interpretation of the law by their biases.

Spot on! The plethora of information places inordinate burden upon all of us much like intelligence agencies that must constantly evaluate and filter information of the accuracy and reliability of the sources, and relevance of the information. It seems to me, most folks do not take the time to perform that filtration process, which leaves them with affinity to validate their preconceptions. Regrettably and unfortunately, this reality offers a very fertile ground for misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and outright fraud.

 . . . Round three:

“It seems to be a common trait to assign blame for systemic failings to ‘a few bad apples’ or whatever term means individuals. The surveillance and control mission of DHS makes the abuses pretty much inevitable.”

 . . . my response to round three:

That is a fair criticism. However, as for me, organizations are like other inanimate objects. It is the people who work in such organizations that take actions and fail at their jobs. In my opinion, to say that there are systemic failings is like saying a rifle or pistol can fire itself. It is the checks & balances of good structures that are intended to restrain the over-zealousness of individuals. Let us focus on the root cause(s). The Department of Homeland Security, like the police, the FBI, the CIA, et al, serve an important and valuable purpose. Let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 . . . Round four:

“Yep, organizations are made up of people (duh). However, when those people are given organized authority and responsibility, the organization becomes an entity beyond the individual people, and it acts in ways the individuals couldn't and mostly wouldn't. Systemic change is called for.”

 . . . my response to round four:

It is other flawed human beings who exercise that authority as best they know how. An organization cannot act, just like a rifle cannot fire itself. I can agree that improvements can always be made. I suppose the issue for us in this particular topic is a matter of degree. What does systemic change look like regarding the DHS? It is this question that causes me to baulk. I have never been for change for change’s sake. I need to see the expected outcome. The DHS has had an extraordinarily difficult task to perform from the get-go. They have made mistakes in their zealousness to protect the homeland. As those mistakes have been discovered, corrections have been made. Change is slower, but less traumatic.

 . . . Round five:

“I see no good in the DHS as such. Its legitimate duties and personnel ought to be dispersed among the appropriate agencies in order to lower the risk of abuse.”

 . . . my response to round five:

It is unfortunate you feel that way. Needless to say, I do not agree. I still think the underlying reasons for the creation of DHS remain valid, just as there was a need for DNI. Your suggestion seems an awful lot like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

But hey, “That’s just my opinion, but I could be wrong.”

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)