Update no.1048

 Update from the Sunland

No.1048

7.1222 – 13.2.22

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

 

            To all,

 

            The follow-up news items:

-- On Tuesday the 8^th, Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky held a brief, impromptu news conference. A reporter asked the minority leader about the Republican National Committee (RNC) action last week regarding the censure of Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger, and the RNC calling the January 6^th insurrection “legitimate political discourse” [1047]. McConnell responded, “We were all here. We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. That's what it was." [emphasis mine] The Senate minority leader went on to add, "The issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That's not the job of the RNC.”

Of course, the sycophants were prompt in their rebuttal on behalf of their lord and master. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri declared, “Whatever you think about the RNC vote, it reflects the view of most Republicans.” And, therein lies the rub. Hawley is exactly correct. We see plainly what the fBICP believes—the BIG LIE, of which “legitimate political discourse” is now a part.

Then, as is his penchant, the [oh so great orange one] was incapable of walking away in the face of the truth. He is so bloody predictable. The next day, [the person who shall no longer be named] issued the following public statement

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the

United States of America

Mitch McConnell does not speak for the Republican Party, [sic] and does not represent the views of the vast majority of its voters. He did nothing to fight for his constituents and stop the most fraudulent election in American history. And he does nothing to stop the lawless Biden Administration, the invasion of our Borders, rising Inflation, Unconstitutional mandates, the persecution of political opponents, fact finding on the incompentent [sic] Afghanistan withdrawal, the giving away our energy independence, etc., which is all because of the fraudulent election. Instead, he bails out the Radical Left and the RINOs.

 

If Mitch would have fought for the election, like the Democrats would have if in the same position, we would not be discussing any of the above today, and our Country would be STRONG and PROUD instead of weak and embarrassed.

Since the man has demonstrated consistently over many years, he is incapable of telling the truth. Thus, despite his protestation, I would say Senator McConnell was spot on correct, and the conclusive evidence to that fact is the statement directly above.

Many people ask me why I cannot stop poking at [the person who shall no longer be named]. I offer the latest evidentiary example—number gazillion. He will not go away and disappear into the dustbin of history, and he cannot be allowed to spew his factless lies. We must all resist.

 

Now we learn the previous president broke the law (again) and removed boxes of presidential records from the White House and transported them to Mar-a-Lago in direct violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978 [PL 93-591; 88 Stat. 2523] [1039]. {NOTE: the Presidential Records Act is the very same law [the person who shall no longer be named] condemned Hillary Clinton for violating.} He removed 15 boxes of documents, and circumstantial information indicates he destroyed or removed a number of documents from those boxes. His action is virtually identical to the dreadful Hillary Clinton mistake. Further, based on his conduct, especially in recent years, we have no way to know if he destroyed incriminating documents from those boxes, which is most likely the reason he did what he did.

 

On Monday, a thin 5-4 majority issued a stay in two similar cases under Merrill v. Milligan [595 U. S. ____ (2022); Nos. 21A375 (21–1086) and 21A376 (21–1087)]. Associate Justice Elena Kagan summarized in her dissenting opinion the judiciary process that instigated the appeal. She wrote, “After considering a massive factual record, developed over seven days of testimony, and reviewing more than 1,000 pages of briefing, a three-judge District Court held that Alabama’s redistricting plan violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).” She concluded, “And most of all, it does a disservice to Black Alabamians who under that precedent have had their electoral power diminished—in violation of a law this Court once knew to buttress all of American democracy.”

After reading the majority’s ruling, I wrote, Wow, the defective reasoning of the majority is staggering. Upon reading the whole decision, the majority’s defective rationale simply does not make sense. On one hand they say, this is too close to the 2022 mid-term elections, and on the other, they say hey, let’s take our time to decide this. The timeline was not defined by the Court; it was defined by the Alabama legislature. By this ruling, the Supremes are saying, hey, fBICP legislatures take your time and wait until a few months before an election to issue your gerrymandering plans. The really disappointing aspect of the Supremes’ ill-advised stay is it allows an injurious law to go into effect, just as the majority did in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson [595 U.S. ___ (2021)]      [1040]. It allows the new fBICP law in Alabama to go into effect while the Court takes its time deciding the merits. In the Merrill case, the Alabama fBICP enacted a new gerrymandered election redistricting law that the three-judge district court panel rejected as noted in Kagan’s dissent.

The hypocrisy of this ruling is outright staggering. If the new Alabama law dealt with a gain or loss of seats in the House, the reasoning would be more understandable, but that is NOT the case in Alabama. The district court’s ruling simply meant that Alabama would have to use the previous districting until new lines can be approved by the court as compliant with the Constitution and established law. Leave the law as is until the Court takes its time deciding the merits. But no, the majority was far more concerned about “harm” to the State (i.e., the fBICP) rather than harm to the People. Alabama conducted an election in 2020 with established district lines. There should be no confusion whatsoever. The thin majority of the Supremes is allowing change without studying the merits, rather than protecting the status quo until the merits are decided. Many experts have surmised the Court’s unusual stay signals their intention to gut the remainder of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 [PL 89-110; 79 Stat. 437; 6.8.1965] [528, 607].

I read this ruling word-for-word, and I see a white majority in Alabama trying desperately to hold onto the power they had and are slowly losing. Worse, the new Supreme Court majority is bound and determined to take us back 60+ years. If this is what contemporary conservativism means, then I am absolutely and categorically against it. And, we should all be against it. The Supremes’ majority cannot and will not stifle change.

 

Let us not forget that Mitch McConnell is unilaterally blocking the very voting rights reform legislation passed by the House that would correct many, if not all, of the fBICP voter suppression laws enacted in half of the states, including Alabama noted above. Many of those draconian laws were enacted after January 6^th.

 

In the realm of something we do not see every day, former Boeing 737MAX Chief Technical Pilot Mark A. Forkner was indicted last October on six counts—United States v. Forkner [USDC NDTX Fort Worth Division No. 4:21-cr-00268-O (2021)]. This case is notable for several reasons. First, Forkner was responsible for presenting the aircraft certification data and recommendations for the aircraft to the FAA. The government indicted Forkner on two counts of false statements, and four counts of wire fraud. Having a chief pilot indicted for fraudulent work is a very rare event. Second, U.S. District Judge Reed Charles O’Connor granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss with respect to the first two charges but not the last four. The judge’s whole argument hung upon the proposition that software is not a part by the definition of 18 U.S.C. § 31 (a)(7). That decision sparked my curiosity, so I looked up the U.S. Code definition. The law, 18 U.S.C. § 31 (a)(7), defines a part as “a frame, assembly, component, appliance, engine, propeller, material, part, spare part, piece, section, or related integral or auxiliary equipment.” Forkner’s trial is now scheduled to begin on 7.March.2022.

The case grew out of the investigation into the certification of the B737MAX after two tragic aircraft crashes—Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia (29.10.2018) [878, 889, 928] and Ethiopian Airline Flight 302 in Ethiopia (10.3.2019) [896, 897, 900]. Both aircraft crashed in an eerily similar manner. The more we learned, the worse the information appeared. There were a lot of things wrong with the certification of the B737MAX that deserve prosecution. I trust Forkner is just the most obvious salient, and I expect other criminal charges against the chief engineer, the program manager, and other executives who set the stage and undoubtedly pressured the certification team to compromise good engineering sense.

Judge O’Connor’s reasoning struck me as particularly odd. Declaring that software is not a part by the U.S. Code definition is quite akin to stating that the coding of the brain (education, experience, memory, skills, et cetera) is not part of the human body. The U.S. Attorneys failed to properly inform the judge, and the judge was fundamentally wrong to make the statement he did. Despite the judge’s glaring mistake, Forkner’s trial will go ahead. When it is all said and done, I expect Forkner will be invited to be a guest of the federal government for a few years to contemplate the errors of his ways.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.1047:

Comment to the Blog:

“Election fraud is exceedingly rare. We may be proud of that fact and continue to prosecute the few exceptions.

“The vise does indeed continue to tighten around King Baby. It’s good to see Pence come out against him because Pence has influence among the conservative Christians.

“We knew that Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger would be GOP targets. Why anyone with an IQ and a conscience would support King Baby is beyond me.

“With Nazi Germany and with our current racism, the key word is indeed “supremacy,” whether of “Aryans”, “white” people, or Israeli Jews. Just like any bully, they try to prove they’re better by diminishing others. In the end, their actions are less about any specific other race than about their own claim to superiority.

“I can talk about politics in harmony with anyone I know if I focus on corruption. Apparently you and your soon-to-be Libertarian commentator agree. Perhaps that should be a single-issue voter’s cause.”

My response to the Blog:

Yes, agreed, spot on, close the front door! However, if one was prone to believe or even listen to the fBICP, you might think fraud altered the election results in favor of Biden; I say Biden because such claims have not translated into other election results—only the presidency. Further, all of the documented election fraud publicly available from 2020 have been Republican, not Democrat. Go figure!

Indeed and agreed!

Again, indeed and agreed! However, millions still do. The next two elections will likely be bellwether events. I confess to being gobsmacked that [the person who shall no longer be named] won a single Republican primary given his profound and well-known character flaws set aside the general election and presidency. But, he did by the constitutionally established election process. And, despite the mountains of continuously accumulating hard evidence, millions of American citizens still support him and actually believe anything he says. Go figure!

I certainly can agree with your assessment regarding Nazism and contemporary white supremacy activities . . . thanks in large part to their amplified voice offered by [the person who shall no longer be named].

Your suggestion works for me. I imagine it will work for others. We will get an indicator this coming fall.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)