Update no.1050

 Update from the Sunland

No.1050

21.2.22 – 27.2.22

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

 

            To all,

 

Our family is proud to share the Rose Hill (Kansas) Police Department public announcement.

https://www.facebook.com/RoseHillPoliceDepartment/posts/315611757261208

Our youngest son, Taylor Warden Parlier, has been promoted to be the department’s new chief of Police. Taylor is very good at what he does. He is going to be a great chief. With his promotion, he outranks me, making a proud father even prouder. Henceforth, Taylor is now El Jefe.

 

            The follow-up news items:

-- [The person who shall no longer be named] suffered another setback a week ago. I would not call it a defeat because it is only an interim milestone. The man has so many legal cases mounting against him—civil, criminal and investigative. The latest one is actually three similar cases, all three civil cases, under the citation Thompson v. ------- [USDC DC Case No. 21-cv-00400 (APM)], all related to the instigation of the January 6^th insurrection. The latest judicial slap in the face to the orange one was a judge’s ruling on the various motions to dismiss. U.S. District Judge Amit Priyavadan Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted the motions with a few of the charges and denied the motions on all the other charges, which means the trial will proceed. The judge’s 112-page order was a preview of sorts of the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol [1020] {HSCJ6} final report. The judge’s order was a preview of what we are likely to see in considerable factual detail in he court proceedings during trial. The judge reviewed a good chunk of the facts as we have seen in a wide variety of fora, and the judge added the applicable law. Neither the former president nor any of his supporters offered any physical evidence to substantiate or validate his allegations or speech that incited the insurrection. Based on the judge’s dismissal rulings, I would say it is not looking good for the Oh So Great Orange One. On the flip side of that coin, I think the judge missed the mark and was wrong in his assessment of conspiracy charges against Giuliani and Junior. One particular point struck me. In dismissing one of the charges against the former president, Judge Mehta noted that the president enjoyed protected speech when the objects of his words were plainly matters of public concern. The judge very loosely defined ‘matters of public concern.’ Very disappointingly, the judge failed to even acknowledge that the bloody man created the public concern; he created the problem without a shred of evidence. That is the insidiousness of the BIG LIE. I cannot believe that judgment will stand up under full judicial scrutiny. In that, I think Judge Mehta was flat wrong.

The American people (at least those who vote) give any president extraordinary power. They entrust him to respect that power and action it in accordance with the Constitution and the laws s/he swore an oath to protect and defend those laws. We trust every president to do the right thing, but they are human beings. The American people elected [the person who shall no longer be named] to be president in 2016, but from my perspective, they failed to recognize or even acknowledge the profound character flaws the man displayed all of his adult life. He has consistently demonstrated he is not (and never was) worthy of the trust we placed in him.

 

Then, as if on cue, with the Olympic Games in Beijing concluded, the dictator Putin decided it was time to act and pulled the trigger. On Monday, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia, with the stroke of his pen, declared the two provinces of the Donbass region independent countries and ordered the Russian Army in to the area to ‘protect the peace’—the peace he disturbed in 2014 and every month since. He also gave a long, vitriolic speech justifying his actions proclaiming Ukraine was never a legitimate state. It was always part of Russia. It was a very long speech and took me several days of reading and collateral research to complete my assessment. He gave us the history of Ukraine according to Putin. Most of the facts he presented were correct and accurate. The only problem is, he left out an awful lot of related facts. His Ukrainian history according to Putin is woefully lacking, highly selective, and leaves the implication that it is flat out wrong. History is history.

For several months, the dictator Putin and his minions told us that Russian troops on the border of Ukraine were just there for training. They had no intentions of invading Ukraine. We did not have hard evidence of that lie and disinformation, until . . . In the early morning hours of Thursday, 24.February.2022, the Russians attacked cities throughout Ukraine with cruise missiles and rockets, followed by mobile forces invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south. Thanks to the dictator Putin, we have yet another war in Europe. Now, there is no doubt, no subterfuge, the dictator Putin has chosen war to subjugate his neighbor, Ukraine, who would not bend a knee to his dicta.

The central salient issue Putin refuses to recognize set aside acknowledge is sovereign countries have free choice. Why does Putin think his neighbors seek the protection of NATO instead of the protection of Russia? Could it be they fear Russian domination, NOT NATO domination. He needs to look at reality rather than subscribe to his fevered dreams as a vision of the future. NATO has not sought expansion. Eastern European countries on Russia’s periphery have eagerly sought membership to gain the protection of NATO’s umbrella, i.e., to defend their sovereignty and independence from historic Russian intimidation, domination and oppression. That is the paramount fact.

 

In the frame of insult to injury, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, was not happy about Allied sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. He publicly stated:

"If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe? There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours."

The International Space Station may well become on of the costs to be paid for the Russian invasion of sovereign Ukraine. If so, I say so be it. 

 

Of course, in these troubled times with [the person who shall no longer be named] still alive, he felt compelled to communicate how proud he was of his hero. On Tuesday, after Putin’s long speech noted above, he was interviewed on a right-wing talk radio show. He said, "This is genius. So Putin is now saying it’s independent — a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right." But wait, that was not enough. He went onto say, "No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy. I know him very well — very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened. But here’s a guy that says, 'You know, I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent.' He used the word 'independent.' 'And we’re gonna go out, and we’re gonna in, and we’re gonna help keep peace.'” He said all of that between Putin’s proclamation and the full invasion of Ukraine. I wonder how he feels now. Oh wait, he does not care a hoot about anyone except himself . . . well, and Ivanka.

 

As is my nature, I offer a few additional thoughts on this week’s events. One image kept coming to me as events unfolded. The events in Ukraine were like watching a nature video of a pride of lions consuming the back half of a water buffalo before their prey is even dead. His ‘modest’ invasion of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts under the fallacious pretext of assisting the newly declared independent provinces and preserve the peace was only art of a much broader plan—reconstitute the Soviet Union and its domination of Eastern Europe. If the Ukrainian Army had not counterattacked, he gains two large eastern province with barely a shot fired. If they had counterattacked, he is justified (in his mind) responding to the provocation. In hindsight, the serious mistake was not taking an all-out offensive to take back the region occupied by the ‘little green men’ and the Crimea in 2014 when Putin invaded the first time. Yet, on the Ukrainian side, they had just ousted their own Moscow-aligned dictator in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, known as the Revolution of Dignity. Russian took a bite of the buffalo in 2014, and it cost them very little. We enabled the bear to return for another go at the buffalo.

 

From my perspective and knowledge, the sanctions imposed on Russia and its leaders including the dictator Putin have been far too tepid and frankly underwhelming. Sanctions take time to be effective. Waiting to see how far Putin will go just adds more time to the sanction effectiveness timeline. The Russian people are good people with the exact same interests and desires as other peaceful people of the world. They are being led by a rogue leader. I truly wish there was a way to punish the leaders without affecting the people but that is not realistic, if not impossible. Russia needs to be totally isolated as a pariah state in a peaceful world, and I mean totally isolated—no exports, no imports, no travel, no money transfers, no representation, nothing in or out.  Frankly, Russia should be removed from the U.N. Security Council.

That said, President Biden has implemented stronger sanctions than his predecessors, but they are far short of what they deserve to be, in my humble opinion. I must also emphatically state that this course was set by President Bush (43) who failed to react strongly to Putin’s invasion of the sovereign nation of Georgia in 2008, and by President Obama who failed to react strongly to Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and his “little green men” invasion of the Donbass region of Ukraine in 2014. Of course, [the person who shall no longer be named] genuflecting before his idol did nothing but embolden the Russian dictator. Despite the inaction of his predecessors, unfortunately, President Biden will bear the burden of history for what he does now.

 

            Comments and contributions from Update no.1049:

“Is it looking worse for your former ‘leader’? How sad. How sad that someone in that position should deteriorate into a power and money grabbing citizen.

“He could yet bring disgrace on your system of electing your governing bodies and the quality of the Americans who supported him so strongly. What a mess.”

My reply:

Yes, looking much worse . . . almost by the day. I am reading another judge’s ruling that the civil case associated with his culpability in the January 6^th insurrection will go forward against the objections of [the person who shall no longer be named]. He was (is) a power-hungry, money-grubbing, con man all of his adult life. He conducted himself as POTUS in exactly the same manner—no change. I am certain there is much more to come. 

Yes, it is truly tragic that someone with such deep and profound character flaws got elected to be POTUS. In part, it is a measure of how dissatisfied a large portion of our voting citizenry was that pushed them to reach for such a flawed man. But, it is what it is, and we must deal with it.

Yes, so far, we are not done with his mutant, abhorrent conduct, and yes, he is capable of bringing even greater disgrace to this once grand republic. He is a terrible human being. His influence on this country is way beyond a mess; it is cataclysmic in its tragic proportions and scope. But, to me, the saddest aspect is the certainty that millions of American citizens cannot see the reality of the man, and his snake-oil elixir has rendered them incapable of seeing that reality.

 . . . follow-up comment:

“As non-U.S. citizen I often feel difficulty writing about other countries leaders-I mean is it anything to do with myself, several thousand miles to the east? However I do have tendency to support your views on this subject. I too do find it difficult to understand that such an individual could convince so many of any nation that he was the right man for the job. Yes snake oil could be the answer. Is Putin using the same product?”

 . . . my follow-up reply:

You have expressed that reluctance for some time. I can only urge you to abandon that notion. The United States is an actor on the world stage. That fact alone makes us fair game for criticism. So fire away; you have as much right to do so as I do.

My disgust for that man cannot be overstated. He is a despicable human being. And yet, I must give him credit; he has convinced many American citizens that he is the messiah in the flesh, and they believe. His snake-oil elixir has convinced them he is the cure. Thus, our problem is far greater than the vile conduct of that man. Criticize away, my friend. Putin is far more sophisticated than [the person who shall no longer be named] will ever or can ever be. And, the tragedy Putin has unleashed in Ukraine has only just begun. More bloodshed ahead.

 

Comment to the Blog:

“In the case of King Baby, the wheels of justice grind slowly, but perhaps fine. The increasingly ridiculous resistance supports that.

“Harm reduction continues to be our best strategy to reduce the damage from drugs to both users and society. How marijuana became a Schedule I drug is a footnote in political, not medical, history.

“I gather from your post that Putin is concerned that his sphere of influence is diminishing (Poland, Romania) and he wants to stop that loss. That’s much simpler than all the noise on TV.”

My response to the Blog:

Indeed! Quite slowly. But that is the nature of the beast. Yeah, so it seems. They subscribe to his playbook . . . stay resolute, smother them in legal action, and wait out your adversaries. I’m reading yet another defeat in court for the man (should be in this week’s Update).

Agreed. However, that is not federal policy nor law. The CSA was wrong when it was signed into law by Nixon in 1970. With today’s congressional intransigence, reforming the law to take a more informed and less-harmful approach to consumption (free choice) is highly unlikely. I agree completely regarding the mindlessness of the CSA with respect to marijuana; it was entirely political (emotional), not scientific, logical, or reasoned. I will argue and have argued that other substances on Schedule I even as currently defined are not appropriate for Schedule I action. Ignorance is NOT an acceptable position, but that is exactly what the CSA imposes—ignorance over knowledge. I have hope that one day we will wake up and mature as a society. Prohibition is NEVER an acceptable action in a free society.

I think of Putin’s mindset in quite a different form. I see his actions as quite akin to Hitler’s Lebensraum policy. He, in fact, publicly stated that he never saw Ukraine as a legitimate state and always believed Ukraine was a Russian province, just as Hitler saw Sudetenland. Putin so declared that yesterday and sent the Russian Army into Eastern Ukraine. While Hitler saw his policy as ethnic sovereignty (a right), Putin’s similar approach is more from a security perspective very much in the Stalinist model. If he is allowed to consume Ukraine, the Baltics are likely next and potentially Poland. I imagine he sees the relationship of Poland in a similar context as Ukraine to Russia. Based on his statement yesterday, he clearly has no respect (none) for Ukrainian free choice and certainly not sovereignty. To me, Putin is the contemporary Hitler and Stalin.

 . . . Round two:

“I tire of all the trumpery, but it persists so far.

“I hope for the repeal of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). It has done enough harm.

“I have no abiding interest in politicians’ ideals if they exist. There is a long history between Ukraine and Russia, but if Putin can acquire Black Sea ports it will improve Russia’s commerce immensely. He might see at least Poland in a similar light. The concept of Lebensraum is probably a factor although Putin might want to consider how that backfired on Hitler. There is never contentment in a conquered nation.”

 . . . my response to round two:

My oh my, I am with you entirely. I tired of that man long before he ever declared his candidacy (2015). He will not go away. Once again, this week’s Update is evolving with his outrageously ignorant conduct—praising Putin for invading Ukraine. Really! The only thing that will stop him is death or prison. Either is fine by me.

I would love to see the day when we repeal the CSA; it is decades overdue. It took 14 years to come to our senses with alcohol prohibition. We are at 51 years and still counting with the ill-advised, destructive prohibition on psychotropic substances and their consumption. The CSA has done more harm than we could ever calculate, and the destruction continues unchecked.

I listened to a portion of Putin’s speech on Monday, and it was sufficient to spark my curiosity. I am about halfway through reading the verbatim text of his speech Monday, justifying his invasion of Ukraine. More to follow in this week’s Update. You are, of course, quite correct, but Putin does not care; he believes his army and the FSB will succeed. The bloodshed in Ukraine has only just begun. So far, I am not impressed with the Allied response. Germany has done the most. But, I must remember, it took the U.S. nearly a year to take the fight to the Axis after war was declared. We do not have a declaration of war . . . yet. I doubt Ukraine will go quietly into the good night.

 . . . Round three:

“This may be obvious, but your comparison to a World War compels me to state that in no case do I want another World War.”

 . . . my response to round three:

Understood.

I doubt anyone, including the dictator Putin, wants another world war. However, as of this writing, Thursday, 24.February.2022, Putin has launched a broad general invasion of Ukraine. He lobbed cruise missiles at virtually every major cities in Ukraine and Russian troops have crossed the border in multiple sites. The invasion of Ukraine President Biden has been warning us about has begun. As Kurt Vonnegut so succinctly and eloquently wrote, “And so it goes.”

If Putin is successful in subjugating Ukraine, I strongly suspect the dictator Xi will do the same in Taiwan.

 . . . Round four:

“I woke up to Putin's speech to the Russian people. What I could pick up of that indicated intentions far beyond Ukraine and dared the rest of the world to stop him. That's very different from a dispute about a neighboring territory. I think we're in trouble.”

 . . . my response to round four:

Quite so. I am trying to monitor the unfolding situation. As he declared on Monday, the dictator Putin has started yet another European war. FoxNews is reporting that even Belarussian forces may have joined in the attack on Ukraine. Russian forces staged in Moldovia are also involved.

All of the naysayers criticizing President Biden and like [the person who shall no longer be named] praising the dictator Putin are uncharacteristically quiet today. To me, the time is now to totally isolate Russia. Cutoff all finance, all exports or imports, cancel all flights or any transportation into or out of Russia. Putin has launched a broad general invasion of the whole of Ukraine far beyond Donbass. How far Putin intends to go is unknown, but it is at least all of Ukraine. I also believe general U.S. mobilization is warranted. We have given Putin the benefit of the doubt for too long; there is no more doubt. If we do not counter Putin swiftly, I fear the other dictator Xi will see weakness and decide now is the time to take back Taiwan. Putin has unleashed the beast, and yes we are all in trouble.

We watch.

This challenge will define Biden’s presidency.

 . . . Round five:

“The isolation of Russia might be helpful if it can be complete enough. One issue with mobilization, among others, is that some insane people would like to try out ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons, which would be apocalyptic.”

 . . . my response to round five:

The sanctions so far are a long way from where I think they should be. Giving Putin immunity for now is flat wrong. I do not understand why the president has chosen not to apply sanctions to the man who started this debacle. So far, the president has gone after the money. The objective of the Russian invasion appears to be decapitation of the Ukraine government and installation of an autocratic dictator under Putin’s thumb—quite Stalin-esque; rather than occupation. Putin’s distant dream is apparently to reconstitute the Soviet Union. For all the accusations he has made against the U.S. and EU about aggression, Russia (Putin) is the ONLY country being aggressive—Georgia (2008), Crimea & Donbass (2014), and Ukraine (2022). NATO has never been the aggressor; it has always been reactive (defensive).

I cannot imagine Putin being that crazy, insane, or disturbed to use tactical nukes, but anything is possible with a dictator bent upon hegemony.

The journey continues . . . 

 . . . Round six:

“One cautionary note I've seen about sanctions generally is about being aware of ripple effects due to globalization. It may not be easy to get at Putin personally. He has taken steps to insulate the Russian economy due to prior sanctions, and I'd expect him to extend that to his personal accounts. I could see him as insane enough to use nukes.

“It's early in the morning as I write this, and I'm in no hurry to learn the new developments.”

 . . . my response to round six:

Quite so . . . a most apropos cautionary note. Stopping exports of Russian oil and gas most certainly will affect Western consumers since full compensation is not likely. But, I think it would affect Russia far more severely. Some estimates place as much as 40% of Russian GDP is directly from oil & gas exports.

From my perspective, I do not think Putin is suicidal. Using nuclear, biological or chemical weapons would take his hegemonic actions much farther down into the war criminal category.

We look to a brighter tomorrow . . . 

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)