Update no.1075

 Update from the Sunland

No.1075

15.8.22 – 21.8.22

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

 

To all,

 

The follow-up news items:

-- U.S. Representative Elizabeth Lynne ‘Liz’ Cheney of Wyoming [992] was defeated this week in the Wyoming Republican primary election. I will note here that she handled her defeat with grace and dignity in dramatic contrast to the BIG LIE [1002] believers and ihr Anführer. Only two of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president made it through the primary gauntlet. Cheney will likely remain vice chair of the United States House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol {HSCJ6} [1020] until she leaves office on 3.January.2023. Liz is a long way from being done. More to come.

-- On Thursday, Trump Organization chief financial officer (CFO) Allen Howard Weisselberg [1049] plead guilty to 15 counts of tax evasion and tax fraud in a New York state court in Manhattan. He has apparently agreed to testify against the company in an upcoming trial, but he also indicated he would refuse to testify against his boss—a loyal capo to the end. The judge has sentenced him to five months in the New York City Department of Correction prison at Rikers Island. Even a day incarcerated at Rikers Island. Weisselberg faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, which prosecutors will undoubtedly hold over his head as they pursue the criminal conduct at and associated with the Trump Organization. This was a Manhattan legal action. [The person who shall no longer be named] faces multiple other criminal investigations including New York State [1074], Georgia, and of course, federal [1074]. What does just the number of criminal investigations alone tell you about the man?

 

Mark Twain reportedly observed and stated, “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting.” For those of us who live within the Colorado River watershed, water is vitally important. We see Twain’s words in unique, personal terms. On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation within the U.S. Department of the Interior issued water restrictions (cuts) on the allocations assigned to “lower basin” states—Arizona = 21%, Nevada = 8%, Mexico = 7%, and California = 0%. Fortunately, Arizona has other water sources that are in better shape. However, the whole region needs a decade of great winter snowpack in the Rocky Mountains to refill Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Two decades ago, the reservoir was too full and more than normal amounts of water had to be released. We shall hope for a shift in the weather.

 

This was a very good week for Congress, the president, and We, the People. Three important bills became laws despite the political intransigence so common these days in Congress.

First among those new laws was the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 [PL 117-169; H.R.5376; House: 220-207-0-4(4); Senate: 50+1-50-0-0(0); 136 Stat. xxx], President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act [1073] into law on Tuesday. The title of the bill was changed from Build Back Better Act [1036]. The new law is a broad, multi-purposed legislative action. The vote was split right down the middle with no senator crossing party lines, and the vice president casting the deciding vote as required by the Constitution.

Next up was actually a law within a new law. The CHIPS Act of 2022 [136 Stat. xxx] is actually Division A [136 Stat. xxx] of the Supreme Court Security Funding Act of 2022 [PL 117-167; H.R.4346; House: 243-187-1-0(4); Senate: 64-33-0-3(0); 136 Stat. xxx]. The new law provides federal incentives for computer chip manufacturers to bring the manufacturing process, infrastructure, and facilities back to the United States. The situation with the PRC and Taiwan illuminated the vulnerability of American computer chips supply to the whim of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The last of the landmark laws was what is popularly known as the Burn Pit Act to provide medical treatment and support services for veterans exposed to toxic substances while on duty in service to this once grand republic. The proper official title is the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022 [PL 117-168; S.3373; Senate: 86-11-0-3(0); House: 342-88-0-1(4); 136 Stat. xxx]. In this law, I am reminded of the extraordinary personal efforts of Admiral Elmo Russell ‘Bud’ Zumwalt, Jr., USN (Retired) to gain federal recognition for its responsibility on the toxic exposure of military personnel to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The Burn Pit Act is this generations version. As with Agent Orange, it is regrettable that it took a federal law to do what is the proper thing to do and should have been done without the law. 

 

The nonsense amplified by the previous fellow has reached our little village in the desert hills.

“A 'dirty' small-town election campaign shows how partisan politics seeps into Arizona communities”

by Sam Kmack

Arizona Republic

Published 6:00 a.m. MT Aug. 17, 2022 | Updated 8:49 a.m. MT Aug. 17, 2022

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2022/08/17/small-town-election-shows-party-politics-seeping-into-local-races-in-arizona/10313772002/

This article is spot-on the money, and there is only one person I blame for the nastiness—surprise, [the person who shall no longer be named]. I would blame Arpaio, as the resident standing for election, but it was the former president who pardoned Arpaio, allowing him to avoid prison and run for mayor of our little ‘burg.’ Fortunately, there were enough of us who saw Arpaio for exactly what he is and voted against him. We dodged the bullet for now, but the vile seeds have been sown.

The garbage nonsense noted above, the incessant propaganda political advertisements, and the plethora of lies in furtherance of political objectives are precisely why this is called “The Silly Season.” As with all such episodes in the past, I will be boundlessly grateful when this rendition of the silly season is over . . . no matter what the outcome.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1074:

Comment to the Blog:

“Attorney General Garland’s insistence on slow pacing and utterly correct procedure has shown its value. I have read those documents, and the property receipt is damning. No amount of bluster and bullshit can excuse some of those documents being at Mar-A-Lago.

“In our time, economics education has lost its balance, judging by the public statements of those so educated. It’s a lot of trickle-down drivel based on very limited excerpts from Adam Smith’s 1776 work Wealth of Nations. That’s a definite dumbing down from even a high-school education in the 1970s.”

My response to the Blog:

I do not think he is intentionally slowing the progress of the Justice Department investigations and prosecutions because he prefers slow. I think it is his insistence upon methodical, meticulous investigations and prosecutions that makes the process seem slow to us. I think [the person who shall no longer be named] should have been in prison a long time ago. If you or I had done just a mere fraction of what he has done, we would have been tried, convicted, sentenced, and enjoying the hospitality of the federal government by now. AG Garland knows he is going to face the Supreme Court’s judgment in the prosecution of [the person who shall no longer be named]. I imagine he is preparing as much for that as the base trial in district court.

Yes, the property receipt is damning. Item 2A alone puts the FBI/DoJ investigation in an entirely different realm. Being who and what he is, [the person who shall no longer be named] immediately began to do what he always does—lie, obfuscate, confuse, and otherwise flood the public with misinformation. [As Roy Cohn always said, “Deny, deny, deny.”] His claims (so far) have been outrageous, irrational, and irrelevant. It does not matter a hoot what he thinks. What matters is what is stamped on those documents; if any document is not stamped “Declassified” and by what authority and when, then it is NOT declassified. What I think he is doing is setting up some group of innocent civil servants to take the fall instead of him, i.e., he did not do what I told him to do (‘I am not to blame’). I do not expect that defense to float.

I agree. Trickle-down economics is a slight of hand con job. By the time the trickle reaches us peons, it does not even wet the ground—worthless. The wealth gap between entry level and CEO continues to widen as the wealthy suck off more profits for themselves. To me, what the executive ranks of business are doing is no different from the complete disregard for worker safety and welfare that was commonplace a century ago. I like the ‘share’ concept, i.e., an entry level employee would get one share and the CEO would get 35 shares. I am reticent to regulate such things via dictum from the federal government, but something must be done. Money is an important motivator, but money is just too damn corrupting of otherwise decent people. Add in an immoral bad fellow like you know who and you get destruction.

 . . . follow-up comment:

“I agree that Attorney General Garland isn’t deliberately slowing his process. That’s simply the result of diligence. However, giving the crazies more time to organize is a problem.

“That property receipt is indeed damning. I don’t believe the Chump would follow the correct procedure to declassify anything, and in some cases, he couldn’t actually do so anyhow.

“I have seen claims that the gap in wealth is worse today than it was during the Gilded Age. Many of the most wealthy want to make that worse. This is a class war, and most of us have been losing for decades.”

 . . . my follow-up response:

Yeah, the crazies have always been with us, but [the person who shall no longer be named] dramatically enhanced their voices and brought them out of the shadows. I think we have always known that white supremacists and fascists have been among us, just as socialists and communists, including Soviet and CCP brand communists, have been among us as well. It is the distortion enabled by [the person who shall no longer be named] that has made them seem much larger than they are. At least the crazies are out in the open, so we can see them, but they are emboldened.

I think you are spot on correct. Rules do not apply to him; he sets the tone for his vassals. The law usually catches up to such men. I trust it will do so in his case.

That is my understanding as well. Yes, agreed, some men have no conscience or morality; they know only greed. And, as I wrote earlier, greed is not good.

Our vigil and concern for the future of this once grand republic must continue. I will continue to condemn those who seek to dismantle what is what is left in favor of an autocracy or worse a dictatorship. I hold onto (tenuously) my belief that the U.S. Constitution shall prevail.

 

Another contribution:

“WE THE PEOPLE-is that how it starts Cap? 

“Your last blog carried some dreadfully frightening items.

“You have much work to do to ‘iron over’ these disturbances. 

“For him whose name I cannot mention and will not, the case looks extremely damaging- will he go to prison? What a disgrace to your nation to even imagine a former national leader being punished so.

“Ah well, your coming blogs will be most enlightening Cap. You must continue to speak with honesty and vibrancy regardless of the utter disgrace it may bring on your once grand republic. It is the way to recover your national status.”

My reply:

Yes, indeed, We, the People, is precisely the opening of the U.S. Constitution. That is also how we will overcome the disruption exploded by the last fellow. We have been through dark days before. We shall survive and become stronger—the temper of heat.

That fellow did not create ‘these disturbances.’ However, he most emphatically amplified and encouraged those destructive voices that have always been present. Fringe wannabe militias like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and such, have always been among us in a wide variety of forms going back to at least the Ku Klux Klan [1866]. The Klan began as a quasi-guerilla group after the Confederacy lost their attempt at secession. Perhaps we did not take those fringe militias seriously and to a certain extent their words and activities were protected by the Constitution itself. January 6^th changed all that, when [the person who shall no longer be named] stimulated them to violence with his BIG LIE. I will also note here that the vice of Justice continues to ratchet tighter on him.

I thought the evidence for impeachment, both times (historic), was overwhelming. Unfortunately, judgment was left to the politics of Congress and the degeneracy of the fBICP (the former Republican Party). In my humble opinion, one or a combination of criminal investigations will probably yield indictment(s). Whether we can find 12 unbiased jurors is a hurdle yet to be surmounted. He is certainly closer to prison, which is exactly where I was convinced long ago he belonged to contemplate the error of his ways.

Rest assured, I shall continue to write as long as I am able.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)