Update no.1079

 Update from the Sunland

No.1079

12.9.22 – 18.9.22

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

 

To all,

 

15^th of September – The day is remembered in perpetuity as . . . 

Battle of Britain Day.

Lest we ever forget, 82 years ago this day, with the Royal Air Force Fighter Command within days of collapse, the inexorable tide turned against the Germans and their planned cross-Channel invasion of the United Kingdom. In those dark days of summer 1940, Great Britain stood starkly alone and diminished against the Nazi German juggernaut flooding across Europe. The Miracle of Dunkirk (May/June 1940) had saved a large portion of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, but they lost most of their heavy weapons. Scores of young pilots stood to the ramparts and were not found wanting. We owe an extraordinary, unpayable debt to the British, exile and volunteer pilots who took to the air multiple times every day for three months in the unrelenting aerial battle that summer to defeat the overwhelming Luftwaffe.  We all may not remember, but I do! 

 

The follow-up news items:

-- The status of the Space Launch System (SLS) Artemis I mission [1076 & sub] remains uncertain. As of this writing, the current launch date is no earlier than Tuesday, 27.September.2022, at 11:37 [R] EDT (15:37 [Z] GMT). A major cryogenic fueling demonstration test is scheduled for 07:15 [R] EDT on Wednesday, 21.September.2022, to test the repairs made to correct the hydrogen leak issue that scrubbed the last launch attempt [1077]. I could not find any resolution to the Artemis I Flight Termination System (FTS) certification that expired on the 6^th. If NASA misses the 27^th launch window, the next opening is 2.October.2022.

-- In the wake of the Dobbs ruling [1068], former vice president Mike Pence declared in a recent interview that the social conservative fight to restrict bodily autonomy for women “is profoundly more important than any short-term politics.” Pence had earlier tweeted:

Now that Roe v. Wade has been consigned to the ash heap of history, a new arena in the cause of life has emerged and it is incumbent on all who cherish the sanctity of life to resolve that we will take the defense of the unborn...
...and support for women in crisis pregnancies to every state Capitol in America. Having been given this second chance for Life, we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.

7:15 AM Jun 24, 2022

Just to be clear in this discussion, elective late term abortions have never been legal in the third trimester {do not believe me; please read: Roe v. Wade [410 U.S. 113 (1973)] [319]}. According to CDC statistics for 2019, 92.7% of abortions were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation (first trimester); 6.2% were performed at 14–20 weeks’ gestation, and only 1.1% were performed at ≥21 weeks’ gestation, presumably to save the mother’s life. 

The propaganda distributed by right-wing fanatics and religious zealots has been and remains false. I am really tired of and aggravated by the social conservative bullshit about late term abortions. Political advertisements through this silly season claim that the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona supports abortions up to the moment of birth. The statement is wrong in every possible way. The social conservatives are counting on most folks not doing the necessary research and voting on emotions rather than knowledge. This is the world and times in which we live.

-- The hits just keep coming as [the person who shall no longer be named] seeks to delay the federal criminal investigation into his conduct as long as he possibly can with the direct assistance of District Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon [1077]. The latest order came this week when the judge denied the government’s petition to exclude classified documents from her earlier special master order in DONALD J. TRUMP v. United States of America [USDC FL SD Case 9:22-cv-81294-AMC (2022)] [1078]. Judge Cannon is grotesquely wrong. No person including any president, set aside an accused criminal president, has any right to classified material outside the declassification and assigning processes . . . period . . . full stop!

Every classified document is clearly and definitively marked. Every paragraph of every classified document has an abbreviated marking to signify the classification of that individual paragraph. There is no debate or interpretation. Each document is a fact. The judge had no right whatsoever to sequester classified documents for the Special Master review because the subject of the investigation has no standing and no claim.

The USG is appealing the judge’s erroneous order to the 2^nd Court of Appeals. I trust that independent minds will correct the error. We shall see.

 

I do not usually use this forum for my personal book reviews, but in this particular instance, I must make an exception. The reading of every word on every page took me months of struggle, frustration, and even anger, but I finally finished Ulysses by James Joyce. In literary circles, the book is considered a classic and arguably the best “modernist” novel. Before I jump into my opinion of this . . . shall we say ‘art,’ I would like to present a couple of examples of his writing style. I chose the unabridged, uncensored, digital version of the novel; thus, page numbers are at best relevant. From page 282 of 762:

“On. Know what I mean. No, change that ee. Accep my poor litt pres enclos. Ask her no answ. Hold on. Five Dig. Two about here. Penny the gulls. Elijah is com. Seven Davy Byrne’s. Is eight about. Say half a crown. My poor little pres: p. o. two and six. Write me a long. Do you despise? Jingle, have you the? So excited. Why do you call me naught? You naughty too? O, Mairy lost the string of her. Bye for today. Yes, yes, will tell you. Want to. To keep it up. Call me that other. Other world she wrote. My patience are exhaust. To keep it up. You must believe. Believe. The tank. It. Is. True.”

There are many ‘sic’s in just this one paragraph alone. ‘Sic’ is a Latin adverb that mean “thus” or “just as,” and is often used as a contraction of sic erat scriptum, "thus was it written."

A shorter example from page 285 of 762:

“Jog jig jogged stopped. Dandy tan shoe of dandy Boylan socks skyblue clocks came light to earth.”

I know what the words mean, but I had a very hard time trying to find meaning or vision in those word constructs. These are but two examples of what appears throughout the majority of the book. Then, we come to the final chapter—Penelope. The last chapter is 46 pages long; the first 21 pages of the chapter have no punctuation of any kind. In the entire chapter, only two punctuation marks appear—a period on the 21^st page and another period at the end of the chapter. The longest run-on sentence I have ever seen or even heard of—roughly 10,500 words—one sentence.

If anyone can enlighten me regarding the genius of Joyce’s style of writing, I beg you to educate me, to help me see the light. Short of that state, I am blind and deaf to this drivel.

The book was initially published in serialization form in 1920 with the first book printing in 1922. It was hailed in literary circles as the greatest work of modernist literature in the 20^th Century. The book was also declared obscene and pornographic in several Western countries. Under the Comstock Act of 1873 [PL 42-III-258; 17 Stat. 598], the U.S. Government (USG) prohibited distribution of the book in the United States. The U.S. Post Office seized and burned copies of the book, also by authority of the Comstock Act. The obscenity / pornography anchor was eventually removed in 1933/34 by U.S. District Judge John Munro Woolsey of the Southern District of New York [5 F. Supp. 182 (1933)] and affirmed by the 2^nd Circuit [72 F.2d 705 (1934)] in United States v. One Book Called Ulysses. Just so we can put things in perspective, the primary (not the only) offending paragraph was (page 370 of 762):

“And then a rocket sprang and bang shot blind blank and O! then the Roman candle burst and it was like a sigh of O! and everyone cried O! O! in raptures and it gushed out of it a stream of rain gold hair threads and they shed and ah! they were all greeny dewy stars falling with golden, O so lovely, O, soft, sweet, soft!”

Those words are supposed to represent a scene of masturbation and ejaculation on a public beach. In my first reading of those words, that image did not pop into my little pea-brain. Some folks seem to have a very colorful imagination. The legal actions against the book are an excellent example of what happens when social conservatives impose their judgments on all citizens.

The New York Times boldly declared Ulysses is "the most prominent landmark in modernist literature," which means I do not see it. From my perspective, Ulysses is disjointed and broken with far too many sentence fragments down to single words. Characters are not introduced or connected. The storyline jumps all over the place without continuity or even context. The book stimulated me to review the history of punctuation.

There is evidence of punctuation going back to the beginning of recorded history. However, the preponderance of the historical record is in what the Romans called scriptura continua (continuous script, i.e., letters with no spaces or punctuation). At least Joyce had spaces between words (I think). Punctuation symbols (marks) came into prominent usage at the dawn of the movable type, printing press era (circa 1450). Telegraph and teletype machines had no punctuation symbols until the mid-20^th Century. The introduction of commercially available typewriters (1868) included punctuation symbols. The University of Chicago Press began printing in 1891 and established guidelines for publication that included punctuation standards. Those guidelines became the 1^st edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). Today, I strive for my writing to conform to the 17^th edition (CMS17) rules. Why Joyce chose to write the way he did (see the limited examples above), and especially the 18^th chapter (Penelope), is simply beyond me; I do not understand.

Put aside the aggravation of construction and any discernible style, the imagery induced by Joyce’s words was quite like viewing abstract or impressionist artwork. The viewer sees what he wants to see. The reading left me feeling I was witnessing the stream of consciousness of a man who recently ingested a major dose of LySergic acid Diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid—a psychedelic and hallucinogenic drug. An acid trip seems to have significance to the consumer, but the rest of us have no way to connect or even perceive the trip. Needless to say, I cannot and will not place Ulysses on my list of classics or good reads. The book was far too much work with very little benefit. All that said, I am glad I finally read the book, because now I know.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1078:

Comment to the Blog:

“Selling weapons to Poland and others is about great profits for the military-industrial complex. Strategic objectives, if any, are secondary.

“I can’t imagine how executive privilege can apply to one who is not the executive. Let’s get on with the prosecution. Lawyers, like other contracted helpers, lose their loyalty if not paid. King Baby’s habit is not paying the help.

“‘Wars’ on concepts can’t be won. A public health approach to drugs and various other issues will pay off better. See Portugal for a good example.”

My response to the Blog:

I do not share your cynicism about the military-industrial complex. President Eisenhower used the words ‘guard against’ and the meaning of the applicable words in his farewell address was ‘beware.’ He did not say abandon or dismantle the military-industrial complex. His caution was well-founded in direct knowledge of what he saw. In the instance of Poland’s security, I do believe the need for such a sophisticated weapon system is warranted and justified given Russia’s current unprovoked aggression in a neighboring sovereign state and Russia’s activities to destabilize Eastern Europe. I will also note that Russia is already on Poland’s border—Kaliningrad Oblast. Thus, I cannot agree that this action is simply some endeavor for great profit.

I am having exactly the same doubts and skepticism about the former fellow’s lame claims of ‘executive privilege.’ The Supreme Court has been very clear in that executive privilege and other protections for a sitting president have limited extension to a former president, and those protections cannot mask criminal conduct regardless of his status. Nixon induced those judgments, so at least they are established. The last guy found another packet of tools to carry out his confidence man activities, and the Justice Department is whittling away at those tools. I share your frustration with the perceived slowness of the Garland Justice Department, but there are signs the vice continues to ratchet closed on him however slowly. Just yesterday, the Justice Department issued 30 subpoenas to many of the man’s enablers and confederates complicit in the BIG LIE, which suggests to me that the federal prosecutors are concentrating their focus. Yes, indeed! That man has a very long history of stiffing those who do work for him—five (5) bankruptcies. And lawyers are no different; he does not respect them (or anyone other than himself), he only uses them and throws them away. “Making Attorneys Get Attorneys” indeed!

We are in absolute agreement on that observation. I would only add regulation to your public health approach. To me, public health includes regulation of consumable quality, purity, and uniformity. More fatalities have recently been reported from contamination of consumables with fentanyl—unregulated production. The Press and public blame the consumable, but it was the contamination that caused death. Fifty years of history has validated my hypothesis that prohibition cannot and never will diminish consumption, just as it did not with alcohol or tobacco. Knowledge is an infinitely more powerful tool than ignorance as the Nixon administration Controlled Substances Act took. Portugal is a shining light of hope, and they have taken a more enlightened path in dealing with psychotropic substance consumption. However, to my thinking, they have not gone far enough, but their success speaks for itself. We are very long overdue for reform and a more intelligent and respectful approach to psychotropic substance consumption. We need to grow—knowledge over ignorance.

 . . . Round two:

“I didn’t say anything about dismantling the military-industrial complex. ‘Guard against’ remains appropriate, and arms sales/proxy wars have been the major mechanism for decades. The statement that money motivates the decision makers stands. This country needs that money for many better purposes.

“Even if there were an excuse for King Baby’s conduct while in office, today’s operations can’t be covered by that. Most recently, I see reports he’s in DC on a golf course but not playing golf. He’s meeting with people out of range of surveillance devices.

“The primary public health approach to drug use in the USA is supervised consumption sites, which addresses your concern with fentanyl. I believe there are a few trial sites in action, but the authorities tend to block their creation.”

 . . . my response to round two:

And, I did not say you did say anything about dismantling, but others have. Yes, “guard against” does remain most appropriate. Money corrupts, and piles of money corrupts a lot. We can discuss history if you wish, but in the contemporary instance, I do not believe or even remotely suspect that profit is the motive for the decision/purchase the Polish government made. I truly believe there is genuine fear of Putin’s hegemonic ambitions. [I will not here, as I should have noted earlier, that current Russian aggression is supported by a large far right-wing cabal in Russia. They tried to carry out a violent coup d’état in 1991 and failed. They have been plotting ever since, and Putin is their man.] The recent Polish decision is a purchase, not a grant. All that said, I will agree that there is enormous pork-barrel funding imposed by Congress that is ripe for cutting and diversion to better purposes. Congress is the culprit, not the Defense Department.

Exactly correct. However, at least one judge, Aileen Cannon, has shown inordinate deference to the former president. If she had broadened her perspective just a little, she would have seen his unworthiness for such deference. Yes, that was also exactly my view of his “golf course” meeting. Yet, through all of that, I still hold (perhaps naïvely) onto the belief that justice will prevail. The man belongs in prison for the rest of his natural life.

Agreed again. Supervised consumption is a positive step forward, but woefully inadequate. While supervised consumption with clean, sterile paraphernalia, improves one aspect of consumption injury, it does not address perhaps the most lethal element of consumption—substance quality (purity, dosage, consistency, and uniformity). I understand and appreciate that most Americans strongly disapprove of psychotropic substance consumption, especially for recreational purposes, but that does not give us the right to impose upon every citizen’s fundamental right to privacy and our precious freedom of choice. Yet, at the end of the day, on occasions such as this, I quote the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu—"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

 . . . Round three:

“Your reference to dismantling the military-industrial complex is an example of the ‘strawman’ fallacy, setting up a new argument rather than responding to the original statement.

“I wasn’t referring to the Polish government; I know little about them. The Americans making the decisions are the problem in America.

“Judge Cannon is a King Baby appointee with little experience. The appointed level of officialdom is a major source of trouble nowadays. The ‘advise and consent’ function of the Senate fails more than it succeeds.

“Supervised consumption sites, at least the one I’m aware of here, offer to test substances. Users choose whether to test their products. Knowing addiction as I do, I assume some of the customers are in too much of a hurry to test.”

 . . . my response to round three:

Strawman fallacy . . . you say. Oh my! I shall respectfully disagree, but I must accept that may well be how you interpreted my words. That was not my intent. I also disagree with your root premise . . . selling weapons to Poland was about great profits. The implication of your words is that sale was motivated predominantly if not entirely by profit, which as I originally stated seems rather cynical to me. I reacted to your words like a conspiracy theory to the left. I also have seen no evidence whatsoever that even remotely suggests the armaments sale was for any reason other than the defense of Poland, which certainly seems justified with Russian aggression in neighboring Ukraine.

I will agree that Congress has on occasion foisted armaments purchases on the Defense Department and other countries through Foreign Military Sales (FMS), but that does not mean every such sale is pork barrel funding. Occasionally, such sales are for proper national defense purposes.

Yes, she is, and that may well be a factor. The wording of her order left me shaking my head, thus my review. You are quite correct, and perhaps even a bit understated. To my sense of history, the worst advise and consent failure in history was the Senate’s rejection of the League of Nations Treaty President Wilson had drafted and promoted; but hey, that’s just me.

OK, you have informed me. I was not aware that some consumption sites do perform testing upon request. Such testing opens a whole additional group of issues and questions, but it is monumentally better than just clean needles and alcohol swabs. Time might well be an issue especially if an individual is nearing the end of the rope. Far better to have known precise doses where testing is part of production and certification, i.e., regulation. We have made limited, very slow progress to improve our approach to psychotropic substance consumption, but we have a very long rough road ahead to a more enlightened and respectful state.

 

Another contribution:

Cap, many thanks for your kind words to us all over the loss of our beloved Queen.

Those words will bind our friendship tightly to us all.

My reply:

As I write, I am watching the gun carriage procession transporting the Queen from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall for public respects. We share your grief and respect. I never cease to be impressed.

May God bless and rest Her Majesty’s immortal soul.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)