Update no.1087

Update from the Sunland

No.1087

7.11.22 – 13.11.22

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

 

To all,

 

The follow-up news items:

-- The PBS series Frontline continue to bring us more detail information regarding Putin’s unilateral, unprovoked, violent aggression in Ukraine [1050]. This week’s episode was “Putin’s War at Home” S41 Ep1, broadcast 1.11.2022. The stark presentation mainly by Russian dissidents who fled the country to speak out against the war in Ukraine. One common thread among all dictatorship is the suppression of dissent and a free Press. That reality was on graphic display in this episode of FRONTLINE—another must watch program.

-- As I reported last week before the election (this week), the Cochise County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 (there are only three) to ignore state law and conduct a hand count of all ballots. Cochise County Arizona is located southeast of Tucson in the southeast corner of the state and has a population of 126,050 (2021) [1086] with 39,000 of those casting ballots. Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, Inc. filed suit against the Board of Supervisors on 24.October.2022. The case was heard by Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey F. McGinley {Arizona Alliance v. Crosby AZSC PC case: CV202200518 (2022)]. The judge reviewed the law and rightly decided that the Board of Supervisors had exceeded its authority under state law. The judged ordered a preliminary injunction against the Board of Supervisors and further ordered the Cochise County election officials to follow the established law. 

Then, we learn the Cochise County Recorder is proceeding with the hand count (on advice from his attorney, according to him) in defiance of the court order. The Board appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, and they were summarily rejected, thus enforcing the judge’s injunction.

This episode in Cochise County is just one little, tiny glimpse of the consequences of the BIG LIE [1002]. The two members of the county board and the county recorder do not trust the voting machines because they believe the BIG LIE. Judge McGinley noted emphatically, “[T]here is no evidence before this Court that electronic tabulation is inaccurate in the first instance, or more importantly, that the audit system established by law is insufficient to detect any inaccuracy it may possess.” The Arizona Senate Republican Caucus hired Cyber Ninjas, Inc., to perform a detailed audit of the Maricopa Country 2020 presidential election results, which in turn found that President Biden actually won by a larger margin, and there was no signs of election fraud. They also singlehandedly invalidated all of Maricopa County’s election machines, which in turn meant county voters had to complete their ballot manually—another negative consequence of the BIG LIE. While many people perpetuate and extend the BIG LIE, there is only one person on the planet responsible for all this disruption, confusion, doubt, and turmoil—45POTUS.

-- NASA has been attempting to launch the Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) since late August [1076]. The launch has had to contend with sticky valves and two hurricanes that hit the launch complex. The vehicle and launch pad suffered some unspecified damage from the passing of Hurricane Nicole this week, but as of this writing, the next launch attempt remains on track for Wednesday 16.November.2022, with a two-hour launch window opening at 01:04 [R] EST (06:04 [Z] GMT). I will attempt to watch it live, but I suspect I may be relegated to watching the replay. We shall see.

-- The Russians announced they were withdrawing from the from the key Ukrainian city Kherson on the lower Dnieper River in the on-going Russian war of aggression against Ukraine [1050]. In his national address on Wednesday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine publicly stated, “The enemy does not bring us gifts, does not make ‘gestures of goodwill’. We fight our way up.

“And when you are fighting, you must understand that every step is always resistance from the enemy, it is always the loss of the lives of our heroes.

“Therefore, we move very carefully, without emotions, without unnecessary risk. In the interests of the liberation of our entire land and so that the losses are as small as possible.”

Spot on! My immediate impression was similar to President Zelensky’s reaction and words of caution. My thought was a fallback ambush. So far, there are no signs of a trap materializing, but the Ukrainians and we must be suspicious and vigilant. As of now, the repatriation of Kherson is a major accomplishment of the Ukrainian Army.

 

As most folks know, the United States held its mid-term general election this week. Numerous jurisdictions, including the county in which we live and vote, have a large stack of mail-in ballots, and further, the local law prohibited them from counting those mail-in ballots until the polling stations closed on election day. Thus, the counting process may take a week or two to complete. Wins and losses have been tallied as swiftly as possible, but in this instance, accuracy is far more important than speed.  We still a few undecided positions, and the counting of mail-in ballots continues. Patience!

On the positive side of the ledger, many (not all) of the election deniers promoted by 45POTUS were defeated, handing an incredible defeat and rebuke to the MAGA fBICP and ihr Anführer. In Arizona, we are still waiting on the decision for governor, nearly all of the election deniers were defeated in Arizona as well. Proposition 128, highlighted in Update no.1086, is headed toward rejection (not yet official). However, as with most of the state’s candidates, the counting continues, and the outstanding ballots to be counted exceeds the margin between yes and no. Thus, we must wait until the official tally is published and the 2022 election is closed.

On the sad side of the tally sheet, too many races were so close call Tuesday night, or the day after. From my perspective, none of them should have been that close. To me, election deniers are directly rejecting the U.S. Constitution and the representative democracy that has sustained the Republic for 234 years. Living in Arizona, with so many strident election deniers, is embarrassing, disgusting, and deeply disappointing. Worse, all this negativity stems from ONE deeply flawed, accomplished huckster, conman, and dedicated worthless snake-oil salesman, who has convinced all of these people to follow him down a false, destructive road. Perhaps, this election is, C'est le commencement de la fin for ihr Anführer.  The nation’s greatest malignant narcissist has declared to the world that he intends to make a “major” announcement this coming Tuesday. My guess is, he intends to announce his candidacy for 2024 in hopes that as a candidate he can avoid criminal prosecution until after the next general election. We shall see if his gambit works or not.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1086:

Comment to the Blog:

“I mailed my ballot in October and got confirmation it was accepted. Our ballot issues weren’t as sensitive as yours, but we have important State Supreme Court races because the Supreme Court is attempting to enforce the redistricting referendum we already passed.

“Beethoven’s 9^th is indeed great music. Did the renovation resolve Geffen Hall’s acoustic issues?

“The wheels of justice grind slowly when blocked by 45POTUS.

“Good luck with your election officials. You’ll need it.”

My response to the Blog:

Excellent. The system is working. Today is election day, and we await the results. It may well take days or weeks to get definitive results, and more than a month if Georgia is forced to a runoff election.

Well, they said it was inaugural performance following renovation. I do not know the sound before, but the sound after was excellent to my novice ear.

Indeed! He is shown inordinate deference as a former POTUS . . . deference he emphatically does not deserve. He does not and never has respected history, but history respects him for the office he held. The gears of justice do turn slowly, but ultimately, I believe (perhaps naïvely) that justice will prevail. Although I must add, Thomas Joseph Barrack Jr. was acquitted of lobbying for a foreign power and that was not a positive sign.

We will need all the luck we can muster up. Just yesterday, a judge in Pima County covering Cochise County ruled that the County Board of Supervisors overstepped their authority in ordering a full hand count. More on this case in this week’s Update.

 

Another contribution:

“I thank you, friend, again for your thoughtful observations and comments, even the continuation of your tired demonization of the unnamed previous POTUS. Perhaps repetition is necessary to assure new readers understand your convictions, so it is certainly forgivable if not enlightening.

“More importantly, as a victim of the Mississippi legislature's failure to update our citizen referendum law after we were reduced to four U. S. House of Representatives districts due to population loss,

“(Continuing after inadvertent premature sending)

“...I appreciate your state's situation. Two years ago a LARGE majority of Mississippi voters (70+%) approved legal medical marijuana, but the MS Supreme Ct agreed with a small city mayor who pointed out …
“… improvement to require a constitutional judicial test before allowing an obstinate entrenched group of rural career politicians like we have here to thwart the will of an adequate super majority of voters.

“ I certainly agree with your admiration of the 9^th Symphony!

“Never having voted absentee or by mail, I had never thought about the very real problem of intelligently considering a lengthy referendum issue if surprised by it at the polls. Surely only rare voters have bothered to ponder news or other sources discussing such things long before election day! Thanks for those thoughts, which will cause me to consider not waiting for election day next time we have a referendum issue.”

My reply:

My, my . . . “demonization” really? I do believe he does all that by his lonesome self. All I do is illuminate his multitudinous mistakes, errors, malfeasance, and crimes. I have repeatedly declared, “The emperor has no clothes.” I refuse to utter his name because he has consistently proven himself unworthy of social recognition.

I am not a fan of the referendum process, but I do respect the mechanism. Like elections, referenda depend upon the simple majority of those citizens who choose to vote. Further, referenda are very often poorly worded, e.g., a not-too-long-ago referendum in Kansas basically asked, do you favor or disapprove of non-heterosexual marriage? The proper question should have been, do you favor imposing your choices on all other citizens? The referenda in Arizona for this election required inordinate work to understand the consequence. I do not think most voters will take the time to understand what they are being asked. Lastly, changing the law or the state constitution is not a popularity or personal choice matter; it is every citizen’s right to exercise freedom of choice in their personal lives. Marriage is a personal, private matter, not an issue of the public domain, just as every woman’s rights are fully equal to a man’s rights. As you note, all too often these referenda are the initiative of a willful minority, and they vote, but the result gets imposed on every citizen regardless of the social factors.

I voted absentee in nearly all of the elections while I served on active duty in the Marine Corps. After that I voted on election day with machines for the last few decades. The pandemic forced a change in my modus operandi, and because of my age, the state has decided it is best for me to vote by mail for the rest of my days. Having voted by mail in Arizona for the last two elections, I confess that the process gives me far more flexibility for researching candidates and issues. Today, I think it is a far better method. I would urge you and everyone to evaluate the process; it works.

 

A different contribution:

“https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63548188

“Cap.

“‘morning young man. Just thought you would be interested to see that we over here are concerned about your ‘midterm’.

“From a solely personal point of view Cap just keep ‘he who cannot be mentioned’ out of any power. I don’t like his politics and his voice turns me off any of the ghastly political atmosphere he tries to express.

“Otherwise Bud have a good day-we’ll be thinking of you and the future of your great country.”

My response:

I confess to considerably more concern (worry) than usual about what is about to happen. I agree with President Biden; democracy itself in this country is implicitly on the ballot. The sheer number in virtually all states of MAGA election denier candidate invokes considerable apprehension. It is bad enough what fBICP legislatures have been able to enact and impose in states they control. If you do not know U.S. history, the term is Jim Crow laws intended to suppress voting by groups not likely to vote for them. Jim Crow v1.0 ended in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) [PL 89-110; 79 Stat. 437], which the Supremes have relentlessly continued to dismantle piece by piece. The combination of the decline of the fBICP and the BIG LIE, today, we have Jim Crow v2.0 being imposed in many states. At the end of the day, there is always hope . . . until there isn’t.

Our nighttime temp as the eclipse is underway is the same as your daytime temp. Go figure. BTW, the eclipse is majestic.

 . . . Round two:

“Cap, must confess I had to do some research into those ‘Jim Crow’ laws. I really believed they were laws introduced by a person named Jim Crow.

“Not so at all. In fact they were something much more sinister as a name for Negro people. I confess I had no idea of that.

“We can only get better Cap.”

 . . . my response to round two:

My apologies for pushing you into a search of American history. Sinister indeed! They were draconian laws with one purpose, excluding voters not likely to vote for them. Jim Crow v1.0 was largely (not exclusively) the action of Southern Democrats back in the day. Jim Crow v2.0 is solely the effort of Republicans (fBICP). Both versions of Jim Crow laws were (are) efforts to retain power. They are also a sordid, despicable reality that conservatives want to bury any attempts to examine and illuminate that terrible history.

We are still counting the votes from yesterday’s election. Some positive signs; some negative. As of this morning, still undecided.

 . . . Round three:

“We trust the sun will shine on the results of your mid term-it’s not looking as bad as forecast. We have our fingers crossed for you.

“No I was quite happy to research Jim Crow, couldn’t work out who he was! But now I know! 

“Currently writing an agenda for our next Legion meeting post the remembrance parades- we do three-so there will be plenty to talk about!”

 . . . my response to round three:

We are still counting the votes in many jurisdictions . . . the mail-in ballots. In some instances (as in Arizona), the ballots to be counted exceeds the margin between the candidates. A significant majority of election deniers LOST, but a few won, which does not speak well for this once grand republic. Yes, the decided outcomes are much better than forecast, but key races remain undecided at present, and the U.S. Senate race in Georgia is headed to a run-off in December. Thus, no matter what happens with the count, we will probably remain in limbo until that race is decided. We need all the well-wishes and lucky we can muster up.

Well, my friend, you now know more than man American citizens. Far too many do not know and worse do not care. A goodly portion seek ignorance over knowledge. Such is the nature of the beast. I prefer knowledge, and I will always seek to learn until my brain functions cease.

Today, it the United States Marine Corps birthday—10.November.1775. Semper Fidelis!

Tomorrow is Armistice Day (our Veterans Day). I trust your commemoration events go well. Lest we ever forget . . . 

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)