Update from the Sunland
No.1096
9.1.23 – 15.1.23
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- Notorious freshman Representative George Santos of New York [1094] stated publicly, “I’ve done nothing unethical”—the audacity, or perhaps it is just simple ignorance (i.e., he does not know what ethical means), is mind boggling. Those five words graphically demonstrate the paucity of any semblance of integrity, morality, or respect Santos has for other people. Everything was about him, and him alone. He was elected on a fraud. The voters in his district voted for a mirage—smoke. I trust the law will eventually catch up with him, and he will become a guest of We, the People. Time shall tell.
-- Former Trump Organization chief financial officer (CFO) Allen Weisselberg [1049, 1075] has been sentenced to five months in prison, which is a minimal term of incarceration for income tax evasion, and he went directly to Rikers Island. For reference purposes, infamous criminal Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in Alcatraz for tax evasion. Yes, Weisselberg cooperated in the investigation and testified against the company but refused to testify against his boss—the man at the heart of it all. Weisselberg decided to fall on his sword for his former boss. The Trump Organization was fined the maximum under the law—US$1.6M, which is a spit in the bucket compared to the reported size of the company.
After Representative Kevin McCarthy of California sold his soul to become Speaker of the House [1095], the chamber established their revised rules with passage of H. Res. 5—Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress. The vote [House: 220-213-0-1] was strictly along party lines with only two exceptions: Representative Ernest Anthony ‘Tony’ Gonzales of Texas voted against the resolution, and Representative Daniel Reed ‘Dan’ Crenshaw of Texas chose not to vote. McCarthy has diminished the position of Speaker simply because he needed to buy off the “Freedom Caucus” hard-right resisters. We will all live with the consequences. Now, we shall bear witness.
Of course, the crazies here in Arizona have not given up in their desperate attempts to overthrow or negate the 2022 election in the state.
“Republicans plan to sue Gov. Katie Hobbs for being against discrimination – Opinion: When a group of unhinged extremists call themselves a "freedom" caucus you can be sure they believe in just the opposite.”
by EJ Montini
Arizona Republic
Published 8:28 a.m. MT Jan. 10, 2023 | Updated 2:26 p.m. MT Jan. 11, 2023
As one of her first acts, Governor Hobbs signed an executive order “directing the Department of Administration to prohibit discrimination in matters of hiring, promotion and pay based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” Naturally, the MAGA right were not happy with prohibiting discrimination, so they filed suit to block the governor’s action. But, the sentence in Montini’s article that struck resonance for me was, “they could have called themselves the Arizona Fascist Caucus.” The best I can say is, spot on and right on, brother. Freedom is exclusive to them—no one else. For the rest of us, we must live by their rules, their laws, their beliefs. To the “Fascist Caucus” I say, no thank you. I respect their freedom of choice. They should be free to live as they wish, to believe what they choose. Where they get crosswise with me is when they attempt to dictate my choices, my rights, my freedom of choice. I trust the court will reject their suit at the preliminary hearing stage. The “Fascist Caucus” legal effort is not worthy. It is truly frivolous!
On Thursday, 12.January.2023, Attorney General Garland rightly chose to appoint a special counsel to investigate and, if warranted, to prosecute President Biden if he broke the law regarding classified documents in his possession. Accomplished federal prosecutor Robert Kyoung Hur has been appointed to supervise the Department of Justice’s investigation of alleged mishandling of classified material by President Biden while he served as vice president under President Obama.
From my perspective and based on publicly available information, Biden has not handled this situation well, although I must say, his team has dealt with the case infinitely better than [the person who shall no longer be named]. One called the National Archive to self-report the improperly stored documents. The other resisted every attempt by the Archive to retrieve presidential and classified documents. One recognized and acknowledged that the documents in his possession were not his and belonged to the National Archive. The other persists to this day in claiming the documents are his and his alone. One has cooperated with authorities to get the discovered documents where they belong. The other has obstructed every attempt by the government to retrieve and properly store the government’s document, so much so that the government had to a resort of obtaining a judicially approved search warrant and having the FBI to carry out the warrant.
The worst part of President Biden’s classified document situation is, 45POTUS believes Biden’s self-inflicted fiasco gives him a get-out-of-jail-free card that negates the entire Mar-a-Lago search and classified documents trove problem. Neither are the same . . . the only common thread is hundreds of classified documents versus a dozen documents. While mishandling of classified documents and presidential records are another element the two cases share, only one has obstructed justice.
Lastly, none of us should care who a defendant is or care about any of the social factors associated with a defendant. The only thing that should matter is did the defendant break the law. If so, the defendant should be charged, tried, convicted, and punished for the crime. 45POTUS does not receive a get-out-of-jail-free card.
In the category of the crazies are not confined to Arizona, we have the following news item:
“Wyoming wants to phase out sales of new EVs by 2035 – It's a symbolic gesture aimed at states like California.”
by Igor Bonifacic – Weekend Editor
Engadget
Published: Sun, January 15, 2023, 1:07 PM MST
This insanity of this effort in Wyoming defies all logic, reason, and responsibility. We have such a very long way to go to overcome this damnable MAGA absurdity.
Comments and contributions from Update no.1095:
Comment to the Blog:
“Compare last week’s Speaker of the House debacle to those in 1856 and 1859-60. The analogy to today fits in its factionalism. Also, one dominant party, the Whigs, fell apart in those times. A new party, the Republicans, emerged. Who will arise as the Republicans fall apart? Several possibilities exist. The equivalence fails in other ways. Today’s fighters seek only power; there’s no enormous policy issue like slavery to fight over. In addition, the sectionalism that enabled the Civil War isn’t in play.
“I’ve seen a rumor on Twitter that one of the Republican Rejects will move to remove McCarthy today.
“Let’s hope the Brazilian government takes more decisive action against its insurrectionists than the U.S. has. Their chief villain is reportedly hiding in Florida, but Brazil can still make the point.
“I still worry that 45POTUS might die before being charged.”
My response to the Blog:
I can and will agree with your assessment of our contemporary political situation. There are, indeed, many appropriate comparisons between 1856-1860 and 2020-2023. The violence of the insurrection is not equivalent to the attack of Fort Sumter, South Carolina [12.4.1861], but the events of 6.January.2021 took us far closer to that threshold than we ever were since 1860. We are not through this period of serious threat to our representative democracy. Semper vigilans et semper fidelis.
I would not be surprised. The new House rules were passed on a strict party line vote (with only two exceptions: Gonzales against, and Crenshaw not voting). I would not be surprised if one of the MAGA resisters reaching for chaos after their display in the Speaker voting. It is going to be a very rocky two years.
Yeah, and there are rumbling of extradition for Bolsonaro, but no official action by Brazil, just yet. I sure hope Brazil makes a very strong point. There are differences between Brazil’s violence and our version, but they were both violent, nonetheless. We shall see what Brazil does. Our actions are still ongoing, so there is hope Perpetrator No.1 sees justice for his instigation of the insurrection.
I am with you on that one. 45POTUS must live, be charged, prosecuted, convicted, and sent to prison for the sake of history, if nothing else. No president has the authority to incite an insurrection. We must make a very clear statement for history.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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