Update no.1107

 Update from the Sunland

No.1107

27.3.23 – 2.4.23

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

 

To all,

 

The anti-democracy authoritarian forces are in full bloom around the world. The evolving situation in Israel would be disturbing by itself. When placed in the context of other democracies shifting or drifting toward various forms of authoritarianism, the efforts of Benyamin Netanyahu and the far-right factions seeking to emasculate the Judiciary and specifically the Supreme Court of Israel are far more threatening. The assault on the Judiciary is bad enough, but in the case of contemporary Israel, there is the added sinister dimension of Netanyahu’s deep—very deep—conflict of interest. The prime minister is the principal subject of a major corruption investigation, so his direct conflict of interest is unbounded and grossly self-serving. Massive public demonstrations against the administration’s initiative to castrate the Judiciary have rocked the nation causing Netanyahu to slow down his effort to abandon democracy and move toward autocracy. Of course, like so many such movements, the right-wing factions within the country have supported the endeavor.

 

In the realm of outrageous and absurd, Senator Thomas Hawley ‘Tommy’ Tuberville of Alabama, former football coach turned U.S. Senator, has been singularly holding this year’s the senior military promotion and nomination list hostage in protest to and opposition of the Defense Department policy regarding abortion. The policy at issue is the covering of travel expenses and time off for women who must go to states that allow abortions. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin contents that Tuberville’s action is adversely affecting military readiness.

“Austin confronts GOP senator for blocking military nominations over abortion policy”

by Luis Martinez and Isabella Murray

ABC News

Published: Tue, March 28, 2023 at 4:10 PM MST

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/austin-confronts-gop-senator-blocking-231016153.html

What we bear witness to in this instance is not democracy. Tuberville is not seeking a change in the law. It is one man imposing his beliefs, his choices, his opinion on everyone—not just the women involved, or the senior officers in the military who deserve promotion, but everyone. This is NOT how democracy is supposed to work.

 

Like democracy, freedom is messy, nasty, ugly, and aggravating. Freedom is freedom to do good or do bad. The issue is who judges good and bad, and by what standard? Freedom of choice allows a clearly mentally ill person to legally acquire multiple firearms. Freedom is NOT what a willful minority decides it should be or what they wish it was. Freedom is freedom, period! Where we run into problems occurs at the public-private interface. Society has a right and responsibility to define what is proper and acceptable for good order, discipline and decorum in the public domain. Society does not have that right in the private domain. Yet, notoriously, social conservatives have enacted laws to penetrate deep into the private domain, and as long as that penetration does not impinge upon our choices, we tend to look the other way—doesn’t affect me. There is nothing more private and personal than our anatomy and biology. The social conservatives have absolutely no right whatsoever to decided what is acceptable within any citizen’s body, what thoughts a citizen can hold, or who any citizen choose to live their private lives. The latest of many outrages carried out by the fBICP, MAGA bunch is an offense to the essential freedom of every citizen regardless of whether we realize it or not. The assault on transgender people is and should be offensive to all of us. I understand that non-heterosexual behavior is offensive to social conservatives; they have every right to be offended. That crowd does NOT have any right whatsoever to transform their personal offense into public law . . . period . . . full stop . . . drop the mic. It is up to the rest of us to defend the right to the same freedom of choice as every citizen and to confront the social conservatives to keep their choices to themselves. A parent is best position to decide what is right and proper for a child—NOT the State. To the fBICP MAGA bunch, STAY OUT OF OUR PRIVATE LIVES AND CHOICES.

 

History was made again this week. On Thursday, 30.March.2023, [the person who shall no longer be named] became the first president, current or former, in all of United States history to be indicted for felonious criminal conduct. Tiny is expected to be arraigned on criminal charges on Tuesday, 4.April.2023. To keep this in perspective, the current indictment is only the first of what may well become many. Further, the New York State charges are the least significant of all the investigations so far.

The U.S. Constitution lists three requirements to be president. S/he must be:
1. at least 35 years of age,
2. a natural born citizen, and
3. have lived in the United States for at least 14 years [Article II, Section 1, Clause 5].
There is no mention in federal law that indictment, conviction, or even imprisonment is a disqualifying condition. I am not aware of any state law that would preclude the candidacy of a felon. Thus, it is theoretically possible for an imprisoned felon to be elected president. I have no idea how that might work, but we have moved closer to finding out.

There have been numerous presidents involved in scandalous behavior, financial, political, and even criminal, from Warren Harding's Teapot Dome to Ulysses Grant's Whiskey Ring to Harry Truman's "mess in Washington" to Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal, and to Bill Clinton’s White Water and abuse of power. The worst, at least until the current fellow came along, was Richard Nixon in the whole, broad dimensions of the Watergate Scandal. Nixon violated numerous federal and district laws, and escaped accountability and justice, when President Ford terminated the judicial process by issuing a “full, free and absolute” pardon for any crimes Nixon committed while in office. The pardon was highly controversial in the day . . . and it remains highly controversial to this day—a stain on Ford’s presidency.

Of course, the BIC’s sycophants are screaming abuse, outrage, political witch hunt, ad infinitum. The indictment is still sealed. They do not know what the charges are. They have not seen the evidence to support those charges beyond probable cause. The MAGA bunch has aggressively tried to attack the judicial process. They say they do not trust the courts. The reality is that bunch only trusts their beliefs, their opinions, their positions. Everything else is suspect to them. They can rant all they want. They enjoy that freedom of speech and assembly. They have no right to break the law.

According to Mike Pence, campaign finance laws do not apply to the president of the United States. Mike Pence is flat ass WRONG! The law is the law, and the law applies to everyone including 45POTUS. He will have to opportunity to present his argument in his defense. So let us get on with it.

All of the constitutional trauma induced by [the person who shall no longer be named] is bad enough. To me, what is far worse is the people defending the con man and giving him more money.

“Post-indictment poll: Trump surges to largest-ever lead over DeSantis - But the latest Yahoo News/YouGov survey also shows that most Americans don't think Trump should be allowed to serve as president again if convicted.”

by Andrew Romano - West Coast Correspondent

Yahoo!news

Published: Sat, April 1, 2023 at 8:11 AM MST

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-indictment-poll-surges-lead-desantis-151150006.html

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters who responded to the survey, [the person who shall no longer be named] has surged ahead of DeSantis. That is their choice. They have a right to believe his snake-oil elixir is a cure-all for all their ills regardless of the truth or reality. I disagreed with President Ford’s unilateral, selfish action on 9.September.1974; he denied justice to history. We must not allow the fBICP MAGA bunch to deny justice today. Let them rant & rave all they want. Freedom of speech is freedom itself. We need justice. History needs justice. 

 

Staying true to form, on Saturday, 25.March.2023, [the person who shall no longer be named] held a séance for his true believers and called it a campaign rally. This was the first major rally of his 2024 presidential campaign. The man chose to hold his gathering for his snake-oil devotees in Waco, Texas, at the site of the former Branch Davidian compound.

For those who may not know or do not recall the history, 30 years ago, a self-proclaimed messiah led a group in their resistance to federal warrants to search for and seize illegal firearms. The initial shootout became a 51-day siege that ended when the FBI led an assault on the compound that resultant in the deaths of 80 men and women including two dozen children. The Branch Davidian incident became a cause célèbre for a diverse group of conspiracists, anarchists, and ultra-right factions.

Of all the sights to hold a “campaign rally,” Tiny chose the dirt of the former Branch Davidian compound for one very specific reason—to refresh his grift. An ancillary purpose is undoubtedly to dog-whistle his believers that he needs them to fight his fight. An opinion article in the Arizona Republic summarized reality:

“Donald Trump went to Waco, Texas, to wage unholy war, not a campaign rally - Opinion: Staging a campaign gathering where tragic events 30 years ago sparked the current right-wing conspiracy movement was no accident.”

by E.J. Montini

Arizona Republic

Published: 6:01 a.m. MT March 27, 2023 | Updated 6:36 a.m. MT March 27, 2023

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2023/03/27/donald-trump-waco-visit-a-pilgrimage-not-a-rally/70050181007/

Please read the article.

 

The fBICP & MAGA bunch in Arizona continue their unrelenting assault on the election process in the state and their commitment to ignorance [Nescientia super scientia (Ignorance over knowledge!)]. These yayhoos have introduced Senate Bill 1695. The bill is not likely to make it through the entire process into law, but it is the purpose of SB1695 to subvert elections. The proposed law would require an automatic re-do of any election in which 1,000 voters in Maricopa County (or 250 in any other county) had to wait in line for more than 90 minutes.

This bill is just one of myriad bills that intend to restrict, constrain, and narrowly regulate our elections. The MAGA bunch is pressing existed laws in every way their 

We do not need more laws like SB1695. The Legislature simply needs to fund more polling stations and allow alternative voting like voting by mail, early voting, and such. We should be making the voting process easier, not more difficult in the name of security. Yes, our elections must be secure, and we must prosecute those who violate the election process to the fullest extent of the law. If this legislative bill makes it through the Legislature, I trust Governor Hobbs will veto this foolish, ill-advised attempt to further corrupt our election process.

 

Just a word of caution to the dictators, autocrats, oligarchs, and other anti-democracy authoritarians in the world, I know the fractiousness on full public display in the United States might seem like affirmation of your misperception of American decay and weakness. However, the United States has been in this position before. In 1940 and 1941, the America First isolationist movement was very strong and dominated American politics of the day. The movement evaporated in an instant when the United States was attacked by the Empire of Japan on December 7^th—that Day of Infamy. Likewise, the divisions we all see in American society today will also evaporate if we are attacked again. To the bad guys, do not underestimate the unifying power of freedom.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1106:

Comment to the Blog:

“We keep overestimating the people whose duty is stopping 45POTUS and his kind.

“I’ll note that the U.S. government has access to everyone’s private information on platforms other than TikTok. Maybe that’s what they’re after.”

My response to the Blog:

Perhaps so. Let us not forget that this latest brouhaha was induced solely by 45POTUS; no one else. There were no other signs or indications. The prosecutor’s work to their timeline . . . not his.

Do you mean using Tik Tok subscription as a portal to other databases? I cannot imagine that there would be a direct access portal through Tik Tok, but there may well be indirect potential via identification and password association. The CCP is after anything they can acquire by any means. They have already proven their intelligence apparatus is quite adept at accessing and collecting highly sensitive information.

 . . . Round two:

“‘They [prosecutors] work to their own timeline’ isn't acceptable when their timeline allows for further attempts to overthrow the government.

“Presumably, the U.S. government also has intelligence analysis capabilities, and they have ready access to personal and private information on Americans. I guess Tiktok doesn't play along.”

 . . . my response to round two:

I have railed against prosecutorial (in)discretion many times in the Update forum. Yet, that is our system. All laws require human interpretation for unique circumstances, if nothing else, and as such allow prosecutors if and when to proceed to trial. As is the nature of the beast, some prosecutors are willing to take greater risks with the “beyond reasonable doubt” decision that belongs to a jury. I want and support swift justice, but more importantly, I want justice. Tiny has been acquitted TWICE in what I thought the evidence was irrefutable and substantial. I want the prosecutors to have a solid evidentiary case before they charge and proceed to trial. That said, I agree with you completely. Tiny has already begun the preparation for his second attempt to overthrown due process of our laws. He must be brought before the bar and face justice that is due to him for his crimes. It is the last part that is paramount to me.

You are of course quite correct. From our past experience, our safeguards are not foolproof, but at least we have safeguards to prevent abuse by the State. The PRC has no safeguards; the CCP is an all-powerful, autocratic/dictatorial entity inside the PRC. The comparisons to the USA are very weak to non-existent, in my humble opinion.

 . . . Round three:

“In any operation shrouded in secrecy, there are no safeguards. My comment stands.”

 . . . my response to round three:

Ah yes, now there is that aspect. Intelligence, by its very nature, must be secret. In many respects, the intelligence biz is quite like a law enforcement investigation. If the work is not secret, the perp could take a number of actions to interfere with the investigative process, e.g., destroy evidence, flee, amend behavior, et cetera. On the flip side, then Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson objected to U.S. cryptoanalysis programs with his now famous statement, "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." He went on to become secretary of War during WW2 and supervised the most secret program then in existence—the Manhattan Project and the MAGIC cryptoanalysis program.

Secrecy certainly reduces the safeguards, but there are still safeguards . . . definitely more than in the PRC. We still have three branches of government, each with authority and responsibility to cross-check the other two.

I am not disputing your statement, only adding comment from my perspective.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)