Update no.1136

 Update from the Sunland

No.1136

16.10.23 – 22.10.23

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

 

To all,

 

The follow-up news items:

-- In the wake of the Gaetz initiative that removed Speaker McCarthy [1134], the House took a week off from their critical legislative work presumably to choose a new speaker. [An apology: I usually try to avoid the tedious facts of issues; however, in this instance, they are vital to appreciating the situation. Reminder: 218 votes of the full House are required to become speaker, or half plus one of House members present.]

The first vote to select a new speaker: Tuesday, Oct 17, 2023, 01:49 PM | 118^th Congress, 1^st Session:

Jeffries: 212

Jordan: 200

Scalise: 7

McCarthy: 6

Zeldin: 3

Garcia, Mike: 1

Emmer: 1

Cole: 1

Massie: 1

Present: 0

Not Voting: 1

No candidate having achieved 217 votes, the chair remained vacant. I am shocked and disappointed that Representative James Daniel ‘Jim’ Jordan of Ohio managed to gather up so many votes. From my perspective, it was a lame attempt—a desperate attempt—to end the crisis instigated by Gaetz and his Freedom Caucus buddies. Just a reminder, Jordan is perhaps the staunchest supporter of [the person who shall no longer be named] and his BIG LIE. This is what is left of the former Republican Party. Not to be deterred, Jordan insisted on another vote the following day.

The second vote: Wednesday, Oct 18, 2023, 01:12 PM | 118^th Congress, 1^st Session:

Jeffries: 212

Jordan: 199

Scalise: 7

McCarthy: 5

Zeldin: 3

Donalds: 1

Emmer: 1

Garcia, Mike: 1

Boehner: 1

Granger: 1

Westerman: 1

Miller, Candice: 1

Present: 0 

Not Voting: 0

Again, no candidate achieving a majority of members, the chair remained vacant. Jordan decided to take another day to ‘negotiate’ with his colleagues. He lost votes. Jordan held a presser on Thursday and gave us a rah-rah speech about God, Mother, and apple pie. What he did not give us was a path forward.

The third vote: Friday, Oct 20, 2023, 11:56 AM | 118^th Congress, 1^st Session:

Jeffries: 210

Jordan: 194

Scalise: 8

McHenry: 6

Zeldin: 4

Donalds: 2

McCarthy: 2

Garcia, Mike: 1

Emmer: 1

Westerman: 1

Present: 0

Not Voting: 4 (Two Republicans and two Democrats)

Jordan lost more votes. At this point, the Republican Conference went behind closed doors and apparently voted to unrecognize Jordan as a viable candidate.

The BIG LIE supporter, election-denier, and insurrection-defender Jim Jordan has stayed one small step beyond indictment, so far, for his contributions to the BIG LIE and the insurrection. The prospect of making him speaker was tantamount to putting the fox in the chicken coop. Perhaps the few remaining true Republicans may finally be coming to their senses. The House has real work to do, and at present, they are paralyzed, and the People’s work remains undone.

By Saturday, the Republican Conference recognized nine different new candidates. The Conference will meet in a closed door meeting on Monday to hear the sales pitches of each candidate and presumably selected their candidate with a vote before the full House on Tuesday. Whomever is finally elected speaker will have to hit the ground running at a dead sprint and herding cats to get the appropriations bills done in time and pass funding legislation for Ukraine and Israel. The next few weeks are not going to be easy or comfortable.

-- In the on-going Georgia RICO case—Georgia v. Trump {+18 others}[GA FCSpC 4:23-mj-01602 (2023)] [1127]—against Tiny and his cohorts for election interference in the 2020 election, new developments this week do not bode well for [the person who shall no longer be named] and his principal enablers.

On Thursday, Sidney Powell [1127] pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties to avoid a trial and potentially prison. Included in the plea deal is the requirement that she must testify in other related prosecutions, five years probation, pay US$6,000 fine plus US$2,700 in restitution, and write an open letter of apology to the residents of Georgia. Frankly, I think she is getting off lightly for what she did, but I trust the prosecutor to make those decisions.

Then, on Friday, Ken Chesboro [1127] pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents and agreed to testify in the case as part of the deal. In addition, he agreed to five years probation, a US$5,000 fine, 100 hours of community service, provide documents and evidence to the state, and also write an open letter of apology to the people of Georgia.

That is three of the original 19 to plead guilty and turn state’s evidence, so far, and I imagine there will be more to come as the prosecutors narrow their focus on the ultimate perpetrators—Trump, Meadows, Giuliani, and Eastman.

 

A New Republic article title caught my attention.

“Judge to Donald Trump: STFU or Go to Jail – The judicial system is being forced to reckon with the physiological impossibility of the former president ever not talking.”

by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling

New Republic

Published: Fri, October 20, 2023 at 9:48 AM MST

https://newrepublic.com/post/176360/trump-engoron-gag-order-jail

For those who may not recognize the meaning of SFTU in the title—STFU = Shut The Fuck Up. It seems Judge Engoron in the New York fraud case against you know who—New York v. Trump [NYSCEF Index No. 452564/2022] [1133]—has reached his limit of tolerance of Tiny’s antics. The judge levied a fine of US$5,000 and a stern warning for Tiny to cease and desist in his public comments regarding the case before the state court. The fine is certainly pocket-change to Tiny, but the warning is real. The next transgression may bring a short stay in jail and probably longer jail time for continued offenses. The man cannot help himself, and he will reap the consequences of his rabid mouth. I suspect Tiny will persist in testing the judge’s tolerance, and I expect Judge Engoron is not bluffing. We shall see . . . and probably sooner rather than later.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1135:

Comment to the Blog:

“The findings from the Psyche asteroid mission will be fascinating.

“The relatively sane Republicans will have to ask for help from Democrats to get a Speaker of the House in place. The GOP is effectively two parties now; the processes of multi-party democracy are in order.

“The ‘Holy Land’ has been in armed, barbaric conflict for 4,000 years. Don’t expect that to change.

“So long as the greedy can use the fearful, hateful nations will rise. No society has a single religion; schisms occur if it gets close. That’s a good thing. I don’t see organized religion as a civilizing force; it’s primarily a means to control the population.”

My response to the Blog:

As do I . . . as we await the findings from the Bennu regolith material analysis. Bennu was essentially a loosely congealed gravel ball. Psyche is comprised predominantly of what is believed to be iron. The current working hypothesis of Psyche’s origins is the core of a small planetoid that was stripped clean by a passing collision—very intriguing.

The first vote on the speaker selection will be later today. That will be our first on-the-record view of what is going on inside the Republican Conference. We will likely only be made aware of some of the intimidation that has undoubtedly already taken place. A coalition majority of moderates on both sides has been suggested. We wait and watch.

Armed conflict among humans can be traced back to the beginning of recorded history [~4,000 BC (six millennia ago] and beyond. The violence was driven by territorial dominance, hunting grounds, and yes religious parochialism—us v. them. The same or similar motivations that drive animals to defend their territory.

Changing human nature is a very long process, but it can and does change. We can argue whether religion has been a civilizing force. Whether so, religion has also been one (if not the ultimate) destructive elements. Countless wars have been fought for religious parochialism and intolerance. My paternal ancestors left the old country to escape violent religious persecution. We see such violence to this very day.

 . . . Round two:

“We shall see what insanity occurs in DC today, hour by hour.

“Armed conflict in the Holy Land is particularly pernicious and continuous, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

 . . . my response to round two:

Indeed, and the insanity began at noon yesterday. I am terribly disappointed that Jim Jordan managed to collect up 200 votes. To me, that puts him too close to reaching the speakership. The next vote is supposed to happen today. If he gains votes, he will push to keep going like McCarthy did. If he does not, the saner minds in the fBICP may search in earnest for a viable candidate. The next vote or two will tell us a lot. I am afraid of any something-better-than-nothing rationale to accept Jordan. If that happens, the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus will have completed their takeover of the former Republican Party—not a good thing.

Yes, I am quite aware. If Hamas had offered even a sliver of effort at governance in Gaza, I might be more attentive or sympathetic, but they have not. They are simply looking for civilian cover for their terrorist activities. Israel has no choice but to decapitate Hamas and rid Gaza of terrorist elements. The task will be very tricky and fraught with risk. The hospital event yesterday looks terribly like a false flag (intended or not) operation to garner support within the Islamic countries, and it appears to have been successful so far.

 . . . Round three:

“The Republicans are too broken for any of them to be a viable candidate for Speaker.

“I’ll point out that the event in Israel is internal, not a war in the usual sense. I have zero sympathy for any of the combatants; they all want to achieve their objectives by killing or harming non-combatants.

“Nobody can detect ‘false flag’ and other such operations remotely if they in fact occur.”

 . . . my response to Round three:

Broken indeed! While Jordan lost votes, he still had the majority of the fBICP voting for him. There is no obvious way out of this mess without some major shift. I suspect Jordan is going to persist until he has no votes.

Call it what you will. People are dying by violent means.

Perhaps not, but much of the publicly available information tends to support the Israeli position; yet, many sympathetic people want to believe what they want to believe, and they will act on those beliefs. The cycle continues.

 . . . Round four:

“Historians can often unravel the spy business, but it takes more years than I expect to live. In the meantime, I remain opposed to war in general.”

 . . . my response to round four:

I am opposed to war as well. I suspect all sane, rational people across the globe are opposed to war. But bad men do bad things. Out of curiosity and an interest in intellectual discussion, what would you do in Ukraine and Gaza?

 . . . Round five:

“I have no answer for Ukraine, because the people making decisions there aren't opposed to war. In Gaza, the UN Security Council has called for a ceasefire, but the United States vetoes the resolutions.”

 . . . my response to round five:

The Ukrainians did not want war. There was no provocation or offenses executed on Russia. To my knowledge, there is only one reason for the war in Ukraine—the hard-right inside and outside of government in Russia believed Ukraine was theirs 30 years ago and had been wrongfully taken from them. I am not aware of any attempt to adjudicate their claim in the United Nations. No, the Russian government turned to violence when intimidation did not work—assault & battery and murder on a state scale.

President Biden did the best that could be done from my perspective, what President Obama should have done in 2014 (Tiny does not show up on the scale). Russia must be stopped, pushed back to the original border (prior to 2014), and the perpetrators prosecuted to the best of our ability in the International Court like other war criminals.

Where was the UN when Israeli citizens were being murdered by Hamas? Hamas is in the same category as al-Qa’ida, ISIL, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Taliban, and all the other terrorists among us. Again, Israel did not choose war; war came to them. How will a ceasefire serve justice?

 . . . Round six:

“Israel is in the same category as Hamas to me. History tells me there are no ‘good guys’ in that part of the world, and there never have been.”

 . . . my response to round six:

Oh my, I cannot and will not agree with your statement. Israel is not without fault in a number of areas, not least of which is the Netanyahu-sponsored Israeli settlements in the West Bank. There are many more foolish actions. However, those faults do not put Israel in the same category as Hamas and Hezbollah. I will concede that Israel is not the pristine ‘good guy’ some like to think, but neither are we. But, let us not forget that Israel did not attack Gaza. Hamas (not the Palestinian people) attacked Israel, just like Putin and his cronies attacked Ukraine.

“That’s just my opinion, but I could be wrong.”

 . . . Round seven:

“Israel didn't attack Gaza first in this instance. The weight of history burdens them with responsibility, as it does Hamas and Hezbollah, the next target.”

 . . . my response to round seven:

OK, I’ll bite. Please name one instance when Israel has initiated an unprovoked attack on Gaza.

I would suggest that history will record that Israel was willing and in fact dealing with Hamas as the presumptive governance body of Gaza, as long as they remained peaceful. I am not absolving Israel of their mistakes, no more so than I absolve the United States of our mistakes. I just do not see Israel as villainous as you apparently do, but hey, that is just me.

 . . . Round eight:

“The word ‘unprovoked’ is the weak spot in your argument. Israel has treated the Palestinians much as the USA treated Native Americans, including the reservation system. I'll emphasize again that I refer to the Israeli government, not the Jewish religion.”

 . . . my response to round eight:

As I have stated several times and will continue to do so, Israel is not without fault in the whole Palestine situation. Is there any reason to kill 1,300 innocent people and kidnapped 250 hostages?

Yes, absolutely, the Israel government especially the Netanyahu administration, is not the Israeli people, no more so that Hamas is the Gaza Palestinians or Putin the Russian people.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)