Update no.1138

 Update from the Sunland

No.1138

30.10.23 – 5.11.23

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

 

To all,

 

The follow-up news items:

-- Junior testified on Wednesday in the family fraud penalty bench trial {New York v. Trump, et al [NYSCEF Index No. 452564/2022] [1080]} and claimed ignorance. It was all the accountants’ fault. Interesting argument. Junior signed the documents as the responsible company officer. Junior’s younger brother Eric also chose the ignorance defense. They did not know what they were signing; they trusted the accountants. Someone ordered the accountants to do what they did. I suspect Judge Engoron was not impressed with the brothers’ lame excuse. Junior and Eric’s ignorance may have increased the likelihood of criminal negligence charges against them based on their testimony. Tiny is expected to testify on Monday, and vaunted Ivanka is scheduled to testify after her father.

This Alfred E. Newman “What me worry” or Sergeant Hans Schultz “I know nutt-ting” routine the brothers are using may be good for entertainment laughs, but such nonsense is unlikely to be a successful defense for criminal conduct. We will see next week whether Tiny and his precious daughter take the same path as the brothers. Regardless, I suspect the fate of the organization is sealed. We will quite likely be treated to bountiful squealing from Tiny and his family once the judge renders his ruling. Hang on!

-- The House of Representatives finally got around to doing something about the atrocious conduct of Representative George Santos (if that is his real name) of New York [1094]. On Thursday evening, after considerable gnashing of teeth, the House voted on H.Res.773 - Providing for the expulsion of Representative George Santos from the House of Representatives.

NOV 01, 2023, 07:46 PM | 118^TH CONGRESS, 1^ST SESSION

Yea: 179                     [Rep: 24; Dem: 155; Ind: 0]   {291 required for passage}

Nay: 213                     [Rep: 182; Dem: 31; Ind: 0]

Present: 19                  [Rep: 4; Dem: 15: Ind: 0]

Not Voting: 22            [Rep: 11; Dem: 11: Ind: 0]

As noted, they failed to expel the common grifter from their midst. Of course, the grifter gloated about being vindicated, which is about the farthest from the truth as one can possibly get. Those who voted against him offered a wide variety of reasons for their actions, many referring to the on-going criminal prosecution of Santos. Once the crook is convicted in federal court, I suspect the House will re-visit the matter of expulsion. They will get there, and he will realize what he deserves in due course.

 

After the horrific terrorist attack on the morning of 7.October.2023, Israel finally initiated their ground offensive into Northern Gaza. Hamas sought to provoke Israel. They accomplished their objective. They wanted a lot of civilian casualties to enhance recruitment for their terrorist activities. I also suspect the leaders of Hamas were aware that Israel and Saudi Arabia were on the verge of an historic normalization agreement and wanted to torpedo the deal. Again, they accomplished their objective, and the Palestinian people living in Gaza paid and are paying a terrible price for the hubris of Hamas. In the midst of all this activity, the prime minister of Israel offered his opinion on the situation.

“The Battle of Civilization – This isn’t only Israel’s war. If Hamas and Iran win, you will be their next target. But we will prevail.”

by Benjamin Netanyahu

Wall Street Journal

Published: Oct. 30, 2023 at 6:22 pm ET

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-battle-of-civilization-in-gaza-israel-hamas-3236b023

I think Netanyahu has overstated the issue, but not by much. Hamas is an IRI-surrogate Sunni Islamic terrorist group. They have similar objectives and motives to many Islamo-fascist terrorist groups, e.g., Hezbollah, al-Qa'ida, ISIL, Islamic Jihad, et al ad infinitum ad nauseum. It is an ugly, nasty situation foisted upon Israel. Dealing with it will not be pretty. So far, that prophecy has been graphically true. Hamas has so deeply imbedded their command and operative infrastructure in the Gaza Strip that collateral damage is inevitable, which is why I say that Hamas seeks civilian casualties and hardship.

 

I have tried to sort things out regarding the health status of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. I have received multiple, in the range of three or four dozen, notices that Putin is dead, or suffering from a debilitating heart attack, or has been incapacitated by a serious stroke. The number of these notices finally stimulated me to search reliable public sources in multiple countries that had yielded more confusion than clarity. I have no idea what is going on, but until I start seeing corroborated evidence from multiple dissimilar news sources, I must assume it is a persistent, broad spectrum, disinformation campaign by someone or group of someones for reasons unknown. Wishing it to be true does not make it truth. Let us be careful what we believe.

 

If woke means respecting others, even those you do not agree with, then I am woke. If woke means, learning history so we will hopefully not repeat the mistakes of our ancestors, then I want to be woke, and I want my children and grandchildren to be woke. Ignorance is not and never will be the answer. Ignorance leads directly to Oceania and worse.  We need our children to learn about the mistakes as well as the accomplishments recorded in history. All American citizens must know and understand the Constitution of the United States of America. All American citizens must appreciate history—good, bad, or ugly. We are not perfect—never were, never will be. The American sense of exceptionalism is just one of many contributing factors to the Ugly American Syndrome. If knowledge hurts, let us learn from that hurt. We must have knowledge, not ignorance. Further, those who espouse ignorance in any form must be relegated to the distant, shadowy margins of society and as far away from the instruments of state as we can possibly push them. We must respect their right to ignorance, but we cannot support such nonsense. This issue, among so many, is one primary reason I can never support or vote for any politician who advocates for ignorance in our society, or at least suppresses knowledge, which implicitly encourages ignorance.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1137:

Comment to the Blog:

“The original GOP is desperate indeed to have voted in Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House.

“Mark Meadows knows more dirt on Tiny than anyone else.

“The Christian nationalists want an authoritarian government. They wouldn’t choose democracy.

“The Maine shooter acquired his weapon legally. That’s shameful.”

My response to the Blog:

It certainly appears so. The moderates gave up to end the crisis on what appears to be a something-is-better-than-nothing basis. I suspect they opened the hen house and let the fox inside to have his way.

I do not know about the ‘anyone else’ portion of your statement, but Meadows certainly knows more than he has been publicly disclosed so far or placed before the HSCJ6. It is going to be interesting how he walks the line between the federal election interference and the Georgia RICO cases.

Yes, absolutely, more specifically, they want an authoritarian government of their making, probably verging on a Christian theocracy. Frankly, if everyone looked at self-interests alone, no one would choose democracy—too laborious, too messy, too unmanageable. Yet, from my perspective, democracy is the only means to achieve the common good.

I have not heard that piece of news directly, yet. I am hearing a lot, from multiple sources, about the mental illness signs that were missed, ignored, not correlated, or not utilized to protect public safety (the common good). From what I have seen so far, the perp should have never been allowed to acquire a firearm of any type. One report showed the document that he tried to buy a silencer (legal in Maine) for his rifle, and he was stopped only by his self-disclosure that he had been committed to a mental health facility. That is far too close. Shameful indeed!

 . . . follow-up comment:

“Meadows knows more than anyone because he was Tiny’s Chief of Staff. That’s a synonym for Executive Secretary, and trust me on this: the secretaries/admins or the security guards know everything. I’ve been a secretary.

“I understand that everyone’s self-interest is served by the common good. Many don’t share that, but theocracies are particularly ugly if Israel or Afghanistan is any kind of role model.

“I continue to see headlines about the Maine shooter. I’ve no clue when the USA will learn our way out of our attitudes about firearms.”

 . . . my follow-up response:

I surely hope so, given the immunity deal with Special Counsel Smith in the election interference case. Because he knows more and did what he did, he should be prosecuted, not walk away without consequences. It will be interesting how this balances with the Georgia RICO case, where he remains a defendant.

That is my opinion as well; theocracies are ugly, since they are all about dicta, control, and restriction of freedom of choice to what the clerics define as acceptable or tolerable. Just another form of dictatorship as I see them.

Me either. The evidence is too obvious and damning. Card is an even more blatant failure than the Lanza case (2012). When will we ever learn?

 

Another contribution:

“Ah, my astute friend and wise comrade in arms, you continue to accurately report on the unfortunate sequel to our country's mistaken (in retrospect) hope that a strong conservative businessman would achieve wise rejection of the previous mistaken hope for proud world leadership and national racial reconciliation, etc. meanwhile living through an extension of that unsuccessful leftist rejection of our constitution.

“As you frequently remind us, there is still hope for continuation of the grandest of all world experiments in representative democracy , but we had better hurry. We are quickly running out of educated voters and borrowed money, while China, Russia, and minor imitator's gain strength in planning our demise.”

My reply:

A couple of points are keen for public debate. If [the person who shall no longer be named] had ever been a “strong conservative businessman,” we would have a fundamentally different situation today. He was never any one of those traits, and his personality flaws were amply visible in public long before he ever announced his candidacy (2015). Unfortunately, far too many people chose to ignore those fatal character flaws to reach for what they thought was that “strong conservative businessman.” To me, he is none of those things—not strong, not conservative, and not a good businessman. He is a grifter who has figured out how to sell his worthless snake-oil elixir to millions of people who continue to buy the stuff and consume it. They are convinced that stuff cures all their ills. Until that blind allegiance to an accomplished conman is broken, we shall suffer the collateral maladies of his malignant narcissism.

I am a little puzzled by your “unsuccessful leftist rejection of our constitution.” To what are you referring?

Yes, indeed, we had better hurry. We have been teetering on the brink of the abyss for too many years after we had a clear public demonstration of how close we are to losing our representative democracy. Yes, agreed on the need for a better educated electorate, which is precisely why we need a strong vibrant Press and a secondary education system that is not emasculated by parochial politicians. We are fighting for the soul of our once grand republic, and we must not tire or waiver. What happened on 6.January.2021 was as much an insurrection against our constitutional government as the Civil War was—just a different form and less violent (so far).

 . . . follow-up comment:

“I agree ,Cap!

“Mistaken hope : Obama

“Extension: Biden”

 . . . my follow-up reply:

With respect, you did not answer my query. The question was to what were you referring in your statement “unsuccessful leftist rejection of our constitution”?

I understand and appreciate you do not like Democrats. That is your right. But, again, with respect, both Obama and Biden are far better presidents than Tiny (a very low bar); at least they act like presidents should. “Mistaken hope” . . . how so? What is mistaken?

I just want to understand.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)