Update no.1141

 Update from the Sunland

No.1141

20.11.23 – 26.11.23

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

 

To all,

 

I trust everyone celebrated a most enjoyable Thanksgiving and whatever festivity of everything they are grateful for in life.

I also wish everyone a happy holiday season as we approach the end of the calendar year.

 

The follow-up news items:

-- We still do not know the official cause for the loss of the Starship spacecraft as part of the SpaceX IFT-2 mission [1140]. Some unofficial information indicates the uncrewed Starship apparently developed a fuel leak that gave the craft insufficient fuel to make it to its objective splashdown point north of Hawaii. As a consequence, they chose to destroy the craft, spreading debris on a line between Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Judging from past development efforts by SpaceX, the next test should be a winner. IFT-3 is tentatively scheduled for December 2023, so we will not have to wait long.

 

With a house full of three generations of family for the Thanksgiving week, I got very little reading, writing, and news attention-ing done. I have nothing more to add this week.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1140:

Comment to the Blog:

“If that SpaceX booster is meant to land in one place and the debris showers somewhere else, there’s a functional problem for the people wherever the debris lands.

“The current budget games are enabled by the deficit cap imposed by conservatives as a way to limit social programs. It costs the military-industrial complex nothing.

“Israel is committing genocide of the Palestinians. That has been their goal since they came into existence. It’s in the open now, regardless of whether a specific quote is accurate. You may argue if you like that killing hundreds or thousands of innocent people is justified in support of killing two or three of your nation’s enemies, but I’ll never agree.

“Your screed on the MAGAts is familiar material to political science majors and history students.

“Don’t let your emotions overwhelm your intelligence. That’s the weakness of the MAGAts.”

My response to the Blog:

At the point of staging, the vehicle was well out over the Gulf of Mexico and presumably over a clear area of the sea. No reports of injury or damage from the debris remnants have been reported. Just an FYI: the Saturn V first stage disintegrated during uncontrolled reentry as well. My point was, the booster accomplished its primary task—getting the spacecraft to sufficient altitude and speed on proper trajectory to reach orbit. What we do not yet know is what happened to the spacecraft itself. We know that it did not reach its sub-orbital splashdown target.

Quite so. And, once more, the debt limit cap is a tool originally well intended that has been subverted by a shrinking minority as a bludgeon for political purposes. There is no question the original law is NOT serving its intended purpose.

Israel is NOT committing genocide. I have no idea by what basis you make such a claim. This aspect of the debate reverts us back to the chicken-and-egg conundrum—an apparent insolvable paradox. Just for the public record and our continuing friendship, I do not like killing of any type. But, you and I do not decide such questions. Bad men decide; they make killing necessary. Our task is to make it as surgical and precise as possible.

Yes it is. It is not a new phenomenon. Once again, bad men make such actions necessary, just so in crime and war. We must deal with what comes.

“Overwhelm my intelligence” . . . oh my.

 . . . Round two:

“Thanksgiving is ‘my’ holiday; I try to make a year-round practice of gratitude.

“I have a chronic objection to conservatives’ use of ‘bad men’ to avoid conferring on society as a whole any responsibility for preventing misconduct in any given form.

“I heard that about emotion versus intelligence from a man I respect in a recovery meeting. He said to not ‘get E over I,’ and it works for me. I serve my basic values better if my ideas and actions aren’t distorted by passing emotions that can be manipulated.”

 . . . my response to round two:

We will have a full house later today—children, grandchildren, but no great-grandchildren (as yet). Happy Thanksgiving, my friend; enjoy every moment. Gratitude is the keyword for Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be grateful for in life. Enjoy your day.

My problem with your argument is, I have met “adversaries,” e.g., Russians. They are not what Putin and the radical right have done to Russia. So, if ‘bad men’ is not the correct moniker, then what would you call those men who have ordered one nation to invade and brutalize another sovereign country? Hamas started this latest flare up; they chose to butcher and kidnap innocent people. What would you call the military wing of Hamas? What would you have the ‘innocents’ do to stop the bad men when the people are predominantly disarmed and leaderless?

Ahso! Understood and agreed. Likewise, I strive to eliminate emotion from all decision-making, but on occasion, it is not so easy. Yes, indeed, emotions can be easily manipulated. All grifters seems to play on emotions with great effect. 

 . . . Round three:

“I will celebrate Thanksgiving quietly and appreciate the kids, grands, and great-grands daily. (I understand more and more as time goes on the role of sensory issues in my troubles.)

“My issue isn’t that ‘bad’ men don’t exist; they do. The problem is that society doesn’t evolve to thwart them.

“I’ve learned from Buddhist teaching about attachment and aversion, which can be seen as obsession and irrational fear.”

 . . . my response to round three:

Very good point. As has often been pointed out by numerous disparate sources, people commonly turn to dictators in times of chaos to make quick fixes to stabilize the turmoil, e.g., Germany 1933. Thus, bad men occasionally create chaos to induce such behavior. “Only I can fix this.” Sound familiar? The German people paid a very high price for their blind allegiance. Others paid a far steeper price. To my enormous surprise and disappointment, we are toying with the exact same phenomenon today in this once grand republic. Yes, absolutely, society must evolve, to mature, to deal with bad men before they can ever reach that level of autocracy and gain control of the instruments of state. We have failed in that maturation, and we have yet to see whether we can overcome. As Ben Franklin so eloquent and succinctly said, “A republic if you can keep it.” We have a tenuous hold today.

Good teaching we can all learn from.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)