Update no.1153

 Update from the Sunland

no.1153

12.2.24 – 18.2.24

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

 

To all,

 

The follow-up news items:

-- The House failed to impeach Homeland Secretary Majorkas the first time [1152], so they dragged House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana out of his sick bed (cancer: Multiple Myeloma) to vote on the second attempt. The vote margin could not have been any thinner, but they succeeded {House: 214-213-0-4[4]}—H.Res.863 - Impeaching Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, for high crimes and misdemeanors. The impeachment bill will now go to the Senate. There is no indication, as yet, what the Senate will do with the bill.

This is the first impeachment of a cabinet officer in 150 years, and the second cabinet impeachment in history. On 2.March.1876, Secretary of War William Worth Belknap was impeached for his role in the trading post scandal. He was acquitted by the Senate. 

To me, this is a political retribution sham. The fBICP wants talking points for their Lieber Anführer. If they want someone to blame and be held accountable for the border crisis, all they need to do is look in the mirror. They rejected the best compromise immigration reform bill in decades. The bill did not provide everything either party wanted, but it was the best bipartisan compromise in quite some time. The House rejected it without a vote at the direct orders of their Lieber Anführer.

-- Judge Engoron rendered his decision and judgment against [the person who shall no longer be named] in the New York State civil business fraud case— New York v. Trump [NYSCEF Index No. 452564/2022] [1133]. The judge fined Tiny US$354.9M and his two older sons, Don Jr. and Eric, US$4M each, plus suspended their business license in New York for three years. On the positive side, I suppose the judgment could have been far worse. Tiny is expected to appeal, of course, although it is not clear on what grounds. The court penalties against [the person who shall no longer be named] are approaching half a billion dollars and there are more penalties ahead.

-- Next up for Tiny is his criminal business fraud case in New York City—People of the State Of New York v. Donald J. Trump [NYSC case 71543/2023] [1107]. The pre-trial motions have been adjudicated and the trial date is set for 25.March.2024. This will be the first time he faces prison time. The conclusion and decision of the civil fraud case— New York v. Trump [NYSCEF Index No. 452564/2022] [1133]—do not bode well for Tiny.

 

At a campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, a week ago Saturday, [the person who shall no longer be named] told his MAGA believers that he had a conversation with the “president of a big country” [otherwise, unspecified] who asked him, "Well sir, if we don't pay, and we're attacked by Russia - will you protect us?" To which, Tiny claimed to have responded, “I said: 'You didn't pay? You're delinquent?' He said: 'Yes, let's say that happened.' No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay.” (emphasis mine.)

In most groups of decent, law-abiding citizens, the former president of the United States threated a presumed ally with extortion. The treaty, commonsense, and respect for our friends make no such quid pro quo. This is not how we deal with our friends. Just a reminder, while Tiny likes to cite the 2% of GDP threshold for defense spending for NATO members states, such a demand for dues is not written in the governing treaty. Tiny cites that threshold because he likes it. He needs a bludgeon. Now, that said, should NATO allies and signatories spend comparable amounts on national defense? Yes, absolutely. I agree with the objective. I condemn Tiny’s methods—extortion is not the answer, diplomacy is. The thought of that man becoming president again with very few if any constraints or restrictions on his conduct is chilling to the bone. As it always is (until the Constitution is completely abandoned), the People who vote will decide the future of this once grand republic.

 

Then, [the person who shall no longer be named], being the crass, insensitive, ignorant, nincompoop that he is and always has been, offered another telling anecdote about himself in his attempt to denigrate his adversary, Nikki Haley. Tiny declared, “Then she comes over to see me at Mar-a-Lago. ‘Sir, I will never run against you.’ She brought her husband. Where’s your husband? Oh, he’s away. He’s away. What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone! He knew. He knew.”

Well, numbnuts, he is on active duty in the U.S. Army as a member of the South Carolina National Guard deployed to Africa in service to the nation. We know that Tiny holds the military in very low regard since he has so often denigrated those who have sacrificed in service to this once grand republic. And, worse, this [expletive deleted] used his daddy’s money to avoid service with his bogus claim of bone spurs (a typical ploy of the wealthy), and he wants to become our commander-in-chief . . . AGAIN. Tiny is a disgusting, ego-centric, malignant narcissistic malcontent who does not deserve to be a dogcatcher set aside president.

And if anyone tries to tell us he was just kidding, keep it to yourself. We do not need more atmospheric pollution. When will people see the light of reality about this unapologetic grifter, conman, snake-oil elixir salesman? Now, he is hawking flashy sneakers. He is a fraud and has always been a fraud. Yet, despite the nefarious nature of the man, millions of citizens have bought his worthless snake-oil elixir. They have willingly consumed that valueless tincture because they believe.

Lastly, we can now add another moniker for [the person who shall no longer be named]; he is a fraudster of the worst sort.

 

After the Senate passed bipartisan immigration reform bill and the House speaker declared he would not call a vote on the bill, the Senate stripped out the immigration reform provisions and passed Amendment 1388 to H.R.815 that was retitled the National Security Act, 2024 [Senate: 70-29-0-1[0]]. The revised bill provides vital supplemental funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and humanitarian relief for the Gaza Palestinians. The House speaker has not yet indicated what he intends to do with the narrowed bill. My guess, he will reject this one as well because the MAGA bunch in the House want all or nothing on border security.

The reality is, the fBICP does not want immigration reform. They want the BIC’s damn wall as if that will solve all the problems with immigration. If only . . . Unfortunately for this once grand republic, [the person who shall no longer be named] believes a compromise immigration reform bill would not be good for his election campaign and also voiced objections to further aid to Ukraine. So here we sit. The former Bully-In-Chief continues his virulent ways to preserve chaos not just in this country but in the world.

 

The dictator Putin has MURDERED another of the opposition voices against him. The Federal'naya Sluzhba Ispolneniya Nakazaniy (Russian Federal Prison Service, we trust them explicitly, don’t we!) announced that Alexei Anatolievich Navalny, 47 years of age, died in a remote Arctic gulag at Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets, on Friday. May God rest his immortal soul.

I suppose we should feel blessed. The dictator-phile [person who shall no longer be named] has not yet murdered any of his opponents, as far as we know. Nonetheless, I am left with the deep-rooted suspicion that we are dreadfully close to realizing that potential with Tiny, or as the evangelical MAGA bunch called him, the orange Jesus (they believe . . . the snake-oil elixir must be very powerful).

 

As readers of this humble forum know and friends who have known me for a longer time know better, I have never been a fan of [the person who shall no longer be named]. His gross personality flaws have been detestable for as long as he has been in the public eye. The thought of him regaining the power of the instruments of state is a clear and present danger to this once grand republic.

If anyone would like to understand why I hold these impressions of [the person who shall no longer be named], I urge you to read the following article from the British newspaper The Guardian.

“Trump’s hubris has brought about the downfall of his family’s business empire – Even the giant fortune Trump inherited from his father did not stop him from steering the family’s dynasty on to the rocks.”

by Sidney Blumenthal

The Guardian (UK)

Published: Sat 17 Feb 2024 06.01 EST

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/17/trump-hubris-family-empire-new-york

To be clear, direct, and blunt, [the person who shall no longer be named] has believed himself to be an entitled prick since the day he was born 77 years ago. For that reality, we have his parents to blame and, predominantly his father, to hold responsible, but they are both long gone. He is what he is. And, we must recognize and acknowledge that reality.

 

If Republicans were not desperate enough, Arizona House of Representatives member Rachel Jones of Tucson introduced Arizona House Concurrent Resolution 2055 on Wednesday. Jones is a staunch fBICP member in good standing and dedicated election denier. The meat & potatoes of HCR 2055 reads:

“Therefore

“Page 1, strike everything after the resolving clause and insert:

"1. To change the manner of the presidential election by appointing the eleven presidential electors to the republican primary winner to offset the removal of a republican candidate from the ballot in Colorado and

“2. That Governor Hobbs sign the election reform measures listed below, and if not, the presidential electors be appointed to protect the 2024 presidential election from another maladministered and illegally run election.

“3. That the 2024 presidential election reform bill should include the following:

(a) Compliance with article VII, section 11, Constitution of Arizona, by having an election on election day only.

(b) A vote by precincts with identification and proof of citizenship, a hand count of ballots in each precinct, ballot results reported from precincts with all signatures verified and without the use of machines and without mailed-in ballots except for absentee ballots.

“4. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit a copy of this Resolution to the Governor of Arizona." [emphasis mine]

The audacity and outright disrespect for Arizona voters is beyond description. The fBICP (at least in Arizona) is looking for any excuse to supersede the constitutional votes of the People.  HCR 2055 is bad enough, but I suspect the anti-democratic forces and efforts will get worse before they will improve.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1152:

Comment to the Blog:

“Given the number of sketchy Supreme Court Justices, we’ll just have to see what happens with Tiny’s appeals.

“The Democrats humiliated themselves again by giving the Republicans everything they wanted in an immigration bill; then the bill didn’t pass. The USA is in a sad state. I could do without sending billions to Israel unless humanitarian strings are attached.

“At present, 59% of the electorate believe both Biden and Tiny are to old/unfit to serve as President https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/poll-americans-on-biden-age/story?id=107126589. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are organizing support for anyone else. That looks like a prime opportunity for disrupting the two-party hegemony.

“Ethan Crumbley was 15 when he shot all those people, and there’s every reason to convict both of his parents for something beyond negligence. I’m glad to see Mrs. Crumbley convicted.

“I’ve seen comparisons of Special Counsel Hur’s report on Biden to Robert Mueller’s on Hilary Clinton. They’re both Republicans who can’t find anything to prosecute but nevertheless do some damage. I’ll note that Hur’s wording could have referred to a potential future defense, not an unprofessional current evaluation. (I still don’t believe either candidate has full mental capacity.)

“The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is back in the hospital. How likely is that to become a serious issue?”

My response to the Blog:

Yes, indeedie! There are potentially so many twists and turns ahead.

Included in the emergency funding bill was US$9B in humanitarian aid to Gaza Palestinians—that is not chicken feed. The fBICP rejected it because Tiny did not want a border security improvement bill during his campaign for president. The procedural vote to move the bill forward failed to achieve the requisite 60 vote threshold [Senate: 49-50-0-1(0)]. It was a bipartisan failure with Republicans and Democrats crossing in both directions. Early Tuesday morning, the Senate passed a pared down funding bill that includes US$9.2B in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Palestinians [Senate: 70-29-0-1(0)]—Amendment 1388 to H.R. 815. Speaker Johnson has declared the revised emergency foreign aid bill is DOA in the House without border security funding that the fBICP rejected because it did not include everything they demanded at the behest of Lieber Anführer.

Neither party appears to be preparing contingency plans, but that does not mean they are not doing so. We just cannot see any evidence. That debate between Newsom and DeSantis was a very curious event in that vein. You may well be correct, but I hope not.

Likewise, I expect James Crumbley to suffer the same fate as his wife. Those parents failed their son and their community. They deserve what is coming to them. More importantly, I want other parents to take a more engaged position in raising and caring for their children, or do not procreate. If they are not up to the task, do not do it.

I was very disappointed in Hur’s report for the political tone his conclusions took. What is done is done. I think Biden deserved at least an official sanction of some sort. While both presidents committed the same violation of classified document handling law, there was a vast and important difference between how the two men dealt with those violations. As such, I agree with Hur’s base conclusion that Biden’s transgressions did not warrant prosecution, and I also agree with Smith’s decision to prosecute Tiny for his transgressions, i.e., obstruction, failure to comply, false statements, et cetera. Monumental difference in the two cases. Regardless, I imagine Tiny’s lawyers will use Hur’s report to press a motion to dismiss or on appeal, overturn any conviction. The Hur report made the prosecution of Tiny messier.

There is always that potential. After my surgery, it took me five months to achieve a semblance of normalcy and stability. I never had to be admitted to the ICU, so there may be more going on with Austin than I experienced. Austin appears to be in a more serious state. I hope and trust they will sort things out.

 . . . Round two:

“We have three de facto parties in Congress, two of which call themselves Republicans. Something has to give.

“Unfortunately, the Crumbleys are only one extreme example of poor parenting. The birth rate in developed nations is less than what’s required to sustain the population, per Numlock News this morning, quoting a Wall Street Journal story on China’s similar problem. There’s not much chance governments will discourage having children, and so far teaching people to parent is pretty low-key too.

“In times of ‘war’ (always, in the USA), the Secretary of Defense is a key person. This might be fascinating.”

 . . . my response to round two:

Quite so. We might recognize four political parties, three in the party formerly known as Republicans. I count a few true Republicans remaining. Then, we have the MAGA bunch, AKA Freedom Caucus, formerly known as Tea Party. I could argue we have another faction that wants to be Republican, but they are too afraid of ihr Anführer and the MAGA bunch to act like Republicans. The latter two I lump together as the fBICP (former Bully In Chief Party). Something definitely has to give. We must vote them out of office; let them scream all they want from the margins of society.

The United States is also in that category; our birthrate is below the 2.2 threshold for sustainability for some time now. We need immigrants that seek citizenship. Parenting has long been a low priority for Republicans (and all their derivatives); they are far more committed to “moral projection” to impose their beliefs on everyone else including the violation of a woman’s absolute right to privacy regarding her medical decisions and treatment.

I certainly hope it does not get too fascinating or interesting. We need a cool, reliable hand on the throttle.

 . . . Round three:

“I'm aware of immigration as a way to address the decline in the birth rate, but I don't know how many Americans share that awareness. The MAGAts are too racist to accept that, but a majority of Americans aren't MAGAts.”

 . . . my response to round three:

Well, frankly, I do not think most Americans care about the facts; they are driven by the emotion of fear fed by the fBICP and Press. Yes, the MAGAts are far too racist for this country and this time. Quite true, the MAGAts are indeed a minority. However, they successfully intimidate and influence a much larger number of susceptible citizens. We have much work to do before they are returned to the peripheral extremist group they have always been.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)