Update no.1169

Update from the Sunland

No.1169

3.6.24 – 9.6.24

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

 

To all,

 

On Wednesday, 07:53 [T] MST, 5.June.2024, the Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test, the first crewed flight of the Starliner capsule, finally launched atop a ULA Atlas V rocket with solid supplemental boosters. The launch appeared to be a nominal launch from everything I could tell. Despite a glitch with the capsule thrusters during their approach to the International Space Station (ISS), the crew used a workaround to properly control the craft to successfully dock with the ISS. The two-person crew will spend 10 days on the ISS before they perform the critical reentry portion of their mission.

 

The following day, Thursday, 6.June.2024, at 07:50 [S] CDT {05:50 [T] MST}, SpaceX launched its Superheavy Booster 11 with Starship 29 from SpaceX Starbase at Boca Chica, Texas (IFT-4). All the booster engines (33) fired up with one perimeter engine shutting down 3 seconds after ignition for reasons as yet not made public. The engine failure did not affect the flight. Hot staging seemed to occur perfectly this time. The booster landed successfully in the Gulf of Mexico, hovering for a short time to simulate landing and capture back at Starbase before it settled into the water. The flight vehicle completed it full test profile. Attitude control was stable throughout the entry and deceleration in contrast to IFT-3. We watched live the reentry from numerous onboard cameras that maintained live streaming through the hot plasma of atmospheric deceleration. Of particular note, we witnessed hot plasma burn through the trailing edge root of one forward wing, but surprisingly, the fin continued to function through reentry to landing. It is amazing that they maintained telemetry and video throughout the descent. The starship reported successful engine re-light, reoriented to the correct attitude, and settled successfully into the Indian Ocean, six kilometers from the nominal target point. IFT-4 was a significant improvement over IFT-3 [1157], although still not good enough. With their rate of progress, I suspect the next flight will be perfect, or at least good enough for service work.

 

Among the dramatic space launches, we watched the D-Day (6.June.1944) commemoration ceremonies in Normandie, France. President Biden’s speech was appropriately respectful and presidential. If anyone would like to hear and see what a real president does at a famous battlefield and associated cemetery, watch President Biden.  If you need a negative comparison to properly judge such conduct, I refer you to the previous president’s planned and scheduled but cancelled visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France, in 2018. [Just an important FYI: many of the 4^thBrigade Marines who died in the Battle of Belleau Wood are interred at that cemetery; as a descendant of those precious Marines, I am appalled by the actions and words of POTUS45--unforgivable.] We are now celebrating the last few survivors of the D-Day invasion, most of whom are approaching or into their centenarian years.

Of particular note, the attendance of President Zelenskyy of Ukraine in the ceremony and his heartfelt gratitude to the aged veterans who were participating for perhaps the last time. Zelenskyy did not have to be there, but his presence shows the measure of the man with respect to the on-going resistance of his country against Putin’s aggression and invasion. I refuse to call it Russian because I do not believe that it is Russian aggression. This is the work of the far-right wing and their leader Putin; they are solely responsible for this terrible violation of another state’s sovereignty. Ukraine is indeed a sovereign independent nation. It is NOT a subservient separatist vassal region as Putin wants us and the world to believe.

 

A few comments on the Hunter Biden trial . . . 

First and foremost, if you break the law, you deserve to be charged and tried before a jury of your peers. If found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, you also deserve to be punished appropriately for your violation of the law. You cannot lie on a federal form. Justice will be done.

Hunter possessed that pistol for 11 days. He never used that pistol in the commission of any other crime. Reports indicate the pistol was never loaded nor used even for target practice while he possessed it. If that is not over-zealous prosecution, I do not know what it.

What is wrong with this picture?

What bothers me in the Hunter case is the broad, general, demonization of psychotropic substance consumers. To my knowledge, Hunter harmed no one and caused no property damage by his consumption. He is being pursued by an overzealous prosecutor for political reasons. Now, before the MAGAts jump all over me, Hunter Biden is not running for any political office at any level in stark contrast to Little Fingers.

We must find out ways to a more enlightened tomorrow when we can respect the private choices of our neighbors and fellow citizens. I acknowledge, understand, and appreciate that reality that many Americans strongly disapprove of psychotropic substance consumption. I respect their choices and believes. Where I object is the imposition of their beliefs and choices on those who choose a different path. We must find a way to offer treatment for those who seek it and make their consumption as safe as possible in private.

At the end of the day, I believe Hunter Biden should be prosecuted and if convicted, he should be appropriately punished. It appears to me he broke the law. His conviction would send a message to our society, do not break the law.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1168:

Comment to the Blog:

“I just posted to Facebook Robert Reich’s debunking of all the MAGAt objections to Little Fingers’ conviction. You probably already know all of that, but others might not. Again, justice delayed is justice denied.

“Someone mentioned the meaning of ‘democracy’: 

“1a 

: government by the people 

especially: rule of the majority (per Merriam Webster)

“We’re not doing that right now. What we have is properly called an oligarchy.”

My response to the Blog:

Thank you for the link. I will include it. Always a worthy opinion piece.

[I spoke to soon. Reich has so much stuff; my search keywords are not filtering sufficiently. Do you have the URL for the Reich article you noted?]

We have never been a strict democracy. We have always been a representative republic. I cannot go so far to label this republic as an oligarchy, but we are certainly closer today than we were a few decades ago. I am not sure we would ever want a genuine democracy.

 . . . Round two:

“I apologize for giving the wrong source. That was a Judd Legum (Popular Information) article.
https://popular.info/p/all-the-arguments-against-trumps

“I included the first definition of a democracy. We can fuss about the semantics of it if you like, but what we have now is an oligarchy. I will strive for a democracy per definitions 1 a and (especially) 1 b. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy I have no idea why Americans wouldn’t want that.”

 . . . my response to round two:

Thank you for the correct link. From my perspective, I would say Legum’s opinions are spot on correct from everything I have read and heard in the public domain. I have one minor quibble with his presentation. Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor in New York unless the crime is committed in furtherance of another crime. Thus, the key for the felonious prosecution was the “other crime,” i.e., election interference—a felony. The publicly available information leaves that latter linkage a bit vague to my liking. Nonetheless, the jury (all 12 women and men) had sufficient hard evidence to established that linkage and his felonious conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. The objections by Little Fingers and his sycophant minions are absolutely wrong and mean to obfuscate and incite his snake-oil consumption believers.

I do not dispute Webster’s definition of “democracy.” Our ‘as-is’ representative republic is one helluva lot closer to democracy than an oligarchy, thus my resistance to the oligarchy accusation toward our once grand republic. We are imperfect. We are going through a terrible rough patch right now because a conman masterfully fed the outer fringes of our society for his personal gain. His believers are freely giving him tons of money, which is exactly what that conman seeks. I will also concede that our problems with money, and especially dark money, seriously cloud our oligarchy discussion.

 . . . Round three:

“My use of ‘oligarchy’ is realistic, and the genesis of the situation goes back long before Little Fingers’ rise. It’s not an issue of who has statutory power but of de facto results. The Powell memo originated the strategy; the implementation began with the 1980 election campaign. If we look at issues around money rather than the distractions, that’s when we took this direction. By the Clinton Administration, it was well underway. Little Fingers merely took advantage of the decay in our civic life.”

 . . . my response to round three:

I understand and appreciate your argument. I do not particularly disagree. My only quibble is the stretching of the definition of oligarchy. Russia is currently governed by an oligarchy. I have difficulty stretching that definition to the United States. We are and have been in agreement regarding the deeply destructive properties of “dark money,” but that does not make us an oligarchy. Like any good, successful conman, Little Fingers saw the vulnerabilities of our flawed system of governance from election to transition like a pick pocket sees the exposures of his mark, and he exploited those flaws to his advantage. He has moved us closer to an oligarchy, but we are a long way from what goes on in Russia. Tiny wants us to be like Russia, with him in the place of Putin, but that does not make us an oligarchy.

 

Another contribution:

“One major oversight in 1168, IMHO my friend, was the omission of instruction regarding the press's insistence upon using ‘democracy’ to describe our government when you and surely most but not all of your readers know the U.S.A. is not a democracy. It is a Republic, carefully constructed as such by our prescient founding fathers. They knew from their classic educations the dangers of pure democracy and scrupulously constructed an experiment that came to be called a democratic republic. American citizens are not getting classic education, and the ‘left’ is capitalizing on this weakness. Please instruct your readers when you get a chance.”

My reply:

You are, of course, quite correct. We have never been and hopefully never will be a pure democracy. We are a representative republic. The Founders/Framers rejected a monarchy and all other forms of authoritarian government. They also rejected pure democracy, seeing it in the form of oppression by a majority. They sought a balance in the forces of state and governance. We are an imperfect republic and constantly a work in progress.

Where I will object to your statement is the implication that the affliction of ignorance, as I will call it, is limited to the “left.” The “right” is deeply infected with a different form of the same thing, it seems to me. The Founders/Framers strived mightily to achieve balance between widely divergent forces within the nation at the time and in the future they perceived.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)