Update no.1183

 Update from the Sunland

No.1183

9.9.24 – 15.9.24

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

 

To all,

 

Sunday, 15^th of September, Battle of Britain Day, we remember the extraordinary service of The Few in the epic aerial battle over Great Britain, English Channel, and North Sea. The Royal Air Force Fighter Command defied the horrendous odds against them to defend the nation against the overwhelming German Luftwaffe during the summer months of 1940. As Hitler’s Nazi Germany dominated virtually all of Continental Europe after defeating France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and nearly trapping the whole of the British Expeditionary Force, Prime Minister Winston Churchill mobilized the English language with comparatively few fighter pilots from multiple nations, including seven American citizens to stop the impending cross-Channel invasion. To be clear, the fighter pilots fought the battle with the vital and essential support of countless ground crews, refined command & control and early warning systems, and a vulnerable nation inspired by their defiant Prime Minister and resilient King. The heroic efforts of The Few have forever been immortalized in the words of Sir Winston Churchill.

“Never in the field of human conflict have so many, owed so much,
to so Few.”

Lest we ever forget.

 

The patently false, xenophobic tripe of the despicable [person who shall no longer be named] must stop immediately. His false words in public are causing serious and demonstrable injury to citizens and legal immigrants. He must be condemned, ridiculed, ostracized, and banished from public life and any instrument of public influence available to him. That man is a contemptible entity that no longer qualifies as a human being. Only Adolf Hitler was worse in the category of xenophobia. He must retire to the oblivion of one of his golf courses, or more appropriately a prison cell. He is apparently listening too much to Laura Loomer, who Marjorie Taylor Greene calls a nut case; GO FIGURE!

 

Early Tuesday morning, 10.September.2024, before my return to consciousness, SpaceX Polaris Dawn capsule finally launched into space at 05:23 [R] EDT (0923 GMT) from the historic Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). I had to watch the video of the launch. There was too much cloud coverage in the area; however, the video offered an incredible view as the nine first-stage Raptor engines lit up the various cloud layers in an odd, almost nuclear detonation sort of way.

As has become so commonplace for SpaceX and its Falcon 9 booster, they stuck the landing on the downrange droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. No matter how many times I watch those boosters land at sea or on land, they are majestic to witness.

The crew should get some great, new, photographs of Mother Earth. I eagerly await the results.

On Thursday, at a distance of 470 miles above Earth’s surface, twice the height of the ISS, the crew conducted the first in history non-governmental spacewalk. The capsule was completely depressurized, and two crewmembers used SpaceX developed suits to make tethered exterior tests of the suits in the vacuum of space and well into the Van Allen radiation belt.

They successfully returned to Earth on Sunday splashing down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at 03:36 [R] EDT (0736 GMT). Mission complete.

 

Tuesday evening, the first (and perhaps only) debate between Vice President Harris and [the person who shall no longer be named] took place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, moderated by David Muir and Lindsey Davis of ABC News.   The ‘debate’ was only 90 minutes long, but it was interesting.

Vice President Harris was gracious, cogent, poised, and yet tough. While I will make no claims that she was flawless, for the most part, she conducted a master class in debate performance. Some of the criticism leveled against her scarcity of policy responses and avoidance of a few questions.

In contrast, he was all over the place with sentence fragments and disjointed, jumbled thoughts that popped into his consciousness—a stream of consciousness from a muddled, wandering, and puzzled mind. He spewed conservative conspiracy theories like legal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating dogs and cats. He was demonstrably emotional, scatter-brained, and angry, striking out at anything and everything. Of course, he simply cannot resist spouting his bevy of lies and falsehoods. Worse, his statements about Ukraine are offensive, disgusting, and terribly revolting. He is throwing away the independent sovereignty of another nation very much as Chamberlain did with Czechoslovakia in 1938, and we know how that turned out. He clearly has no respect whatsoever for Ukraine or the Ukrainian people, and apparently subscribes to Putin’s proclamation notion that Ukraine has been, is, and always will be part of Russia. He is patently wrong and must be denied any power to inflict that outcome on the Ukrainian people. They have a right to be free and enjoy all rights and privileges of free and independent states.

When your opponent is known for aggressive actions, whether in football, combat, politics, or whatnot, you poke him to induce a forceful response that leads the adversary directly into an effective ambush. That is exactly what happened repeatedly Tuesday evening. Vice President Harris executed a masterful plan to goad her opponent to make very foolish statements that were easily parried and served only to make him appear and sound as foolish as he is. Worse for him, she used the maneuver repeatedly and effectively.

In reality, the pre- and post-moments spoke volumes about the two candidates. [The person who shall no longer be named] sauntered out, while Vice President Harris walked out confidently and smoothy, first in front of her podium and then behind his podium, extending her hand to him and introducing herself. He eventually shook her hand but saw no need to introduce himself to her; after all, he has thought of himself as king Donald I for eight years. At the end of the debate, he turned and sauntered off with no one waiting to greet him. She walked off assuredly with her husband waiting to greet her. He was alone before, during, and after; need we say more! The optics of the pre- and post-moments remind me of the disgraceful action of [the person who shall no longer be named] on 25.May.2017 in Brussels at a NATO conference, pushing aside Prime Minister Duško Marković of Montenegro, so he could puff himself up and stand in front, after all he sees himself as king Donald I—above all others.

If I had to summarize the performance of each candidate with one word . . . 

Vice President Harris = stability (positive, forward)

[The person who shall no longer be named] = chaos (negative, backward).

It is just that simple.

Or, as Whoopi Goldberg said the next morning, “There was a booodywhoopin’ last night.” Yes, there was! It was embarrassing watching him fumble and tumble. But, the reality is, it does not matter what I think. I do not decide anything. Only We, the People, will decide. What will be, will be.

 

During this silly season, there has been, is, and will be prodigious yammering on both sides about change and freedom. I offer no argument to the notion that [the person who shall no longer be named] offers the most change. But, respectfully, that is not the issue. The question all of us should consider is what kind of change does he offer?

[The person who shall no longer be named] and his sycophants love to wrap themselves in the flag and declare they are the defenders of freedom. They may well be said defenders—their freedom. Their freedom to do what they wish, when they wish. Their definition of freedom in that context is absolutely nothing like freedom as I understand it and believe in. His form of freedom resembles nothing even remotely similar to the freedom the rest of us love and enjoy. Frankly, what [the person who shall no longer be named] offers is ‘doublespeak,’ ala Nineteen Eighty-Four. Freedom means their freedom, which is oppression for the rest of us.

If you like freedom and change as ‘Big Brother,’ or [the person who shall no longer be named], or more likely as Project 2025 defines freedom and change, then I suppose you have you man, or rather conman. Go for it! As for me, I know emphatically that their definitions of freedom and change are nothing that I can recognize or accept. I want nothing to do with a future as they define it. I will choose stability and compassion every second of every day over chaos, retribution, revenge, and turmoil. I want nothing to do with chaos. 

 

On Sunday, a week ago, the accomplished wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins (formerly for the Kansas City Chiefs) Tyreek Hill was pulled over for speeding in his dark grey Lamborghini with heavily tinted windows on his way to the stadium before a game in Miami. The police officer asked him to lower the driver’s door window, so the officer could ensure the interior of the automobile did not pose a threat to his safety and he could effectively communicate with the driver. Hill refused to comply. The officer repeatedly asked him to lower the window. Hill repeatedly refused. The officer then repeatedly warned Hill that he would be removed from the car if he did not comply. Hill continued to refuse to comply. The officer, with back-up, did exactly as he said he would. Hill was on the pavement in handcuffs and detained, but he and his car could be safe-ed. Hill objected, said he was concerned about being photographed by fans passing by. He called for the officer to be fired.

I have no sympathy for what happened to Tyreek Hill. He was pulled over for allegedly speeding in his expensive Lamborghini. He had absolutely no right to do what he did, and he endangered that police officer’s life. Failure to comply with law enforcement instructions is a direct threat to the safety of the officer. It is unfortunate that he was embarrassed or afraid, but what he did by refusing to lower his door window was absolutely wrong. That officer had no idea what was behind that tinted glass. There are far too many videos of police officers being shot to death during routine traffic stops. This resistance and failure to comply has got to stop. Hill screwed up bigtime. He needs to own it and move on. Stop making excuses for his conduct. If you act suspiciously, a law enforcement officer has no choice but to assume the worst. That means neutralizing the suspect to ensure he can do no harm to himself, anyone else, or the police officer.

Hill asked for the officer to be terminated. NO! The officer was doing his job.

 

Thursday midday, Attorney General Merritt Garland gave a magnificent speech in his direct support to the Justice Department and debunk the corrosive, destructive, and outright false public accusations of [the person who shall no longer be named] and that man’s disgraceful sycophants on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. The fact that he had to give such a speech to bolster his department is a direct measure of the damage [the person who shall no longer be named] does done to the nation. That man is never to be forgiven for what he has done.

 

There was another apparent attempt on the former president’s life, Sunday morning, this time, while he was playing golf near his Mar-a-Lago home. The shooter was engaged and fled; he was swiftly apprehended. No one was harmed.

Regardless of what any of us may think of the former president, these incidents are wrong in every possible way and must be condemned. I trust the shooter in this case will be prosecuted swiftly to the fullest extent of the law and suffers the appropriate punishment for his contemptible conduct. This must stop. He should only be defeated at the ballot box. Put the guns down and vote.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1182:

Comment to the Blog:

“The privatized space program is suffering. I wish the crew was home and safe.

“If the Democrats find it necessary to focus on Little Fingers, why don’t they emphasize his felony convictions? ‘Awaiting sentencing on thirty-four felony convictions’ makes an excellent reason not to vote for him.

“President Biden has at least come out against nepotism, unlike the Orange Menace.

“Dick Cheney was the brain behind the evils of the Shrub Administration. His endorsement of Harris casts a shadow on her.

“The Apalachee shooter’s mother has stated that she did her best to warn the authorities of her son’s intentions. Georgia has nearly unlimited firearms ownership. There will be plenty of blame to go around.

“Our drought continues. We’re hoping for some rain off a tropical storm that might come our way, but the crops are dead. Weather.com tells me your forecast isn’t much fun either. Good luck to all of us.”

My response to the Blog:

The Boeing privatized space program is suffering. Blue Origin is a distant third. SpaceX carried out a near perfect launch of their crewed Polaris Dawn mission early this morning. It is a very ambitious mission and will set a number of firsts before its done. Yes, we need the Starliner crew home. To that end, I am grateful for NASA’s extra caution.

Good point. We shall see how Harris handles that fact tonight.

President Biden has integrity. Little Fingers has never had integrity, and I doubt he even knows what the word means.

I do not share your opinion of Dick Cheney. Whether you like him or not, his defection from the Little Finger’s Party is a monumental indication of the dissatisfaction within the former Republican Party and the present Little Finger’s Party.

I am not convinced of the mother’s innocence.

Yes, indeed. We had a fairly dry monsoon season this year. We could use a nice, slow, soaking rain. Regardless, we shall endure.

 . . . follow-up comments:

“The space program drags on. I’m deeply skeptical about capitalism doing it better than good government.

“I would use the phrase ‘felon awaiting sentencing’ at least three times. It’s a marketer thing.

“Dick Cheney is a villain.

“Investigations continue. I’m not convinced of anyone’s innocence, including the State of Georgia (gun laws).

“We have had the driest summer on record going back to about 1870. The rain chances for the weekend keep being lowered as the expected track for Tropical Storm Francine goes west of us. We have burn bans and we’re beginning to have water shortages.”

 . . . with my follow-up response:

Skepticism is good. We should constantly offer constructive criticism. In the most recent example, Boeing’s engineers were correct; the Starliner was safe for reentry and landing. Yet, as I stated previously, I am grateful for NASA’s conservative stance to remove the crew and bring them home by other means. It is nice that we now have other means. NASA made huge mistakes with Challenger and Columbia; we do not need a repeat.

I agree with you. In last night’s debate, I think she did a sophisticated job of just that without getting blatantly offensive.

Perhaps so. However, in this instance, I am reminded of the Roman phrase "Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei" ("my friend, the enemy of my enemy"), or in more contemporary translation, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Yes, indeed, and we will learn more ahead. What will be, will be.

Our water situation is not uncommon (to use a double negative). Yours is to my knowledge. Hopefully, you will get some fringe rain from Francine as it passes.

 

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

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)