Update from the Heartland
No.1231
4.8.25 – 10.8.25
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
Just when I thought it was safe to go in the water . . . .
A routine week started normally enough . . . a list of things to be done. I went to the hospital for what was planned to be a not-so-routine but important outpatient biopsy. I was held in recovery for a couple of hours for observation. From that point, Tuesday afternoon, the plan went off the rails. I was bleeding internally. I spent the next three days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I must say, it is rather disconcerting when everyone keeps asking you if you are “normally this pale.” It took an intravascular surgeon and a huge machine more than two hours to find the leak, but thank the Good Lord Above, he found it and sealed it. I will spare everyone the Too Much Information (TMI) gory details. You may ask if you wish to know. Let it suffice to say that I am still alive and upright (barely) but still upright. I am back home under Jeanne's loving care, although moving very slowly, but at least I am moving. This was the week from hell!
You break it, you fix it!
The Israeli Security Cabinet reportedly voted to take over Gaza City, not the Gaza Strip, but just Gaza City. The city has been reduced to rubble and broken buildings. Look at aerial photographs of the Gaza Strip. The population has been forced south to the bottom of the Strip, where they live in tents if they are lucky and struggle daily to find food for their families.
I understand and appreciate Israel’s intentions and objectives. I do not agree with their methods. From my perspective, they are doing precisely what the Russians are doing in Ukraine—destruction for destruction’s sake. They are punishing the people, not the Hamas fighters. We know they have seriously hurt the Hamas leadership structure, but they have not eliminated the capability of Hamas to inflict violence on Israeli citizens. The Israelis should be using the model of the Western Allies in Germany and Japan, but regrettably, they are not. They appear to be using the Russian model instead. For that reason alone, I will continue to condemn Netanyahu and his government, just as I condemn Putin and his government.
The administration of no name has indicated its intention to issue an executive order restricting the counting of people for the decennial census to citizens only. In this instance, the wording of the U.S. Constitution is not clear. Since 1790, the U.S. Government has conducted a census every ten years to count the population of each state for the purpose of apportionment—seats in the House of Representatives, taxes, and other uses. For those who may be interested, the applicable provision in the Constitution is Article I, Section 2, Clause 3—the “actual Enumeration” provision.
I believe the prevailing historical legal interpretation is that the census is a head count without regard to or qualification of what a ‘head’ means. No name and his MAGA minions want to exploit that nebulous definition to constrict the working definition as tightly possible, and they are quite willing to test constitutional law to do so. With the conservative majority on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court might well conveniently ignore history and allow the Executive Branch to restrict the definition of who to count in a census.
We witness an ongoing demonstration of why the MAGAts are so focused on redistricting in Texas to reduce the number of Democratic seats in the House. They will use all means available to them. All of this effort is intended for one purpose only—maintain control of the instruments of State regardless of what the voters want. This is fascism at work, boys and girls. Plain and simple! Only we can stop it.
On 4.March.2023, during the campaign, [the person who shall no longer be named], AKA no name, or the orange one] spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He stated publicly, “And if you put me back in the White House, their reign is over. Their reign will be over, and they know it. And America will be a free nation once again. We’re not a free nation right now. We don’t have free press. We don’t have free anything. In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today, I add I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution. Not going to let this happen. Not going to let it happen. I will totally obliterate the deep state. I will fire the unelected bureaucrats and shadow forces who have weaponized our justice system like it has never been weaponized before, these are sick people, and I will put the people back in charge of this country again, the people will be back in charge of our country.” [Emphasis mine.]
Well wonder of wonders. No name has been true to his word. He and his MAGAt minions have managed to subvert the Department of Justice and virtually all the department’s enforcement agencies—FBI, DEA, ATF, Marshals, & U.S. Interpol. The Department of Justice should be and may soon will be renamed to the “National Presidential Retribution Department.” They have publicly announced investigations into virtually every person who opposed the orange one.
Further, the “deep state” is a QAnon construct that the MAGAts and far right have latched onto for the focus of their energies against the federal government. It does not exist except in the demented minds of no name and other QAnon believers. As with virtually every boogeyman or troll under the bridge the MAGAts scream about, they offer no evidence, zero, to support their general condemnation of federal civil service employees.
Not surprisingly, when we apply the magic decoder ring, what no name is really saying is, “If I am president again, I will use every instrument of State at my disposal to retaliate against anyone and everyone who had the audacity to oppose me. I do not care a twit about you, but I will have my retribution, my revenge against those who stood in my way.” So far, he has fulfilled that promise. We elected him knowing beforehand what he was going to do. Is this really the nation we want? He accuses the Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department, when in fact, it is no name and his MAGAts who are doing so in a huge subversion of the federal government.
Comments and contributions from Update no.1230:
Comment to the Blog:
“The latest scuffle with the Felon is a distraction from all the others. Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer to a minimum-security facility makes it much easier to kill her (like Epstein). We should listen to the victims of Epstein’s operation, who must be provided more security than any other players.
“The Republicans’ public hatred of government (while serving in government) goes back to Reagan. They want to get their corporate owners free from any restraints on their greed. The extreme Christians who abet them don’t want to set anyone free of anything. They want to control everyone’s every thought.
“Have you considered that the voters you’re so upset with might have psychological histories similar to the Felon’s except in different environments?”
. . . my response to the Blog:
Perhaps so. However, I do not think minimum security prisons have violent inmates. I would think it is easier to kill an inmate where there are men capable of such crimes. I suspect her transfer was more likely a quid pro quo for her expanded cooperation. She wants out. Short of that, she wants a cushier environment. We may well know whether your assessment is correct soon enough. Those who do not want her to talk want her silenced as quickly as possible, to eliminate the threat to them. I think it is more likely the orange one will pardon her as part of his quid pro quo to silence her.
While I tend to agree, I think it is a little more complex than that. They hate government that does things they do not want done, e.g., school lunch programs, aid to disaster victims, and such. It seems to me that “extreme Christians” as you say want a Christian theocracy, i.e., their dictator in control. The very definition of conservative means to preserve things as they were, when they dominated political life, or the ante-bellum South. They want a harder government. I want a softer government.
Well, good Q. I would say no, I only know what happens when one faction votes or is allowed to vote. I imagine there are many reasons different citizens choose not to vote, but I suspect the most likely is the difficulty in voting. A business executive can take a few hours off to vote. A construction worker, or an unemployed person cannot do so. I do not think I understand the “psychological histories similar to the Felon’s.”
. . . a follow-up comment:
“Study actual spy history. There’s no specific reason to think an inmate killed Epstein. The primary threat to Maxwell isn’t from inmates. Minimum security facilities do things like outside work release. Many have minimal containment even when the prisoner is on the property. Access to Maxwell by an outsider (or employee) would be much easier in the minimum-security setting. No insiders want her ‘cooperation.’
“The mouthpieces hate government that helps others, and the hateful Christians are part of that. The people making actual decisions just want to serve their buyers (and themselves).
“I didn’t refer to those choosing not to vote. Choosing not to vote is a direct result of not seeing a candidate that will help the voter and/or the nation. The DNC doesn’t get it. The Felon’s voters see the crazy guy as a leader because that’s all they know.”
. . . my follow-up comment:
Well, yes! The long and the short of it is, where there is a will, there is a way. If anyone wants to off her, they will find a way no matter where she is. That is true, no one on the inside of that affair wants her to talk, well except for the victims.
The ‘mouthpieces’ indeed! The MAGAts only want the government to help them, no one else. That is why they are cheering with the cancellation of funding for almost every social services program carried out or facilitated by the federal government. This is classic us against them. That is not the nation I accept. That is not who I am. That is not what I want my nation to be.
OK. I can accept all that.
Another contribution:
“Glory! I sense a resurgence of energy in your commentary, perhaps tempered by the cost of recent relocation trauma but probably enhanced by the advantages of the same, all as a result of wise marital compromise and/or blessed habits. Congratulations!
“Only one itch on my part: your occasional unqualified use of the word ‘conservative’ within lists of less admirable labels. As a self-labeled (as you know from our years of correspondence) ‘conserviberal,’ this stings, for some reason.
“At least, I suggest, put quotes around the word to avoid this imputed guilt by association.
“Or perhaps it's too late; perhaps the word has been appropriated as a derogatory term by the enemies of true conservatism and is lost to our lexicon.
“There are RINOs, right? There are also CINOs (conservatives in name only, a suggestion from my sweetheart). I suggest the current GOP is chuck full of CINOs, as well as plain ol' cowards afraid of the orange one.”
My reply:
LOL. I do not know about resurgence, but hey, I am trying to get back into the comfort of my routine. Still too many things to be done around the house and too many medical appointments. Things will settle out eventually; I just need to drive on.
I certainly can understand your “itch.” I used to think of my political persuasion as conservative. My abandonment of the ideology progressed slowly as “conservatives” migrated to the intransigence of “my way or the highway.” I do not want to preserve things the ways they were. [I could launch into a long essay on the ‘why.’] I want progress. I want a nation that treats people [rich-poor, black-white, Christian-atheist, female-male, gay-straight, et al ad infinitum] with respect regardless of any one or combination of the social factors. [Just a little FYI note on the previous sentence: “conservatives” pick sides. Not acceptable!] We are a very long way from that idyllic state. I acknowledge that not all “conservatives” are the same or as radical as the extreme, but it is getting harder to make that distinction. To be candid, we need “conservatives,” but we need compromise more. What is happening today is wrong, very wrong, in almost every way I can imagine.
You may well be correct. The calcification of intransigence may have gone too far, past the point of no return. I hope not, but I have to recognize the possibility. “CINO” may well be accurate. Compromise is not a cussword; it is an essential element in all viable democracies.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
