Update from the
Heartland
No.763
25.7.16 – 31.7.16
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
History
was made this week. The first
female citizen in the history of this Grand Republic became the presidential
candidate for a major political party.
Whether we like her, trust her, believe in her readiness for the
presidency, we have no choice but to recognize her accomplishment. She got into the arena. She fought through losses and won the
nomination of her political party outright.
From
the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I offer my
selection of meaningful quotes.
President Obama: “[A]nyone who threatens our values,
whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will
always fail in the end.”
“Don’t boo . . . vote!”
Mike Bloomberg: “I’m a New Yorker, and I know a con
when I see one.”
Hillary Clinton: “When there are no ceilings, the sky
is the limit.”
She picked up on the one sentence in last week’s convention [762: “I alone can fix it.”] that
summarizes that candidate, and she carved him up with his own words.
She went on to declare, “I’m not here to repeal the Second Amendment. I am not here to take away your
guns. I just don’t want you to be
shot by someone who shouldn’t have a gun in the first place.” Amen, sister! However, the biggest impediment is the reasonable and
logical objective is enforcement creep, an the example of which we see in vivid
detail with the so-called war on drugs, abortion rights, and the myriad of
morality laws attempting to dictate how all of us are to live our lives.
Clinton also recited just a few of the disgusting instances
of the Republican candidate’s insult-politics. She observed, “At first, I admit, I couldn’t believe he
meant it, either. It was just too
hard to fathom. That someone who
wants to lead our nation could say those things, could be like that. But, here’s the sad truth. There is no other Donald Trump. This is it! And, in the end, it comes down to what Donald Trump doesn’t
get, America is great because America is good.” Frankly, I agree with her.
I
was impressed not so much by the content, but by the contrast in tone,
demeanor, feel and cast image against last week’s rendition. I ask myself, which view of the United
States of America more closely resembles my vision of this Grand Republic? I am angry with the abomination of a
dysfunctional Congress and the downright nastiness of partisan politics, but I
am not willing to accept anyone outside the Beltway. We, the People, will soon decide who will represent all of
us for the next four years, and who will present the image of the United States
of America on the world stage. Let
us choose wisely.
The
Donald did it, AGAIN! Where is my
decoder ring? A president or
anyone who wants to be president does NOT get to be sarcastic, just kidding,
joking, not really meaning what he says, or nonsensical. He does not get to be temperamental,
tempestuous and reactionary.
Further, the Republican candidate clearly has no clue what the word
“temperament” means in any English dictionary I am familiar with. His words sound like English, but
clearly they are some other language, thus the requirement for a decoder ring
to have any chance to understand what he wants us to believe he is saying. Further, the Republican candidate
demonstrated that he does not understand the meaning of the word “sacrifice,”
in his lame attempt to discredit and marginalize Khizr Khan – the father of
Captain Humayun Saqib Muazzam Khan, USA, killed in action in Iraq on 8.June.2004.
No definition of the word “sacrifice”
includes making money off other people’s work. Where is the limit to his outrageousness?
In
Friday evening’s show, Bill Maher summarized the whole situation quite well regarding
the Republican candidate. “These
people on the right who claim they love freedom, they don’t love freedom. They want an authoritarian, who will install
exactly what they believe.” Amen,
brother! I think he hit the nail
squarely on the head and drove it home in one stroke. I cannot vote for any moral projectionist, who seeks to
impose his values, his moral choices, his pursuit of Happiness on you, on me,
on anyone. If anyone of us happens
to share his values, morality or sense of contentment, then perhaps those folks
can find comfort in a moral projectionist candidate. I am not one of those.
Freedom is freedom. The
government in any form should, and I will say must, stay out of our private
lives and our private choices in our individual pursuit of Happiness. To me, privacy has become far more
immediate and personal than even national security. We have a handle on the latter. We have failed miserably on the former, and we have a long
way to go, to untangle and remove government from our private lives and freedom
of choice, and convince those who seek to impose their moral values on others,
to respect the freedom of choice of every citizen.
A simple observation of life as we know it: no one is or
should be above the law – not the President, not a king, not a billionaire and
not a law enforcement officer. A
few police officers do not engender sympathy and support (and, those particular
individual officers probably do not care), when they do not obey simple,
commonsense laws like using a turn signal, not littering and such. Recently, I witnessed a uniformed
police officer in a marked police car, complete with warning lights (not on),
texting on his telephone while he was driving. To me, such conduct is one step short of shooting an unarmed
man dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, laying prone on his back with his hands in
the air as far as he could extend them and complying with proper instructions. The blue brotherhood just does NOT cut
it, when they fail to weed out bad officers in their midst. There can be no “us versus them.” Law Enforcement is the community, and
the community is Law Enforcement.
The sooner that reality is accepted and embraced, the better for all of
us, including our police who strive to protect us all. And, I must say, we must protect our
police by helping them do their job.
News from the economic
front:
-- The Federal Reserve policy-making committee left its benchmark
federal-funds rate unchanged at between 0.25% and 0.5%. They also upgraded their assessment of the
labor market and the economy's recent performance, and they declared that
near-term risks have diminished, effectively leaving the door open to raise
rates later this year, possibly as early as September.
-- The Bank of Japan announced it would buy ¥6T (US$57B)
worth of exchange-traded funds annually, up from ¥3.3T previously, in an
attempt to stimulate economic growth.
They also indicated their intention to leave a key interest rate unchanged
and retain its target for government-bond purchases.
-- The Commerce Department reported the U.S. Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.2% in 2Q2016 – a slight
increase over the revised 0.8% pace in 1Q2016 and an increase of 1.1% over the same
period on year ago – despite cautious business spending largely offsetting more
robust consumer spending.
Comments and contributions from Update no.762:
Comment to the Blog:
“Mr. Trump's comment about not losing voters even if he stood in
the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot someone was probably intended as the kind
of metaphorical bloviating he typically produces. Unfortunately, it has begun
to look accurate rather than metaphorical.
“I share your concern about both major-party candidates. More and
more, Trump parallels Hitler and other tyrants, even in direct quotes. I have
seen again recently a suggestion that his candidacy is a ‘false flag operation’
intended to bring about Senator Clinton's election. That seems possible, but if
so it is flawed. Such a maneuver
would be based on the assumption that Americans, being supposedly educated and
aware, would see the resemblance to past dictators and turn on Trump. That has not happened so far. Certainly,
Senator Clinton could not be elected facing an ordinary Republican opponent. Her unfavorable rating and personality
would stop that, and Clinton has a history of missteps. I imagine she would
perform less terribly than Trump, but she falls far short of what the U.S.
needs.
“We may hope neither Vice President would become President upon
some disaster to the President. (I don't wish that on anyone.) However, there's
a repeating story that Trump's camp has told Governor Pence (and Ohio Governor
Kasich, who refused) that the Vice President would be in charge of foreign and
domestic policy, while Trump does something else or nothing much. Let's hope
not. Pence is not Trump, but is basically a Tea Party person. Of Kaine I know
less, but many progressives don't think highly of him. All the same, he'd
probably be the best of the four. He seems willing to consider experience and
others' views, and he's the only one of those in the group.”
My response to the
Blog:
Re:
“metaphorical
bloviating.” As I have
stated more than a few times, we need to decoder ring to understand what he “really
means” when he speaks, because my understanding of the King’s English is clearly
not the same as his . . . without the decoder ring. I do not give him a pass. A president does NOT have the option to say, “just kidding.”
Re:
missteps. Good observations.
Re:
succession. Pence will never pass
my threshold of tolerance as he has far too many incidents of supporting
morality projection into the private lives and affairs of residents, far
exceeding the proper limits of government. As I have written, Kaine at least has the courage and wisdom
to avoid moral projection.
. . . Round two:
“When all this began, I don't think Trump intended to win the
general election. He just wanted to help Hillary Clinton get elected (and owe him
big time). However, if that was
what started this, it has gotten badly out of hand. P.T. Barnum would have known better. The other factor is that
Trump's ego may have tricked him into thinking he wants the Presidency. That is
the worst-case scenario. If Trump believes any part of what he says, he would
easily be the most dangerous President in history. Hillary Clinton may find a
way to lose the election to him. Even
if she wins, I don't kid myself into thinking she can stand up to the people
paying for her campaign. That
makes a fine plot for a novel, but not so much in reality. Somehow, Americans have to get out of
this mess. It's not funny any
more.”
. . . my response to round two:
Interesting
observations. You may well be correct. I will add one more perspective. His whole life has been about marketing
his name, selling an image. Just
running in the campaign has jacked up his ego, fed his narcissism, and most
likely in his mind, increased the “sellability” of his name. Just running, he may well have
accomplished his objective.
I’m
afraid we are going to find out.
. . . Round three:
“I agree 100% that marketing himself as the point of Trump's life.
Unfortunately, he's very skilled
at that and pretty much a zero in everything else. His business record supports that. Who goes broke running a
casino? Of course, all of that is
seriously aggravated by neither major party's ability to understand the
rebellious mood of the country. After
so many years (ever since Reagan's ‘voodoo economics’ took hold) of ordinary
people watching their own wages deteriorate and their jobs become part-time
and/or ‘contract’ as their civil rights disappear while Wall Street and other
fat cats get wealthy and get away with anything, we can't be told any more that
this is still ‘the greatest nation on Earth.’ Trump is making the most of it as the Democrats-in-charge try
to go on with corruption as usual. It's sad and it's scary, but it's nothing new to history
students.”
. . . my response to round three:
Out
of my usual boundless curiosity, how do you define “greatest”?
Also,
if the United States is not the greatest nation on Earth, what nation is the
greatest . . . from your perspective?
Indeed,
we must give the Republican candidate credit. He has successfully tapped a maleficent vein in this Grand
Republic. And, many good people
have been swept into the current.
His obscene and dangerous performance continues to this very day . . .
the latest just today [Tuesday].
. . . Round four:
“‘Greatest’ is an indefinable term perfect for the politicians
using it. If you read the rest of
that long sentence, you get the idea of why I disagree. If we define ‘greatest’ by happiness
(yes, people measure that), health, health cost, economic well-being of
ordinary people, social progress, or almost any other measure that applies to
voters, the U.S. has lost ‘greatest’ status. We have the largest military by far, but it isn't doing much
for most of us.
“‘Greatest,’ in this context, is a word beloved of politicians
because it has no real meaning. Whatever those politicians will claim they
meant if questioned, no one nation is the ‘greatest’ by enough measures to
claim the title. However, the U.S.
has fallen behind in health, technology (at least for ordinary people), income
of ordinary people, various measures of social progress, and happiness (yes,
people study and measure that). Voters
aren't dumb enough to believe it's the ‘greatest’ nation, but they may be dumb
enough to believe Trump can change that.”
. . . my response to round four:
Interesting
observations. Without a
definition, the word is meaningless.
Yet, I fundamentally reject the campaign slogan of the Republican candidate. I am not well traveled, but I have
lived and worked in quite a few countries, probably more than most of those who
have swallowed the grape Kool-Aid.
Those experiences were enjoyable, and I would gladly repeat them;
wonderful things in those countries.
However, I can think of no other country, region or area I would rather
live and call home than this Grand Republic, so from my definition, the United
States has been and remains the greatest nation on earth, and will likely
remain that way for the rest of my lifetime . . . even if, the Republican
candidate is elected to his first elective office and becomes POTUS.
. . . Round five:
“I have no way to argue with your feeling. I, however, prefer study. If I had to pick a ‘greatest’ country,
it would probably be one of the Scandinavian nations, based on study. I've never been there, but indicators
are I'd like the economic and social conditions.”
. . . my response to round five:
I
have not been to Finland or Norway, but I have been to Sweden and Denmark. They are beautiful, magnificent countries
with friendly, gregarious and generous people. Their socialism has been well applied, for the most
part. I appreciate the desire to
emulate the Scandinavian success, but none of those nations holds the position
of the United States. Can we find
a better balance point? Yes,
absolutely, but it must be done together to find that better balance point.
Another contribution:
“I understand Cap that is a ground run of one of your ‘Docs’
engines.”
My reply:
Indeed. Quite so, ‘Doc’s no.4 engine rated at
2,200 SHP.
. . . follow-up comment:
“Yes quite a beast. There’s apparently several copies about
including airframes in one guise or another.
“I would be thrilled to hear 4 of those running. We called the
aircraft the Washington, I was based on a unit in Cambridgeshire, where they had been stationed
earlier, well before my time I might add! However, if memory serves, I believe it wasn’t the most
serviceable of aircraft in our hands.”
. . . my follow-up reply:
Wow. I did not know the RAF had B-29s.
Yeah,
the aircraft did not have a good reputation early on in its deployment. One of the first combat raids did not
go well. [5.6.1944] 98 B-29s
launched against railroad marshalling yards in Bangkok, Thailand; 5 crashed
enroute; 42 had to make emergency landings; fewer than 20 bombs landed in the
target area. Fortunately, the
aircraft’s reliability improved with use.
FYI:
on the very first flight for ‘Doc,’ they had an engine chip light and
immediately returned to base. The
recorded first flight was actually the second flight.
My
very best wishes to all. Take care
of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
