OpsLens

A Slice of Americana

I attended (via Zoom) a Cass County Michigan Republican Party meeting.  Cass County is in the 6th Congressional District of the State of Michigan.  The District’s southern border is the State of Indiana, its western border is Lake Michigan.  There are two nuclear power plants, Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, (which will soon be shuttered), and Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant.  I reside in the District.

One of the reasons you have never heard of this place is the reason I attended the meeting.  The subject matter that had my interest was the District’s Representative to the United States House of Representatives, Fred Upton.  Representative Upton is one of the ten “Republican Party” members of the House to vote to impeach Donald Trump.  The national media has focused on Elizabeth Lynne Cheney, daughter of former Vice-President Richard Bruce Cheney, for the most part ignoring the other nine.  The Cass County Michigan Republican Party “Executive Committee” was discussing a “censure” resolution of Representative Upton for his vote to impeach President Trump.  The discussion in the meeting reminded me of the Hans Blix scene in the movie, Team America: World Police, “…we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.”

The Chairman, sorry “Chairperson”, or is it “Chairbeing”, maybe “Chairlifeform”, allowed me to make a comment.  I expressed that I felt what they were attempting to do was meaningless, they were looking at just their most recent displeasure with Fred Upton, that they should take a much more proactive stance, and work toward replacing such people in our Congress through the election process.

Why is understanding anything that occurs in this back cornfield slice of Americana important to anyone?  Because, it is an example of what has gone on across the nation for far too many years.  We have not selected our representation to Congress based on their meritorious achievements or even their potential for accomplishing the simplest of tasks.  Fred Upton is a text book example, although it is believed that he is worth $11 million dollars (he is a trust fund baby), his defining achievement during his thirty-something years as a member of the United States House of Representatives, “the first and only Representative in American history to vote in favor of impeachment of two U.S. presidents; he voted for the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 and of Donald Trump during his second impeachment of 2021.” According to Wikipedia this Representative has been in Congress since 1987.  He has chaired the Energy & Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives.  Under his tenure, the nation has lost a good percentage of its ability to use nuclear energy to produce electricity.   See: Never Attempt to Solve a Problem When the Solution Has Been There for a Long Time .

With all the talk over the past twenty years about global warming, climate change, the melting of the polar ice cap, carbon in the atmosphere, Fred Upton should be a household name.  He should have made the nation aware of the actual scientific solutions to resolving our country’s and the world’s energy and fresh water problems that would have eliminated so many other issues.  Instead, he has been a seat warmer hiding in plain sight doing nothing to little that is of any benefit for the American population.  It is long past time for him and others to move out of or to be voted out of the way of those willing to take on the challenges of modern America.   Also see: The Cowards of Congress .

You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” Oliver Cromwell