Does Death Become Us?

Burying your parents is quite an undertaking, and it is important.  Family values, like many core moral and ethical postulates in America, have been devalued.  I'll never forget when our next door neighbor, Cassandra Vallery, came over at dinner time and was amazed to see our family sitting around the table eating together.  For many people the ritual of eating together is paramount to good family relations.  Many notable authors and scholars laud the effort of eating together at the dinner table.  Covid 19 changed everything.  This single event, the outbreak of a murderous pathogen, changed the world forever.  Buying online, remote learning, and Uber eats are very beneficial to specific parties.  Can you guess who?  CSX Corp., the major east coast north south railroad posted record profits in the first quarter of 2026 to the tune of more than three billion dollars.  How can a railroad doing the same things they always have done be profiting so much?  If you go trainspotting like many railfans do in earnest, you quickly will discover the majority of what CSX is carrying these days.  Can you guess what?  Because of the combination of internet commerce and the long term influences of having sheltered in place, we have lost many of our traditional American customs.  As the Trump bubble begins to burst, and it is with diesel at six dollars a gallon, slowly reality is returning to Americans along with the stark realization that there is little money flowing in middle and lower classes.  The rich continue to get richer and richer, and because there is little left in the American landscape to rape and pillage, Trump's organization turned their eyes on government and the American people's money.  The once familiar and effective economy of making ends meet with grassroots services like dining and entertainment, have been replaced with huge Ponzi like schemes to amass huge quick fortunes.  These types of fortunes were made during the "Big Short," the financial crisis of 2008.  When Bill Clinton was running for President, one of his campaign promises was that every American should be able to own their on home.  He got elected, so there was merit to that forethought.  Ironically how that promise got translated was into unvetted high interest mortgages, which average Americans proceeded to buy into for homes they could not afford.  Unbeknownst to them these mortgages purposely had clauses written into them that would change the American economy forever.  During 2008 this manipulation came to fruition, and millions of people defaulted on their loans, because the terms were not disclosed to the buyers at signing.  In short their mortgage payments doubled and tripled, and they could not pay.  A handful of Wall Street investors knew what was coming and invested in newly penned financial instruments betting against the American economy.  Of course they won, and the Troubled Assets Relief Fund was born from the pen of George W. Bush.  The TARP money, as it was called, bailed out the auto industry, reputable Wall Street banks and financial institutions that failed, and more.  Billions of dollars disappeared overnight as the stock market crashed again, but Hank Paulson implored the administration not to let that happen.  It would make America lose faith in our own economy.  In two payments, one from President Bush, and one from newly elected President Barack Obama, billions of dollars of tax payer dollars went to pay off these players.  Not only did the failed institutions get money to rebuild, the handful of investors on Wall Street were paid off for their grandiose and treasonous gamble.  This is when America's money disappeared, and to this day it sits in Swiss and Grand Cayman banks not flowing in the common American economy.  Economies will not function unless money is flowing.  That means people need to earn money, and they need to spend it.  It means that everyone has to pay their fair share of taxes like they did before Ronald Reagan became President.  If we should remember anything he did, it was to reduce the seventy percent tax rate on the rich.  This one event single-handedly created Yuppies, young and upwardly mobile Wall Street types, of which our President was the pentacle.  Trickle down economics worked for a while, as these entrepreneurs invested heavily back into their businesses.  Inflation was high, but products were quality and competition was healthy.  I never will forget when Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, North Carolina was decorated for Christmas.  Christmas shopping was like a fantasy, and American products, goods, and services were at their height.  Many cast the 1980's as self-indulgent and excessive, but having grown up in this era, fondly I remember the symbolism of the gifts that became a part of our American lives.  Although some may be reluctant to admit it now in 2026 and with the ever increasing acceptance of alternative lifestyles and sexuality, romance was a large determinate of these products.  They fueled courtship, eventual family relationships, children, and retirement.  I stopped working playing piano on cruise ships to return home and aid my parents in their later years.  It became a full time job for me after my father's passing, and I became a full time caregiver for my mother, who made it to the ripe age of almost 93.  In return I was given the family home.  After the upcoming two year anniversary of my mother's death on November 11, 2024, a two year journey of executorship, the coursework of this advanced degree, almost is finished.  Very much like my doctoral coursework for a degree in music composition, and "All But Dissertation," life and music become a strange ever evolving continuation of life and study.  There is no final document.  I may have signed the probate document closing my mother's estate, but her and my lives continue.  As your mother she never will die, and as native Americans and many other indigenous peoples do, they commune with their elders in a spiritual and ritual ceremony passing on the knowledge of previous generations.  My mother and father still speak to me, and I listen.  

It's Time to Vote Blue or Else

There are a few things on my mind.  With the midterm elections less than a month away and the commencement of early voting, two things could be happening.  I have to remind myself of one, and it is neither easy nor pleasant to do.  In the last few rounds of the election fight, things get dirty.  The mud slinging begins, and slander is rife with Super PAC sponsored television ads.  If we thought the news was predominantly negative, remind yourself what is at stake.  Democrats have a chance of controlling the House of Representatives flipping it blue.  It has not been long since they controlled both houses of Congress, but it seems like ages.  The first two years of Donald Trump's second presidency seem like an eternity, because his administration diligently has tried to dismantle  democracy and establish autocratic dictatorial rule.  This happens by expanding the President's powers, ignoring the courts, and mounting scare and intimidation campaigns against political enemies.  It has been two years of thuggery, and America is tired of being pulled backward into our unpleasant past.  Most Americans are honest, hard working, God fearing people who want a life for themselves and their families.  There is no time to dote on racism, bigotry, and fascism.  Americans are working trying to realize what is left of the American dream.  Those championing Trump's ideals are the super rich, who no longer do anything for a living except move money.  These include huge hedge fund managers.  It is so disturbing that the core grassroots philosophy of Americans, through our unique culture  of Jazz, Rock, cinema, and television has been usurped.  These artistic endeavors, which forged America, are being disguised, hidden, and eradicated.  It is Cancel Culture, and it is racist, because of the monumental and long reaching accomplishments of many African-Americans.  I am involved and interested in these endeavors including the Blues, improvisational Jazz, Gospel organ, R&B, and Soul.  I have made a conscious effort to further my knowledge of these art forms, because when taking the General Exams at The Ohio State University, Dr. Ted McDaniel candidly pointed out my shortcomings.  It didn't seem to matter to him, one of my doctoral committee members, that my degree was in Contemporary Classical Music.  I was involved with Jazz at OSU and won several awards for trumpet performance and composition, but he was not keen on my departure to larger, European-based, classical ensembles and their accompanying musical repertoire.  Thirty years later his words continue to resound in my head urging me to continue my study of music but in the aesthetic of the remainder of American Popular Music.  In this quest for further musical knowledge,  I immersed myself in the emotional and historical side of purely American music.  The Blues, Roots Music, Old Time, Bluegrass, Country, String Band, Civil War, Ragtime, Minstrel, Vaudeville, Broadway, and Americana all have been on the menu.  It is a wide pallet and no wonder one scholar could not know it all.  It is not dissimilar from the history of European art music, with its wide pallet created by different languages, countries, and bloodlines.  Art at its best is being created at the communal level with many interested parties fueling each others' passions.  "It Takes a Village," and America no longer is a village or even remembers what one is.  The Trump Presidencies, instead of reinforcing American solidarity with a resurgence of support of the Civil Rights Movement, have sought to separate cultures, languages, and skin colors, and pit them against each another in violence.  They have fueled civil war among the American people; it is a miracle that full throttle civil war domestically has not emerged.  Maybe it has, and it covertly is being waged by the overtaking of our own governments and the destroying of American principles and processes.  We all should remember DOGE and Elon Musk, as they are responsible for this assault on American agencies, the Civil Service, and the Deep State.  Their metaphor is, "No regulation for the private sector," without which Corporate America has become weaponized against the common man.  It is nothing new.  Ask DuPont about the beginnings of PFAS contamination decades ago and the settling of one lawsuit at a time masking the severity of illness caused by the byproducts of the manufacturing of Teflon.  It has been ongoing since the 1960's.  They, this company, with its negligence and greed, causes death and severe illness in thousands of product-buying American citizens.  Cloaked domestic genocide, the same methodology Donald Trump is using to dismantled a free America.  Are we listening? 

ID.Me!

I am he proud recipient of a North Carolina Real ID.  While the Real ID has been around for a decade, after a little research I discovered while not required to vote, it does qualify as a federal confirmation of your citizen status.  Because ICE, under the second Trump presidency, has morphed into a lot of exiled Proud Boy storm troopers killing at will, a federally recognized  ID could go a long way to protect you.  This is because like ID.me, an online verification system also used for federal programs such as the IRS, the process involved in acquiring said ID is more stringent than engaging in social media.  Both IDs had specific requirements, and these requirements meant you had to do the little tap dance around your personal documents.  For me this was a good idea.  Although I have been meticulous in my organization and archiving of my family's heirlooms, and also have applied the same standards to my own affairs, I knew where my Birth Certificate and Social Security cards were.  Also know where the car titles are, the deed to the house, my parent's death certificates, my complete musical equipment inventory, my lengthy list of passwords, and more.  They have changed places several times, and the acquiring of a safe necessitated those changes.  Being the executor of my mother's will, I was balancing two life histories.  After two years finally I have all but settled her estate, and with that closure came the discarding of years of paperwork.  Because your short term memories are turned into long term memories with sleep, what I have done in the recent past fails to register immediately.  I have to work on it for a bit.  After making myself do this, usually I am pleasantly surprised to find what I am looking for.  In this case for the North Carolina Real ID, it took four different documents.  Your Birth Certificate, in my case a 64 year old piece of paper, my original Social Security card, and two documents verifying your residence or domicile in North Carolina.  For me that was a property tax bill and my home owner's insurance policy.  All of these had to be taken to the local DMV after making an appointment online.  This surprisingly was easy, so I had a week to prepare.  Once at the DMV you are in the same boat as everyone else.  There are many walk in's needing various thing, but with said appointment you are able to step ahead of the line and sign in.  I waited at least half an hour.  They took a new photo, which I wanted, scanned my documents, and told me the new ID card (in this case a new driver's license with a star on it) would arrive in the mail in 14 days.  It did, and never was I so proud to receive it.  It is a little work of art, a departure from a ten year old N.C. Driver's License.  I feel bonafide.  The ID.me was more complicated.  They wanted the same documents, but there is no local office to which to go.  It was confirmed via video chat.  I had never done this before, only set up a Skype for my mother to attend her PEO meetings online during the Covid lock down.  I was able to do this pretty easily, and whether  you know it or not, you computer's built in microphone and speakers allow you do to this easily.  This also means Big Brother can watch and listen to you at will like now.  The idea of taking iPhone pictures of your documents is ludicrous at best.  Cell phone networks are notoriously insecure and monitored continuously by the NSA.  It would not be a good idea to use your infernal phone for anything other than casual texts and conversation.  Big Tech has pushed us in a different direction literally undoing all of the safe guards Americans have been privy to since the Cold War.  Like everything else, our own nation and leaders have sold us out.  Since Donald Trump has been President, our country has turned on us.  

Education Versus Schooling

The Chemours plant in Cumberland Country is owned by the Chinese.  When Dupont decided to unload some of their plants that produce PFAS as a byproduct, who stepped up to the plate?  DAK Americas in Fayetteville was owned by a Mexican Conglomerate.  Foreign ownership of domestic interests once was scarce.  Now the United States President is making no apology for turning against the American people and stealing their money.  When you drove by the DAK facility on Cedar Creek Road, there were few cars in the parking lot.  They were supposed to be making plastic bottles or the ingredients needed to make plastic bottles.  Polyester.  Why were they owned by Mexicans?  The Florida East Coast Railroad is owned by a Mexican conglomerate.  What is the basis for this ownership and managing of American industry by foreign countries?  My theory is simple.  Drugs and drug smuggling.  Why would the Chinese make any effort not to harm the American people?  We still have PFAS, and they just keep changing the name of the chemicals and saying they are not carcinogenic.  It is like Americans are living in a third world nation, and now our own government has turned against us.  It is common, so perhaps it was inevitable that America would succumb to the same ill.  Will we see this transgression to fruition, a regression to autocracy and fascism?  ICE is killing people in the streets in the name of illegal immigration.  Perhaps the most dangerous enemies Americans have is our own corporate structure.  Global warming and climate change are man made.  It is so easy to discern the causes, but we turn a blind eye.  What is killing our coral reefs by heating the ocean like a pot of boiling water?  Azipods.  We would rather cruise on mammoth cruise ships than save the Earth.  If America is forty trillion dollars in debt, then whence does the money come, the money that the Trump Organization continues to embezzle?  They just print it in the mint, and the value of this American dollar is poor.  As an aside and in my own life, the more I improve the home I inherited to be desirable, the more lonely I become, the more empty it seems.  It is a brutal dichotomy.  Continue to care for and love the property I own, so it maintains its value, and the more disconnected it becomes from our family history.  I work diligently to balance this transition retaining the integral historical elements, and improving it for future use.  I didn't expect this result.  The house seems empty, because there is no one but me in it.  I cleaned the back yard, the patio, and the side of the house.  Virginia creeper, saw greenbrier, an grape vine had overtaken the hydrangeas, gardenias, and pittosporum.  My jasmine vine commandeered two crepe myrtles.  It didn't take long to get it all cleaned up, and I have a small tomato garden.  Still, it is empty.  There is no one but me to enjoy it.  It is brutal when I mow the grass in the backyard.  No one there.  No parents.  No siblings.  No kids.  Just a few birds and a squirrel or two.  I've never known this kind of loneliness, but I am okay.  I have to turn my feelings off and use my mind to task myself with busy work.  The house next door is under contract, and the asking price was $450,000.00.  "Holy shite, Batman!"  The yard is a fraction of the size of mine, and it is ugly.  They do have a nice view, of my yard.  Perhaps this is why I continue to work on the house and the yard, but it also is an investment of love.  The unbearable summer heat wave most likely is being caused by Miliary Ocean Terminal Sunny Point and training in the field at Fort Liberty.  I moved the router in my kitchen.  It was installed by Brightspeed, and I cannot complain about their service.  I am getting a "land" line (although it is through fiber optic internet) and WiFi for $70.00 a month.  It is a good deal, and I have the same number my family has had for decades.  We are in a pointless war that will make the rest of the world loath us for two decades to come.  It is a war proliferated by the Defense Industry, simply so they can make more money.  Use up all the munitions and surprise!  We have to buy more.  It is so elementary.  Another Viet Nam, simply to make money for the war mongers, the Defense Industry.  It is a game of strategy happening over our heads, the tech war game.  I have some simple goals.  Where best can I use my NOS Onkyo six CD changer?  Which room of the house?  Where best can I use my NOS Sony cassette players?  When will I be able to produce my own music again in a MIDI studio?  When will I begin to play the drums with my fingers again?  Where will the 88 note keyboard be, so I can do this music work?  I am getting closer.  When June was living I had my music studio in the master bedroom of the house.  That is where I liked it.  Then the "Haymount Strangler" began to rent next door.  He was normal for two years, recently divorced and juggling a new love interest and her two young daughters.  They moved in and out twice.  The last time it became apparent to them that my music studio on the back side of the house was in close proximity to their proscenium den.  Even a nominal amount of volume of music would disturb them.  Seeing as I was in the privacy of my own home, and with a large amount of insulation, I felt no guilt.  Instead I felt disdain for squatters living in a rental, thus they received Chick Corea's "Early Circle" at about 100 decibels for an hour.  It was not long before they moved out again the second time.  The young couple on the other side with a newborn baby, also discovered that my music bothered them.  Even if I donned headphones, the simply existence of my study and production of music annoyed him.  He grew not to like me.  Necessarily they moved up the food chain and bought their own half a million dollar house on Pugh Street.  It was a step up and I am glad for them.  Their parents moved in.  The issue with lack of privacy is paramount, especially when you are a musician.  I have curtailed my 3:00 am music parties in my living room, although for whatever reason this doesn't seem to bother them.  It is the subliminal messaging that screws with them.  I drastically have altered my lifestyle to try to be polite.  It will be interesting when the new people move in next door with a fifteen month old baby.  I figure these children are receiving good genes via Nature versus Nurture.  They will be musically literate.  

Weaponization of American Products

 I have not slept contiguous hours of sleep in over a month.  I will get tired, lie down, drift into a delicious resting doze only to be roused  by incredibly strong, antagonizing, undulating low frequency sound waves.  These infrasound waves change continually throughout the night and day in speed, depth, quantity, and their ability to alter my mood, downright create depression, and cause tangible physiological bodily pain.  I spend the majority of my day combating this antagonist, and I have discovered most of my maladies disappear completely, when these waves are not present.  That would be about five percent of my total day.  The other ninety-five percent is spent thinking about and trying to escape this torture.  It is akin to war or being under covert attack by the enemy.  I am fighting a war in the privacy of my own domicile unbeknownst to anyone except me and the creators of this phenomenon.  Who are the perpetrators, and should they be called "perps?"  With the onset of the Trump indoctrination regime beginning in 2016, the public began to bear the word "weaponization."  It has been tossed back and forth by our two prominent political parties citing the weaponization of our own government.  Trump has spoken these words often and went as far as to sue the Internal Revenue Service in the state of Florida for the disclosures of his family's tax returns.  His assertions also contended the search of his Mar-a-Lago residence was unlawful, and that collusion with or by the Kremlin in Moscow was nonexistent.  The Trump family upon settlement withdrew the lawsuit with a required formal apology to them, but also the creation of a of an "Anti-Weaponization Fund" worth 1.7 billion dollars.  This money will be siphoned from the all ready existent Judgement Fund, a perpetual appropriation allowing the Department of Justice to settle and pay cases.  In essence Trump claims foul and is suing the federal government for his persecution from his attempted coup, an organized attack on the Capital and Congress, when they were attempting to confirm the results of the 2020 presidential election.  The nominee for the current position of Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanch, was their legal representative in this lawsuit.  Talk about trying to raid the chicken house...  In the most macabre twist of legal maneuvering, Donald Trump is suing the United States government to try to pay himself and the participants of this grievous attack.  He is seeking money to reward himself, the sitting President of the United States, for sedition and pay the violent operatives for this attempted coup de tat.  There could be nothing more absurd.  Donald Trump is a convicted felon, a traitor, and a mob boss.  How he became the American President for a second term is uncanny and pais homage to his tremendous power as a manipulator.  The appropriate connotation of the word weaponization should be applied to corporate America, because how can a continual polluting of America's drinking water for seventy-six years not be considered "weaponization?"  The American populace, at the behest of wealthy Robber Barons, whether with or without malicious forethought, has been under seige not by foreign adversaries, but by our on brethren.  How many elite families are involved in this practice are yet to be discovered.  Certainly Sackler is at the top of the list. 

The Churning Tide

 Unless you keep your head buried in the sand, it is difficult to ignore a state of war.  It is interesting that there is a war, because Congress never voted and approved it.  How is it possible the United States is at war?  Is it really a war?  Is it some made up gas-lighted charade that was concocted to manipulate voter opinion in the up coming midterm elections?  Trump said plainly in his campaign promised, "No new wars," and yet the United States relentlessly provoked violence from Iran by attacking them.  First out of the blue we bombed their underground nuclear facilities.  In the meantime we slaughtered the drivers of so called "narco boats," defying the Geneva  Conventions, and murdering unsuspecting South American citizens.  We do not know what they were doing, so again the American public is expected to believe the yarns that the Trump Administration is spinning.  In fact Washington has abandoned its Constitutionally protected role, and is operating as a private security firm for the Trump Empire.  They are stealing the money of the American people and enriching themselves until Donald Trump perishes either from natural causes or from assassination.  It is repugnant and deplorable.  I cannot remember a worse time in America history when an elected government has forsaken the public and openly empowered themselves to rape and pillage other foreign nations simply to make money for their backers.  Pete Hegseth is the most visible Trump Lieutenant blatantly lying to Congress and advancing their own agenda of imperialism.  I am beginning to question the loyalty of a swath of the American citizenry.  When questioned they seem to think that attacking foreign nations and governments is cool.  Take Argentina's oil!  Destroy Iran.  Give enriched Uranium to Saudi Arabia, the instigators of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan.  It is obvious the Trump Organization is working for foreign powers, not America.  In attack after attack our Constitution and more directly our people are being wounded.  Some have died.  It could not be clearer.  I never thought I would see the day when I would have to fight the tyranny of my own people. 

The Christian Fight for Democracy's Survival

I have not wanted to blog, because I don't want to be a broken record.  "Tick, tick, tick," same song, same story.  The American story we are experiencing is a broken record.  The remnants of our federal, state, and local leadership are stuck in a sycophantic groove ensuring their own political and financial security.  Nothing can be more metaphorical than the city of Fayetteville (in Cumberland County) continually hemorrhaging money to local favorites in a nepotistic bacchanal.  Thirty million tax payer dollars lost when Kirk Deviere cancelled the downtown performing arts center project.  This berzerk amusement park ride for the citizens' tax dollars is criminal.  A half-built new fire station on Bragg Blvd., like the Performing Arts Center, is being canceled and deemed uninhabitable.  It is being blamed on the city.  (I can't keep straight whether it is the Mayor, City Manager, City Council, or the County Commissioners) who keep fumbling and lateraling the ball in the worst "Da Ville" cup match ever.  The contractors proclaim it is the fault of the inspectors.  Their original plans for the station are not at fault.  It is the job of the city to police the project.  Meanwhile the money continues to flow out to the pet projects of the local brass.  Market House renovations.  A world class tennis facility.  A multi-million dollar Civil War Museum.  The Cape Fear Regional Theater, under the auspicious co-leadership of Mary Catherine Burke and Ella Wrenn, procured their own steel.  With the most savvy and forward thinking creative and business acumen in decades, these two formulated a plan to expand what began as the Fayetteville Little Theater in Leonard McLoud's living room.  Artistic director and founder of the theater, Olga "Bo" Thorp, achieved a similar renovation and expansion with the help of a state grant acquired by attorney and statesman, Tony Eden Rand.  I remember personally when this took place, and it was transformative for the theater and the local artistic community.  This newest phase is awe inspiring.  The pair chose the best and most appropriate company with which to contract.  History will show the scope of this choice, and how Mary Kate and Ella conceived, planned, and implemented this much needed expansion that brings both glamour and earthiness to Haymont.  The Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health's presence cannot be denied when driving into Fayetteville from I-95 South via Owen Drive.  The mirrored facade of the new medical school and additions to the hospital shine like the Eiffel Tower.  The new and improved Cape Fear Regional Theater achieves the same as you drive up Haymount Hill from downtown Fayetteville.  It is no wonder Mr. DeViere cancelled the downtown performing arts center but leaving thirty million dollars unaccounted for.  I hope the the steel for the new Civil War Museum is this lost steel.  The grifting continues, and why shouldn't it when the President of the United States is setting the quintessential example of forsaking the majority of the American citizenry?  It is borderline fascism, and it just keeps coming.  There are so many issues at stake in what has now become a blatant exploiting of the peoples' money.  Trump has nothing to lose, so he just continues to take.  Am I pacified that my own street, Westchester Drive, is slated to be paved in the next year?  Seeing that this modest thoroughfare has become the on ramp for Vanstory Hills Elementary School, and it is plagued with pot holes, cracks, and actively growing vegetation, I would revel in a new smooth asphalt surface upon which to skateboard.  As the city so candidly told me, "The price of asphalt is high right now."  We know why.  My biggest pet peeve is traffic lights.  Since the hurricanes flooded most of Fayetteville and destroyed the traffic control center, logical traffic flow has ceased.  Some new paving has occurred with new trip wires, but the lights are not intelligently programmed.  Everyone will tell you the biggest problem intersections.  First on the list?  McPherson Church Road and Morganton.  It is plausible you will sit at this light for three minutes and nary a vehicle will move.  I have yet to plan my shopping to avoid this area, and always I suffer burning fuel while my car sits in the scorching sun.  Now the Mayor is covering up the city's plan for unwanted data centers, certainly at the behest of a massive Amazon warehouse near Fort Bragg.  In a nutshell with all facets of government being uncooperative of the needs of ordinary citizens and now blatantly exploiting and embezzling tax revenue, and a President who has waged a terror campaign on the populace dismantling regulatory agencies and settling lawsuits with paltry payouts, it is beginning to feel like the only way forward to democratic governance will be resistance violence.  This will manifest itself in small acts of rebellion that will be equivalent to grievous disservices imposed upon the American people.  If prices continue to rise, wages remain stagnant, services are suspended, and people continue to struggle to survive, it will not seem criminal to fight back against political and economic tyranny.  Not unlike the historically active political parties Sinn Fein and the Black Panthers, civilian political activists openly and aggressively began to resist governmental injustice often with violence.  While at the moment the nation has been numbed into subservience, it is becoming evident  only civil or revolutionary war may preserve American democracy.  Donald Trump may crave martyrdom in the vein of vicious dictators, but like the Christian nation America always has been, there comes a time when good people must take up arms and fight.  We are dying at the behest of our own government, and it is time for it to stop.