The Continued and Disturbing Prevalence of Covid 19

 While purposely I have chosen to ignore Covid for the last few months, largely because I have had three shots (the maximum recommended deterrent), its recurring antagonism is inescapable.  I think I have had "The Vid" four discrete times.  I sidestepped this ominous virus for almost a year, until our electric clothes dryer died.  A gas dryer would have been optimum, but gas appliances must be vented directly to the outside.  The space afforded our humble home for its dryer is in an internal downstairs bath with no tub.  The washer/dryer combo snugly fits into this space with a bit of anxiety.  Previously the bath had sliding louvered doors to hide them.  We kept these doors until now, because they were a defining characteristic of the house as is the back French door.  All ready we replaced the washer, and it was a major effort.  I spent time on the internet researching commercial washers and looking for the right model.  We solved this problem, and it was a success.  Instinctively I knew the dryer would be next.  Unfortunately the dryer madeappeared at a local Sears Surplus, and I was forced to frequent this store in the midst of the Covid pandemic.  Although we wore masks, I contracted my first Covid during this purchase.  We picked up the dryer in our Toyota van, and I installed it myself carrying it from the driveway to the back yard.  I attached the strain relieved 220 volt power cord.  The dryer took its toll, and the games began.  The symptoms of Covid for some are not related to the lungs or sinuses.  I had little mucous, congestion, or sore throat.   I had the the more lethal challenges of this pathogen.  It was stark and severe.  "Grog Head" is one description of what ensues.  Covid causes murky thinking.  Its effect is on the central nervous system.  It has been reported those with Covid are walking around, and they keel over.  You must fight this foe with sheer force.  Willpower is what maintains your lucidity.  Any weakness you have Covid will seek out exacerbate.  This includes bacterial and fungal infections, traditional challenges to human health.  There are a plethora of fungal and bacterial infections.  These infections are caused by particles in the soil, water, and air.  I have been an active yard worker, because our yard demands it.  With two live oak trees in our front yard and a plenitude of pines, the work is continual.  Growing up our neighborhood kids played in the woods.  We loved the out-of-doors, and a relationship with Mother Nature began.  I plow, dig, and plant but not as much.  These infections are caused by bacteria or fungus in the soil, rotted wood, and decaying plants.   I have taken pride in digging in the dirt, and my Uncle Randall says the more you do this the stronger your immune system becomes.  I believed this until Covid.  Covid turns Mother Nature against you in the most vile and afflicting way.  It is evil the effects of Covid, and they are not naturally occurring.   The first time I got Covid it found two discreet infections in my body, one bacterial (most likely Staph) and one fungal (probably Candida).  I found  often they coexist.  When they do they are more difficult to eradicate, because you need two differing drug treatments.   I had this malady for two years, two different infections apparent in my appearance.  I was pallid.  My skin was ghostly white, and I tried with diligence to find the right drug combination to cure this ailment.  After I stumbled upon the right choice, some of my suffering lessened.  Septic arthritis persisted mostly from my prolonged use of Cipro.  I have a fused bottom vertebra.  Over time if you are missing a disc, the bones will grow together.  My lowest vertebra is fused to my pelvis.  This explained two years of lower back pain.  With these differing episodes of Covid, which are covert and elusive, it is difficult to make heads or tails of your health.  When the vaccines became available my mother got one first, because she is ninety years old.  When it was available avidly I received it.  Both of us got both  boosters.  These shots saved my life.  My body told me I was over the hump, and I might feel normal again.  As the world has realized, we  live with Covid.  Like the flu it will be around forever.  These vaccines are available to save our lives.  The grift of Covid is its mission.  It seeks out and destroys from everyday maladies.  More importantly it attacks the central nervous system hindering your ability to feel, move, and coordinate.  It has a nerve agent in its DNA, and this is not normal.  Perhaps it is.  I am not a scientist, but I have discovered the amalgam of deadly pathogens used in chemical and biological warfare. With malice man likes to infect others, and there are a myriad of ways to do it.  Covid 19 is just one of them, the most recent since HIV.  Is AIDS naturally occurring?  I don't know the answer, but I do know that the continual spread of Covid is not attributable to those not  vaccinated.  It is being inflicted on us.  The most logical method is by aircraft following a long lineage of unethical and inhuman warfare experimentation by many nations including Russia and Japan.  America's contribution to this heinous practice was the dispersion of Agent Orange in Viet Nam to exfoliate their agricultural fields exposing strategic locations of the enemy.  This was accomplished with a specific aircraft, the Fairfield C123 Provider built specifically for the military.  The pathogens are administered as an aerosol suspension released in vaporous gas in the air over the intended enemy.  A doctor friend of mine emphatically told me a virus needs a human host.  My theory of dropping Covid from the sky was conspiratorial and delusional.  It is common.  Viruses need human hosts to multiply.  They are complicit to exist on their own for several months or years aided by external conditions.  In above freezing temperatures they can live for several years and prefer the dark.  More importantly they can live for several days on inert surfaces, until someone touches them and moves the viral particles to their mouths, noses, or eyes.  Here lie the ACE2 receptors responsible for the contraction of the virus.  Not much has been said about the eyes, but it should be noted that biofilms forming on contact lenses are a cause of concern.  This was my case, because my two year stint with an acute double infection most likely was promulgated by infected contact lenses.  (CT)  I soaked these in alcohol which killed the infection.  My health almost overnight began to improve, but in a few weeks the alcohol destroyed the lenses.   I had spares.  Losing ones taste and  smell is annoying.  When it happens continually, it becomes a litmus test for Covid.  The onset of fatigue, "Grog Head," and neurological difficulties seem to be consistent with the virus.  Only recently was I beset with upper respiratory symptoms including congestion, labored breathing, and sore throat.  All of it is destructive to human life, but the presence of a nerve agent points specifically to whom? 

The Challenge of the Societal Gig

I played a gig last night, and it was difficult.  Why was it difficult?  It was difficult not only because it entailed moving a lot of equipment, but it was a challenging crowd for which to play.  Can you imagine providing musical accompaniment for the Scottish Clans of Cape Fear?  Necessarily this is a Scot event, and there is Tartan aplenty.  Kilts, swords, flags, and haggis all were in the midst, and I knew this ahead of time.  I meagerly collected a modest set of Scottish tunes and felt they were sufficient as a theme that would influence my tune selection on the fly.  I planned to return to the theme from "The Flower of Scotland" as glue that would hold together my sets.  I also included "Loch Lomond" and appropriately played these as a dirge or rather straight as a marching procession.  It was supposed to have a ceremonial feel, because there was pageantry involved in the event.  They presented the colors, we sang the national anthem, and there were introductions.  Playing Scottish folk music on an electric piano may not have been a great idea, but it's how you play it.  In retrospect I think they were a little insulted that I tried my hand at their personal tunes.  That isn't democratic, but America is not a metaphor for ethnic diversity.  Conversely we have transformed into a separatist, tribal, factional nation, and Donald Trump largely is responsible.  We have lost sight of how to live in diversity, a far cry from Hillary Clinton's "It Takes a Village."  Multiculturalism was a main them of the Clinton Presidency, and clearly I remember marked improvements in the quality of life of Americans.  Now we have become paranoid of immigrants, and it is possible some are exploiting American generosity.  Integrating never has been easy, and it has become more difficult in the vacuum of the absence of Martin Luther King and Kennedy Clan.  Ted just slipped out without much ado.  We need positive example in America, and there are few.  The current trend is to bash the American President, and it is unconscionable.  Surprisingly the majority of their rhetoric about Joe Biden is not true.  It is not factual.  It is a product from the loins of Donald Trump, pure lies with no intent except to slander truth.  This is the political dynamic in which we live.  My job was to make the best of a challenging societal event, and that meant providing meaningful background music which was worthy of listening.  It was hit and miss.  In retrospect I realized my shortcomings.  In the back of my mind I knew it was a challenging crowd, because jazz-based cocktail or background music is in the minority in America.  We hear little jazz, and with the Covid shutdown societal events stopped.  What little warm and bubbly cocktail music happening quickly evaporated.  I opted to try the Scottish heart, but I failed.  While I played these tunes adequately and with appropriate sentiment, establishing any sentiment in this crowd is difficult.  That is because they are from different walks of life.  The major influencing musical dynamic in Fayetteville has been the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra.  I love orchestral music, and I have studied it at the doctoral level.  On the other hand I don't play this repertoire when I play piano. Although I was classically trained, I could not wait to learn to play jazz.  This was because of its swing.   That means the bulk of my piano playing ability comes from rhythmic feel.  Playing Scottish folk tunes straight is like playing a hymn in church, but I have played spiritual melodies at the function before.  Sometimes the melody itself is enough to establish emotional communication.  The priority of this event is to stay in the background.  Whatever you do play quietly behind the voices of the guests.  Pay attention if they are listening and dynamically adjust your playing to respond to their reactions.  This is called "Playing the room."  I was naive to think I may be able to do this, because it was such a diverse group and the major dynamic of the party was Scottish sentiment.  The overt musical entertainment of the evening was a bagpipe and drum outfit.  There were six bagpipes, two tenor drums and two snares.  There was one bass drum.  All were marching instruments, because much of European folk music was based on war.  Marching is key.  I could not play cocktail music in this style, so I tried to mix it up.  Always you have try to establish a mood upon which to play, and always it is difficult.  Previously at this event there have been staunch rejectors of the jazz vibe.  They, like the rest of America, refuse to acknowledge or try to feel the warmth of jazz music.  It may be their have difficulty feeling comfortable with this vulnerable expression.  Feeling good is not always easy or appropriate.  During Covid I have found the jazz feeling doesn't work, because what is happening around us is challenging and often painful.  Pain is the operative determinate.  One feels uneasy allowing pleasure, when the rest of life is about war.  I understand all of this.  Because of the classical influence many of these guests are accustomed to hearing this music, learned and composed music which is written and read off the page.  Also I read off the page, sometimes, but it is in the jazz methodology.  We play from lead sheets, a simple melody with chord symbols reminiscent of figured bass during the Baroque period.  To play jazz you must have an acute understanding of harmony and be able to realize harmony on the spot.  As such never do you play the songs the same way each time.  They change in accordance with the dynamic of the party.  At least upon this normally you rely.  When the swing rhythm or feeling is absent, which often it can be, it is difficult to play.  Suddenly and shockingly you find yourself trying to extemporize arrangements in the most unsupportive environment.  Imagine trying to compose while people watch, drink, and talk.  This is your job.  I had success and seeming failure on a few tunes, and that is normal.  What does work in this situation is Foxtrot.  Foxtrot is two beat music, which represents almost all Early Jazz, Broadway, and Ballroom Dance.  It is relaxed easy-flowing music which can be transitioned into "Straight Four" by swinging the bass line.  Largely this music is determined by the pluck of the acoustic bass on beats one and three, and when I did play this style and played bass with my left hand they were appreciated and happy.  Abruptly and to my surprise the limitation of the society gig presented themselves to me almost immediately.  The choices I had when playing bass with my left hand were Foxtrot, Ballad, and Bossa Nova.  These are the styles my father played in his band for many years, and they are tried and true.  The trouble was I had not played a gig like this in several years, and I do not hear this music.  Additionally I choose not to realize this music in my personal time.  I prefer to continue to learn new things and add them to my repertoire.  Unfortunately none of these came to mind when sitting in this position.  Quite normally you draw a complete blank.  You can't think of anything, and that was the case.  I sat and looked at my scribbles of tunes, and none of them seemed appropriate.  It stayed that way the entire evening.  Out of desperation I resorted to a few standards, and it felt immediately I was not present in the room.  It was the ghost of my father and my father's band that was there, and this is because my connection with this crowd was because of him.  They expected to hear his music, because always this is what they heard and enjoyed.  That was a tough pill to swallow, and honestly I resented it.  I have worked on a lot of music, and I pride myself in playing current media.  I cover some tunes, but in jazz you rely on your soul and your feelings to play.  In times such as this, often your expression is quashed by the intensity of the crowd.  All of them have their own opinions, and all of them have strong influence.  If you are not prepared for the fight, you may lose. 

The War in Fayettenam

I want to clarify one issue.  Most people never have experienced "Fayettenam."  Unless you have been stationed at Fort Bragg as a member of the United States military, the phenomenon of "Fayettenam" would be foreign to you.  Simply put the feeling of Fayetteville isn't what was created by enthusiastic pundits of tourism.  "History, Heroes, and a Hometown Feeling."  At times Fayetteville has had a warm subculture driven mostly by money.  With enough money many things can be ignored.  Fancy houses, country clubs, and good jobs are able anodynes for enjoyment.  Over the years Fayetteville has succumbed to the desires of Base Realignment and Closure.  Many in Fayetteville will tout the wonderful benefits of B.R.A.C.  There have been benefits such as military dollars infusing the local economy.  Personally what I have seen is a tipping of the scales in the opposite direction.  I will not argue with the benefits of military expansion, but I'll comment on other effects on the city and her surrounding community.  Largely these are ignored for good reason.  The ill effects of a burgeoning Ground Forces Command have begun to outweigh its benefits for city residents.  B.R.A.C. benefits those who decided Fort Bragg would be the hub of military activity.  Most industrial activity at Naval Weapons Station, Joint Base Charleston was moved to Fort Bragg, and rail traffic increased dramatically.  The Apache helicopter replaced Kiowa, and with its emergence came a new aerial gunnery range.  The mission of the Apache is to attack and destroy.  While those involved with flying the Apaches may not notice, the presence to the community of these menacing birds is significant.  They bring an air of intimidation, which is appropriate for a fighting machine.  They can intimidate the civilian population, when they are not understood.  While military personnel may become accustomed to the low thump of helicopter rotors, this constant drone by itself is intimidating, especially when the source is cloaked.  The sound is classified as infrasonic, and its effects have been well-studied.  The location of Fort Bragg is appealing to the military for many reasons.  One is easy access to Interstate 95.  With the newly built I-295 inner loop, munitions flow easily to Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point via truck convoy.  I-95 is the main north/south corridor of the Eastern Seaboard, and all ready brings its own ills such and drug and human trafficking.  Fayetteville could be nicknamed "Fayettenam" for its railroads alone.  Few places are a logistical hub for three railroads including CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Aberdeen and Rockfish.  Ironically these three railroads intersect in downtown Fayetteville, and  few days pass without multiple consists in their yard on Russell Street.  Rail traffic in Fayetteville has increased, and the  Trump administration has something to do with it.  The A&R alone has increased their activity often beginning early in the morning and shunting freight into the late evening.  It used to be one train a day from 10:45 A.M. to 1:45 P.M.  Now their activity seems 24/7, and it is of consequence because their tracks transect many local neighborhoods in Fayetteville including the Carolina Inn Assisted Living Facility.  During the Covid "Shelter in Place" protocol by Governor Roy Cooper, when schools were shuttered and students were at home, the Aberdeen and Rockfish capitalized by using this track as a makeshift freight yard.  It was of no consequence that Berean Baptist Church and Academy and Montclaire Elementary School were only a few feet away.  The A&R promptly parked tank cars Labeled "Hazmat" in this location for months.  Only recently have they been relocated downtown next to the aging cotton warehouses.  It is convenient this short line railroad exploits its contracts in Fayettenam but continues to call itself the Aberdeen and Rockfish.  It should be the Fayetteville and Aberdeen, but "Fayettenam" provides them many clients near River Terminal.  What benefits do a short line railroad offer a community?  There is their property tax for the county, but with an extremely small work force, Fayetteville residents see few benefits.  The presence of this railroad is detrimental to Fayetteville's quality of life.  The use of decades old, two stroke, turbo-charged GP locomotives creates a sonic pallet of diesel knock and infrasonic vibration which can't be disguised.  The city knows when they're here.  Let's consider this continual local rail traffic and add CSX and their Milan Street Yard.  Two large clients demand continual freight service, and DAK Americas is serviced by their track in the middle of Russell Street.  Each day a CSX local makes its way on this Vander Line meandering through east Fayetteville until arriving along the banks of the Cape Fear River.  Similarly you know when this local is present, because CSX uses a "rebuilt" GP-38-3 replete with AC traction electronics.  Residents know when any AC locomotive is nearby, because its effects are tangible and negative.  Most noticeably AC locomotives tamp down the power grid robbing current from our homes.  When there is an AC locomotive nearby, our lights are dim and things run slow.  Wabtec, Motive Power Resources, General Motors, and General Electric will disagree touting the wonderful results adding AC induction motors to traction.  These locomotives are ambulent AC power plants, and the necessary precautions for their use largely are ignored.  (Such as the number of AC locomotives in a consist)  High voltage electrical processing is necessary to produce low frequency alternating current, and often these locomotives operate in this range emitting large amounts of EMF radiation.  Imagine a two mile long coal train being pulling by rotating electromagnetic fields.  These are some powerful magnetic fields, and this energy deeply penetrates human tissue effecting the the heart and brainwaves.  This radiation is so rampant and global the world unsuccessfully has tried to acclimate to it.  There are dozens of new tangible  ailments, syndromes, and diseases, and large pharmaceutical companies are eager to accommodate with their own drugs.  It should not be happening, and the appropriate governmental regulatory agencies have failed to police it.  There are deep pockets in Washington, and they don't belong to senators.  The Norfolk/Southern operates incognito, and Fayetteville Block Materials is their largest client.  I-295 is Fay Block's client, so this local business has profited greatly.  "Fayettenam" is created when the drawbacks of the military industrial complex outweigh its benefits.  How does it feel to live in Fayetteville?  It feels like "Fayettenam."  

It's Dog Joe Biden (Groundhog Day)

I get tired of complaining.  People don't like complainers, but what is going on in America in this rare in our lifetime, flexing of money muscle, almost inconceivable attempted dismantling of democracy merits continual scrutiny and complaint.  I would rather laud and praise the American democracy as a pinnacle of freedom for men.  I am not Carl Sagan, but what I am hearing discretely in the news, "Big money is flowing through Washington," may be the best explanation.  Why Congress have become gridlocked and the majority of the Republican Party have embraced "The Big Lie" are the same.  We must finally realize many of those who have been elected to leadership positions in our state and federal government are not real Americans.  I feel most people could agree to be American is to be free.  America has been the pillar of the free world since her inception.  Freedom is implemented by the system of democracy, and our nation is defined as a republic.  We have had a vague system of self rule, where traditionally our elected leaders do represent the interests of their voters or constituents.  Unfortunately that no longer is true, and it seems as if our elected officials have become self righteous, indignant, and narcissistic.  In reality they have no feeling for those who elected them.  Hence with a specific and passionate attempt to eradicate God from American consciousness, these elected officials can skew reality, distort leadership, and serve themselves and their friends.  There is absolutely no compulsion to do the right thing, the right thing being to behave with an active and strong moral conscience.  This conscience necessarily comes from God, from the church and its teachings, and from a strong belief in spirituality.  There is something more than man Who created man and is our spiritual leader.  Man in no way could ever aspire to possess the wisdom, the knowledge, and most importantly the love from God.  Gods does love this sinning faction, but He is disappointed.  It is a tenant of Christianity to love your enemy, and it is a popular adage to keep your enemies closer than your friends.  This recreation of the gods of ancient Greek mythology, a group of pseudo erudite aristocrats who morally are incapable of relating to the human race and their fellow man, must be what civilizations predicted for 2012.  Narrowly we missed that mark, but a short decade later this shit is hitting the fan in a way that almost is incomprehensible.  It defies logic, but that is because there is none.  The sooner we realize this is what we are fighting the more successful we will be at salvaging American democracy or more specifically rule by the majority, not an aristocracy.  With a specific intent of neglecting the public education of our youthful generation making them vulnerable and naive, and undermining democratic policies in American rule by dismantling many of these components in government, evil has crept in.  This evil can be best qualified as the presence of Satan.  Because we have eradicated religion from American consciousness, we don't know what this is.  It is characterized by emerging as good and appearing to be prudent and just.  Unfortunately behind this facade is the most heinous evil which manifests itself with total destruction of our nation and the decimation of the planet Earth.  That's pretty heavy, but it is synonymous with the predictions of 2012.  Those predictions were prophetic, but largely we slid past this date with not much ado.  Ten years later we are experiencing the real deal.  When I look back this subterfuge extends backward decades possibly to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.  These may be the last vestiges of good we can remember in American history.  For me the picture is becoming clearer, and because I have lived long enough I can remember.  (For this reason I humbly ask that these opposing forces stop dropping the Covid  pathogen on my home.)  I am tired of being sick.  I have had three vaccinations, and we have done everything in our power to keep dangerous particles out of our home.  I am prepared for a drive by shooting.  Humor aside, I have lived long enough to remember.  The last honest president we elected who was not a pawn of the rich was? It is mind numbing this carnage.  I spent ten minutes in the grocery store reading the labels of Ocean Spray juice bottles, a once reputable juice maker who didn't laden their product with artificial ingredients.  There were so many labels with sight differences, and cranberry was used the most.  Among all of these products I found not one with one hundred percent juice, one hundred vitamin C, and not so much sugar.  Most were addiction causing offerings guaranteed to establish their importance in your daily life.  This has become common, and the deceit in the food sector in America goes back to the 1910's.  No one is looking our for your health in this industry, and government oversight sold out a century ago.  Aspartame is wood alcohol.  Big money has been running America for a very long time, but perhaps not until now they wanted to kill us.  We can call it ethnic cleansing, genocide, or anything else, but like a covert coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2020 it is real, and it is what we are facing each day we wake.  Join the fight, because without it it is likely we all could perish and not just at the hands of Covid.  P.S.  The news has become propaganda, and beating down the President serves no purpose except to incite, separate, and depress.  The war is inching closer to established society, and the more they bring it the more likely a response will be had from normal American people.  Ridiculous, diversionary, extreme assaults slowly will morph into calculated responses upon those deserving as public consciousness continues to evolve. 

The Republican Dictatorship - Jim Crow Jr.

 Two different states interestingly in which I have lived both are fighting corruption in their state houses.  Corruption is a strong word, and the Republican Party would have you believe it is nothing more than putting your hand in the collection basket at church when you were a child.  It's a temptation no one can resist.  Stealing from the 7/11.  Skimming off the top.  Taking a little for yourself.  These men should not be in positions of leadership.  It is a poor example.  "They are not paying attention, so we just take advantage of them.  They don't know the difference.  They are too stupid to understand."  They do understand, but the severity of the police murdering black men is what demands response.  The rest of the time folk are just trying to get by.  "Meanwhile," back in America rich white men continue to do as they please, and they do as they please because of voter suppression and election fraud.  The Trump elector bribe slowly is surfacing, and in Michigan there is concrete evidence to suggest it was a multi-state class action assault.  Republicans always have been meticulous litigating American law.  This is how they win, understanding the system and its inherent weakness, such as the electoral college.  Many  states did not have laws which required the state legislature to accept the popular vote for president.  As such the Trump Organization targeting these "swing" states, sent covert operatives, and did their best to dissuade these local elected officials to believe there was a Democratic conspiracy.  In fact there was not, but again this is the Trump methodology.  Say it was the other guy, before the other guy even knows what he did.  He could not even devise what he did, because it was not important to him, to bribe electors.  Isn't that illegal?  Michael Cohen said Donald Trump didn't want to win the presidency.  That is another "Big Lie."  It was an effective scam.  Both state houses in Ohio and North Carolina diligently are trying to create unfair advantages for themselves to stay in power by manipulating voting districts.  What does this mean?  It means they selectively choose who and how they vote.  Take Texas for example who all ready have passed egregious voter suppression laws under the ruse of "Greenwashing."  "What we are doing is good and just."  In reality just like on television, the only advertisements you see are the ones where the manufacturers are desperate to sell.  It is the crooks who pitch their fraud with a big smile on their face and their fist up your ass.  With what is television littered?  Drug advertisements which have no reason to be there, because once doctors decided what drugs you needed.  It is no different than Big Tobacco.  America slowly dismantled that behemoth, but tobacco remains.  Why is all of this happening?  The answer is oversight and regulation.  When the CEO of most major airlines, freight and passenger, sign a petition to stop G5 wireless networks near airports, what happens.  A private corporation whose only service to to provide a convenient way to talk on the phone without a corded land line, a convenience, not a necessity, now is able to implement unregulated, untested, and possibly dangerous technology simply because they are?  What are they?  They make cell phones.  So what?  We can get by without them, and America has for most of her young life.  It was Bill Clinton who decided otherwise.  Here is one Slick Willie, and no one even knows what he did as President.  He did this, the empowerment of wireless technology that is proving to destroy the earth's ecosystem.  The logical assumption is that G5 has been scrutinized, tested, and retested.  The FAA, the FDA, and the rest of the acronyms all are in the pocket of Republicans who care naught for your health.  They just want your money.  The way they keep your money is by keeping power by gerrymandering voting districts to oppress the true vote.  They also pass unfair restrictive voting laws which make it more difficult for some people to vote and express their concerns.  "Quiet down, nigger." 

It's an Unfriendly America

The "Big Lie" is Republicans telling you they care about you.  They smile while they stick their fists up your ass.  The North Carolina State Legislature, a "Good Old Boy" network, is the worst.  Why should things change?  Why she we relinquish control?  We get to make the rules and keep all of your money.  You're a nigger.  Stay in your place, nigger.  You think you deserve an opportunity.  You're just a stupid nigger.  (Sorry, I seem to be writing a play)  What's the problem?  Who in their right mind believes the wealthy shouldn't have to pay taxes?  When Ronald Reagan became president (and yes, 1984 was the correct year to which to compare current inflation) the percentage the wealthy paid in federal income taxes was seventy.  I will repeat.  The wealthy had to pay 70% of their personal income to Uncle Sam.  Reagan changed that, and the Trump Dynasty was born.  The Yuppie, the upwardly mobile, metrosexual, newly wealthy Manhattan dweller.  From them Trump made his fortune.  The spectrum of income in America is so skewed at the top, his people now are a jury.  How are you going to profit from a committee?  That takes the fun out of free commerce.  America is fleeced.  There is no money left from the middle and lower classes.  We can keep beating them  until we all live on the streets robbin freight trains to survive.  What is on these trains?  Trains 24/7 a stones through from our neighborhood.  It is mail and packages.  A little boys club.  Mr. Havana.  Mr. Cheese Toast.  The Golden Gate (who is getting up there in years).  They are trying to burst through mining cyber currency with machines.  Nontaxable income with which they want to buy Puerto Rico.  Deregulation was a heinous mistake.  Why?   If you have no oversight of industry, then the crossroads of industry becomes congested.  Railroad number one.  Railroad number two.  Railroad number three.  THREE railroads in a city of less than two hundred thousand people.  Airport number one.  Airport number twenty seven.  Heliport.  Apache gunner's range.  Normandy Drop Zone.  The Marines from Camp Lejeune with the big guns.  Fifty thousand active duty soldiers driving to work each day.  Fifty thousand more civilian employees driving to work each day. It is excessive without oversight.  The President signs that proclamation of war (Dick Chency) and corporate has a free pass to do as they please.  The planets align, and it all hits at one time.  "Remembering Our Lost Friends" is a list of dead friends from Fayettenam who died too early.  It is not a friendly place, but Republicans get to do what they want.  Fuck the rest of us. 

Night of the Living Dead

 There is a simple explanation why American politics is so fractured.  The fight we see before us is a fight for survival of all of the offending corporate conglomerates responsible for Climate Change.  Since deregulation there no oversight of private industry.  Companies are free to do as the please, and this includes dumping PFAS into American waterways which provide tap water for millions of citizens.  The mentality of a corporation which thinks it can do such a thing with no penalty or repercussion is the mentality of the current Republican Party.  It is difficult to understand if viewed from an honest, civil, moral, and ethical perspective.  Abandon your own God-driven life philosophy and imagine Nazi Germany.  Remember the Holocaust and Adolph Hitler.  There is nothing sensational about that other then it was heinous genocide, and it was not that long ago.  Cancel Culture would have us forget this event.  A judge ruled a teenager passed out drunk in her underwear was the guilty party in her rape.  A man sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious, and he bore no responsibility for his actions.  Well, four years was enough.  It's apples and oranges, and corporate America  would like to continue massively to pollute our country and this earth.  The political fight in Washington and in state governments represents the discovery, the accountability, the mitigation, and the rectifying of grievous ills in wealthy industrial sectors of the world.  Energy, transportation, and communications all are to blame for Global Warming and its ramifications, but no one will say so.  Nary a politician has suggested railroads, wireless carriers, or airlines produce airborne electricity and heat in quantity enough to warm our environment.  If one examines what comes out of the tail end of a jet engine, its temperature, its velocity, and its gases, there is no denying these things are not friendly to mother nature.  In 2011 the FAA enacted a plan which allowed air traffic to ignore most previous regulation protecting citizens and fly wherever they want.  Consequently many subdivisions were burned to a crisp in Colorado.  The fight in Washington is to cover this up.  It is to allow Chemours the right to dump PFAS in the air and water of North Carolina causing illness, disease, and death.  They want to enact anarchy, because anarchy in the ranks is the best smokescreen for their wrongdoing.  When I stop and consider the amount of environmental pollution irradiating me right now, at this moment, all different kinds of extraneous unwanted energy, then stopping this is the current fight in Washington.  They want to be able to do whatever they want with no accountability.  The health of Americans in secondary and inconsequential.  We don't matter.  What matters is corporate profit, because corporate profit is what fuels the lifestyles of the rich.  The dynasties.  The royal families.  The Sacklers.  These oligarchs would not exist without the excesses of addiction, crime, and violence which create anarchy which fans the flames.  We were about to get Covid under control, but they chose not to.  Instead another trump card thrown onto the poker table to keep the money flowing.  Covid tests?  Vaccines?  Pills?  All of this has been to make these people richer, when they should be deader. 

American Maturity

I am listening to Pat Methany and Charlie Haden.  That is an uplifting thing.  The title of the recording is "Beyond the Missouri Sky."  On the other hand North Carolina politics is a major drag.  Phil Berger and his Burgermeisters.  The North Carolina Republican Army, the controllers of the state house, the General Assembly.  When Pat McCrory lost the governorship to Roy, the Burgermeisters immediately went into session and penned legislation castrating much of the power of the governor.  Before he took office Roy Cooper had less power as a democratic governor than did Pat McCrory.  This completely explains the shite state affairs of the state of North Carolina.  What is it?  What is it that makes North Carolina the 49th most honest and prudent American state?  Our state house is the second most corrupt in the nation.  The Republican led Red Army of Phil Berger are friends of the state, the communist state.  It is not conspiratorial.  It is not spiritual.  It is not fictional.  It is not fake news.  It is the current "Conditions of America," or more specifically the conditions of the weak, tepid, corrupt, but financially secure state of North Carolina.  We are the axis of the military industrial complex of the East Coast.  We are the whore of the pentagon.  We and Thom Tillis are blinded, brainwashed, extreme cheerleaders for the United State military.  Like Dr. Rand Paul it does not matter the issue.  It does not matter jurisprudence.  There is no God, no morality, or spiritual consciousness.  Only is there the extreme far right, the demented, mentally ill, minions of Trump.  It is simple and in a nutshell.  Money and power.  The Nazis.  It is the epitome of evil, a darkness so vast and so expansive that it is difficult to see through it.  God shows us the way.  The way up, the way out.  (Oh, I am quoting my own poetry from circa 1989!)  North Carolina never has changed.  My default, our status quo, we kowtow to the military.  It doesn't matter if their ethical compass has become compromised.  It does not matter that war mongering and an economy of war are paramount.  Have we lost sight of peace?  Certainly we have forgotten how to live in peace, because this would require an economy of peace.  The paltry and grass roots tasks and deeds of foundling America would become important again.  We are too bored, brutal, and satanic to live in peace and serenity.  We must kill.  Our minds are so shrunken from Havana Syndrome we can't entertain physical pleasure and bliss only from God's human form.  It is there to serve us responsibly, only if we were mature enough to understand it.  

Parliament Funkadelic

 I fixed waffles for supper.  Alton Brown is a bad man, and if you want to learn how to cook watch "Good Eats."  I have a manila folder full of my recipes of which most are scribbled on different sizes of paper.  There is the "Post It Note" size of paper.  There is the scratch pad size of paper which vary but usually is tall and thin.  Then there is the full 8 1/2 x 11 sized paper.  I had to go through them tonight and sort them.  Most of these recipes I can cook from scratch with no recipe.  Lately I have been feeling insecure about my cooking technique, so I decided to have a look.  My waffles came out well, and while I follow Mr. Brown's recipes I add or subtract things.  I don't use two ounces of melted butter in waffle batter.  I also use brown sugar instead of refined white sugar.  We happened to have buttermilk in the fridge, so I took advantage.  It was a satisfying meal.  Once I made "Tika" sauce, a tomato-based Indian sauce which uses Garam Masala powder.  I make this by toasting whole herbs in the skillet and grinding them into a powder.  It is heavenly and gives food that distinct Indian wang.  Parliament's album "Osmium" is a Potpourri of influences.  There is the STAX Records sound, Otis Redding, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Steve Cropper and Booker T.  What is missing is keyboard action, funky clavinet, synth, and electronica.  It is a more traditional instrumentation than later configurations of Parliament-Funkadelic.  Evidently there were a lot of permutations in the evolution of the George Clinton phenomenon.  I hear some folk in this music as well.  Not sure I like it yet, but that will come.  There is some Motown as well and R&B.  Eventually they will quash that in favor of a more psychedelic sound.  This is what I am learning in real time, since my attention has drifted from jazz for the time being.  The jazz vibe is not working in Fayettenam at the moment.  No surprise there.  Those Apache attack helicopters don't favor jazz music.  You need something stronger to compete with them.  I will had downstairs later to records some funky Rhodes.  What is striking about this genre of music I am addressing is bass and drums.  It was written by a critic that with the P-Funk funk style bass and drums came to the forefront of the band.  Word, and the drums sounds excellent as does bass.  I have been hearing and playing these sounds since I learned to play bass in graduate school.  The funny thing is I haven't really heard any of this music first hand, but I know it.  How far do I have to look back to find the African-American in our bloodline?  There are all kinds of influences in this album, but it has not yet gelled.  It sounds like a bunch of different people looking for a unique original sound.  They did find it. 

The Testicles of America

It was inevitable my recent researching of the history of American jazz music would lead to modern popular music.  I don't purport to know anything, because still I am assimilating the knowledge.  I have moments of clarity, when you forget what you've studied, and it comes back to you in real time for real reason.  Most of these realizations are common sense, and on the fringe I have known most of them.  An example is the importance of Louis Armstrong in the development of jazz in America.  A century is a long time.  Before Youtube, never would we have been privy to his image on film or television.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to spot influences of American popular culture in real life.  That is because now we live on the internet.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I have learned you can't live with your head buried in the sand.  You can't live down the rabbit hole of Youtube, because when you pop back up you will be hit with a shit storm of reality.  Covid 19.  Racial Unrest.  Violence.  Anarchy.  America finds herself at a tenuous juncture, and we do not yet know the outcome.  Will our democracy survive?  Will right wing nuts take over the country claiming all for their own?  Trump needs to be eliminated from this picture.  With his absence from public consciousness, quickly his insurgency will dissipate.  We are being manipulated, and we know not what we do.  It has been a challenging few years, but that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  I have continued to learn possibly some of the more important lessons of life.  I don't have much control over what happens.  You have to adapt and improvise.  The continual conundrum is, "Where is music headed?"  Louis Armstrong was very important in many ways to the development of jazz music.  Specifically he was America's first jazz vocalist which begs an explanation of "Swing Singing" in general.  Like many things in life, jazz becomes a dichotomy along racial lines.  There was sophisticated swing music in white circles outside of what became known as jass or jazz.  This word itself is a conundrum.  This word, like "classical,"  should be changed.  The white music best could be represented by Paul Whiteman, a sophisticated composer, arranger, and band leader.  He was not a racist, but his ensemble was employed by white society.  "Swing Singing," unlike jazz, doesn't take liberties with the melody or its phrasing.  It is ensemble music sung specifically in time and performed from written notation.  It is different from oratorio and cantata,  because it is secular.  Secondly it actually swings.  What is "Swing?"  So many questions, and I don't have the time.  Ella's early years with Chick Webb are a perfect example of "Swing Singing."  The vocal is part of the ensemble, and as such most successful working "Big Band's" had vocalists in the front line.  They even had small ensembles of singers.  Frank Sinatra got his start this way singing with the Pied Pipers with the Tommy Dorsey band.  America doesn't and never has gotten to hear much of this music, and it is very sophisticated.  Paul Whiteman's arrangements along with Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman were extremely well crafted, forward thinking, modern swing music.  The music was so polished, elegant, and effective it can be startling to hear.  The best analogy is to consider what other music was flourishing in the 1920's in classical music circles.  There is your answer, and there is the dichotomy.  (not lobotomy, although sometimes if feels like this trying to synthesize this music history)  These arrangements were radio ready, picture perfect, American popular songs.  Radio has much to do with it.  America has lost this very important and influential medium.  The internet does not suffice, although it makes up for it in other ways.  The immediate digital transfer of audible music via the internet is indispensable, but it negates much of the feeling of the music.  The intent of the music largely is lost and so is our culture.  We are not experiencing the kind of things once we did.  In fact we are a pallid shadow of what once was real America.  I am trying my best to mitigate this reverse metamorphosis, this retrograde devolution into ignorance.  It has been purposeful and most likely it has been instigated by the same enemies of our nation.   Cancel culture is an operative active process.  With the assembling of the Star Link (Skynet) network of low orbit satellites, we are on a path of global domination.  How can one individual businessman receive permission to launch such as an atrocity?  We are talking about the world's sky, not just America.  Did Elon Musk canvass and solicit permission from each nation to put satellites in their sovereign airspace?  This was Trump.  Trump did this, and this was the impetus for his "Space Force."   Does America know about our Space Force?  What we do know is there are little rocket ships flying into space now all the time, and America knows little about it.  The armed serviced are involved hence "Space Force."  The base is in southern Florida on the east coast, a previous Air Force base once I stumbled upon while tracking air traffic.  This is not a good idea one private citizen owning and controlling a network of low orbiting satellites with four phased array antennas each.  Discuss amongst yourselves.  Global warming.  Not only can they flick the switch at HAARP on consignment to heat the earth's ionosphere, now we have a new space heater.  Bathe the entire world in microwave emissions!  How about "pulsed" microwave emissions.  How about creating the "Havana Syndrome?"  What United States regulatory agency is watching what he is doing?  The EPA?  The FCC?  No one.  One man is building this global network, and Donald Trump gave him permission.  Am I wrong?  I don't think Joe Biden would approve.  Does he?  "Swing Singing," like many other musical devices, is sophisticated and important but not for the siege.  The siege seeks an inhuman existence.  If we are to understand human existence, then we must accommodate the presence of God as our creator.  Who could be so selfish to think man is the greatest example of mother nature?  We so miserably have failed, we are  not deserving to kiss God's coat tails. Man instead has become a mockery of God, and because of this He weeps.  There still is time.  Jazz singing is a different thing all together, and it allows the paraphrasing of the melody or improvising around it.  In my humble musical opinion this is jazz singing's greatest contribution to music.  Of course these vocalists are using the dedicated work of Tin Pan Alley composers.  The songs they sing are no fluke.  At the turn of the century music became important to urban America fueled by the availability of upright pianos.  Americans were able to purchase pianos for their parlors, and they wanted American music to play.  The European classical tradition didn't represent the hustle and bustle of American life.  This American process, this way of life is represented in jazz music.  Louis became America's first real jazz singer or popular vocalist, because before him and aside from "Swing Singing" in an ensemble, his predecessor was Enrico Caruso, an Italian operatic tenor who sold millions of 78 records.  The vocal stylings of Louis Armstrong are a far cry from Enrico Caruso.  It would be an interesting comparison, the gravel of Satchmo with the mellifluous tones of a lyric tenor.  This juxtaposition is not unique in that the world sometimes changes gears on a dime.  That has happened in America.  What was a prolific and elevated cultural existence, which itself fueled our economy for decades, suddenly was shut down  because of Napster and Steve Jobs.  We cannot blame these two men for the eventual digital proliferation of music via the internet.  Who shall we blame for the death of American popular music because of the demise of traditional radio?  There was nothing wrong, and there is nothing wrong with the radio medium.  It requires money for investment and upkeep.  There is a transmitter sitting at Fayetteville State University ourchased by UNC - Chapel Hill.  Now it is a "mirrow" of their talk radio format.  I can think of no other disservice to American society than the proliferation of talk radio.  Garrison Keeler would have something to say about it.  Watch the film "Prairie Home Companion," and you will understand what radio once was.  The decision to flood the airwaves with extraneous airborne electricity was predicted many times as the "Electronic Age."  Both radio and CD have been rendered impotent, but no one will say it.  Compact Discs are obsolete, because there is so much vibration in the air from corporate pollution the machines no longer track correctly.  Now a hard drive is required.  Is this correct?  Radio no longer could function efficiently, because there is so much aberrant airborne electrical activity.  Oh, the cell phone industry.  Bill Clinton made this decision.  Was it correct to shift our economy to wireless communications rendering American radio impotent?  Louis Armstrong also defines the "feel" or swing of jazz music.  His rhythmic feel or loose and swinging groove is why he is important.   His sister in time is Billie Holiday.  Their feel almost is interchangeable.  As America's first jazz vocalist, Louis's ability to improvise was what was most important.  While "Early Jass" was notated ensemble music, a huge misnomer in jazz history, eventually those playing it committed it to memory including the musicians of James Reese Europe.  They fleeced white society into believing they music magically flowed through the black consciousness!  Louis Armstrong could craft a melody from scratch based upon the original written notes rendered by a Tin Pan Alley composer.  He did this in real time in the moment along with Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Anita O'Day.  These vocalists were sublime in their ability to weave original interpretations through an existent melody.  Many times how they sang a song was better than the original.  Certainly and most of the time it was different.  These paraphrases ultimately were the roots of instrumental improvisation later to come.  This is why jazz vocal music is important, and I didn't know it until now.  The marvel of early jazz musicians was their virtuosic technique.  Bix Beiderbecke not only played lead trumpet in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, he also played the "choruses."  Easily and adeptly he was able to switch between playing "straight" in an ensemble and expressing himself individually in a solo.  I have exhausted my jazz curiosity for the time being, so the next stage is from the more popular American styles.  I didn't pay much attention to this music growing up, because I was trained classically on piano.  My father played jazz.  This music didn't resonate with me as a white, conservative, Episcopalian male.  I heard some live music, but what was available was jazz.  I missed R&B, Funk, and Rock.  Yesterday was an archival of Kool and the Gang, The Ohio Players, the GAP Band, the Average White Band, Sly and the Family Stone, and Prince.  Mind blown, because what I have come to know and play myself has roots in this music.  I arrived at it from the fringes of Hip Hop and Soul.  The flipping of the switch in America, the dismantling of American born culture, was the death of Hip Hop.  Perhaps they killed themselves, because you can't sample or track from the grave.  Perhaps "Niggers With Attitude" spent their course, and America was ready for something else.  Nashville was ready with its permutation of pop and country, and Shania was their first offering.  We have yet to recover the testicles of America.