A Trump Dictatorship is Inevitable?

 Personally I would like to thank Robert Kagen for his editorial in the Washington Post.  I removed my rose-colored glasses a month ago, and America's reality is brutal.  Mr. Kagen's opinion is well within the scope of reason for discerning citizens.  His concept is that Trump will win in 2024.  This is not new, and this GOP championed-perspective has been the news since the January 6th debacle.  He seems to think that the country moving on to greener pastures, or rather less dire and depressing news, is naive.  We should plan on Trump becoming America's first authoritarian dictator duly elected by the people.  Is it possible that over half the population wants to eradicate freedom and rule by the people, and submit to a military-enforced police state?  That is a grim prospect, and I can't imagine America as a whole agrees.  We have the right to choose our leadership and our potential future.  If you do chose Trump, then the fall of the world's pinnacle of freedom is your fault.  Hitler courted his populace and was successful.  Many did, but there comes a time when adults have to make the decisions.  Suggesting the Trump scenario is the irrevocable future of America is lazy.  It makes news.  It is the news.  It has been the news, and we need to move on.  Rehashing the severity of the fall of the free world isn't news.  It is fodder.  It is easy, and it is cheap.  Trying to solve America's real problems should be the agenda.  Humbly I ask Mr. Kagen to address these issues.  They are:  Campaign Finance Reform, Immigration, Education, Health Care, Big Pharma, and Crime.  The list is long, significant, and challenging.  For America to sustain and survive, these problems must be solved.  If we are not smart enough, or worse too lazy and irresponsible to address these issues, then these folks can hash it out in the latest online video game.  It is fantasy, but America has been in Fantasyland, since Trump became President.  He spun our current human existence into an insignificant blip on the radar of pop culture.  If we do not save the Earth now, our opportunities are limited.  Strife, violence, and war may be the unfolding agenda.  Is this to what humankind has devolved?  We forsake heterosexual love?  We participate in racism and discrimination?  We revel in violence, murder, and torture?  I suggest a menu of bliss for the restaurant of America.   Corporate America will have to cease and desist their current agenda of environmental sacrilege.  This includes the R J Corman Railroad Group.  Superseding Wabtech, GE, Progress Rail, Locotrol, and Siemens, this new collector of short line railroads and player in rail unknowingly has entered the arena of human sadism.  Since the advent of AC traction, the rail lobby has hidden the dire effects of radiation from low frequency alternating current.  Radiation may not be the right term.  Tesla had plans to transmit alternating current through the air, but the public utilities  nixed that.  How monetarily could they collect fees from free power beamed through the air?  His idea proved it was possible.  When you try to harness the power of lower frequencies of alternating current, inevitably it will run awry.  Perhaps on a small scale through normal high voltage power lines this energy could be contained.  Producing thousands of volts to create rotating electromagnetic fields to pull hundreds of thousands of tons of freight?  Who could not see the danger in this prospect?  The sheer amount of low frequency alternating current needed to complete such a task would power a city, but today's modern diesel/electric locomotives can do just that.  They are ambulant, turbo-charged, sixteen cylinder, four stroke, diesel prime movers which don't turn axles.  Their task only is to spin a generator or alternator which produces electricity to power AC traction motors,  the axles of the bogies.  This electromagnetic energy, which correlates to the frequency of the AC, rotates a stator and pulls the rotor (the axle) with enough force to pull thousands of tons of freight. Multiply that by 30,000, and we are lucky to be able to walk on the bare ground without getting shocked.  This electricity is in our air, in our earth, and consequently in our minds and bodies.  If you wonder why the world has gone crazy, add 5G cell towers, the military's microwave defense systems, and ISR surveillance satellites in space.  The Earth is cooking.  Even if R J Corman is rebuilding older direct current locomotives like the SD-40, the knock and vibration of the 645 two stroke engine is enough to chatter the teeth out of your grandma's head.  A shiny paint job, aggressive pubic relations, and favorable quarterly numbers will not stop the adverse effects of a community living in a rail yard.  If Mr. Kagen wants to solve a human problems, then I suggest he try to orchestrate the logistics of pollution and radiation from the commercial airlines, freight rail, and the United States military.  If you want to know why people feel bad, then stage a diesel and microwave absent week.  The calm and serenity of such an anachronistic event could provide the bliss I recommend.  Sadomasochism is getting old. 

The Trumptopian Plan

 Who's to say if democracy was on the decline before Donald Trump became President?  I have a friend  who swears Donald Trump only is a symptom of the eventual collapse of American democracy.  Thinking back I cannot recall any leaders who showed a propensity for autocratic dictatorial rule.  On the contrary the American Presidency has remained a symbol of the virtues of a free society, even if it was a facade.  Perhaps they were scheming behind the scenes, and the obvious catalyst for the loss of American democratic sovereignty was the rise of "Globalism."  Opening America to the world economic market was just a way to make more profit.  The desire to screw the common worker out of their wages in lieu of more riches to the wealthy seems Trumptopian.  He has a track record of such ill practices, hiring workers to to flip a casino and refusing to pay them for various reasons.  The common workers don't deserve respect, much like freed slaves never earned the respect they deserved as equal human beings after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.  Jim Crow laws in Louisiana were the dogma that reinforced imported African workers were not the same as pure bred Americans.  Religion mitigates this point of view, and without the virtues of God and Christianity this perspective is the blaring blight on the history of America.  Slavery.  Most of us thought we had moved past this as a nation, but the presence of Donald Trump, particularly in the American Presidency seemed to condone this anachronistic, inane, and inappropriate opinion.  Without the Presidency Donald Trump was innocuous.  With the Presidency the fabric of American governance unraveled.  Without a solid leader versed in more than petty real estate economics, the tenets of American freedom, democracy, and diplomacy waned.  Instead Trump used his power to further extend his shallow capitalist ideals.  Perhaps they crossed the boundaries of world politics, and his idea that money solves all ills fell short for American leadership.  There is a difference in world politics, and Globalization proved more harmful to America in the long run.  Consequently we are flooded with cheaply made Chinese products, foods that are grown in foreign countries, drugs that grossly are inflated in price, poor health care, and a polluted environment.  BRAC or Base Realignment and Closure could be an appropriate metaphor for this change.  When the powers at be decided to move Ground Forces Command to Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty), quickly and easily the forsook the city of Fayetteville.  A value judgement was made valuing Ground Forces Command above all else.  No one stopped to think of the ramifications to Cumberland Country.  Now all we hear is how bad Fort Liberty is for quality of life to soldiers.  Crime, murder, and suicide are common.  Fayetteville has succumbed, and there is little to keep her afloat.  It is worse than Viet Nam.  Right now we don't know who the real enemy is, but it seems to be the newly emerged Trumptista party.  We just want to kill everyone that doesn't look or talk like us.  Let's start with the Jews.   Evidently Jesus is more of a threat to radical Muslims.  Without evoking the Israeli Palestinian Conflict, radical Islam has been the instigator of terrorism for a long time.  Trump's Presidency, his weakness as a diplomat and foreign liaison ushered in this extremism.  In reality with his autocratic and dictatorial desires, never was he qualified to represent American freedom and democracy.  The voters made a mistake electing him, and whatever perception they had of him was not true.  Even as his wrong doing is exposed and punished, zealots continue to think he should return to the Presidency.  I don't feel that there is any way Trump could win again.  The average citizens of this country have had enough.  The zealots may consider moving to a Third World county where they can fight in the streets like wild dogs. 

When America Begins to Attack Herself

 Donald Trump's adverse effects on a free America are far reaching, complex, and antagonistic.  One must see through his affable demeanor, smooth tongue, and likeability.  He is the venerable Lucifer in a nice suit, who will talk you into hell.  Perhaps there are others like him not in the public eye, but the negative powers of the American Presidency almost have hammered a stake in the heart of our democracy.  It begins with human rights, and during Trump's tenure as Commander in Chief basic tenets of civility have been lost.  This was his plan, to divide and motivate Americans to war amongst themselves.  It is an able facade to disguise his attempted fascist conquering of America.  Today still we the people are in control.  We may be poor and abused, but no dictator can throw us in jail for not not doing what they say.  As of now the United States military still exercises integrity attempting to protect the citizens of America.  Trump's capable manipulation has blurred the picture, and it is difficult to discern who the real enemy is.  Rest assured it is him.  Those Americans who continue to support him (and we don't really know how many) are not intelligent enough to make decisions concerning anyone but themselves.  If there were a time when America divided again, this would be it.  Knowing what we have discovered about Trump, choosing to support him confirms your own probable criminal perspective and resulting behavior.  We have reached a time in America where philosophy is important, but science and the Humanities have been cast as worthless.  The reason for this is science and the Humanities contain centuries of knowledge and wisdom promulgated in academia.  Trump would rather have us ignorant at animal level seeking only to survive being consumed by our predators.  The human race is more than that, and once we prided ourselves in our ability to live a more enlightened existence.  Most of the ability to do so has been removed with the polluting of our environment.  I wrote earlier about jazz music and its dependence on deep and contemplative thought.  More simply jazz also relies upon acoustics, something that has been forsaken in a few short decades.  As I continue to watch over-the-air television and compare it to the past, it has occurred to me that not just technique and production have waned.  Certainly the portability of an iPhone with a quality camera has changed the game.  Hollywood films are a different animal, and there has been a marked change to cheaper, more convenient, computer-based film-making.  Steve Job's "Renderman" software was the watershed program which allowed digital manipulation of film and video.  During Covid we became more accustomed to doing everything in a box at home.  All of this conditioning merely allows corporate America to run amuck mostly concerning the environment.  We have forsaken our air, our water, and our planet.  Rest assured the components of human life never will come out of a computer.  When the software glitches and the network goes down, you will need water to drink, clean air to breathe, and food for nourishment.  AI will not create this.  It all is a major snow job distracting the human race into extinction.  If we really look and pay attention, you will see that no one is trying to help us.  The food supply has become corrupt substituting garbage for healthy ingredients.  Air pollution is massive, and the United States military has a lot to do with this.  Trying to get things done to empower the people and the human mind are disappearing.  Clearly we are under attack at most levels in America.  Instinctively I knew in my lifetime another Holocaust would occur.  Instinctively I knew it would be because of Donald Trump.  That suggests that Donald Trump is the devil.  I used to believe George W. Bush was the devil, but he was dethroned.  (Now he doesn't look quite as bad)  We never really feared for our lives in America.  Even after Saudi Arabia attacked our twin towers, Bush Jr. did what he said.  He kept us save all of this time.  When Donald Trump became President, things went to shit.  Yes, gas prices were lower and things remained stable for a while, until Covid hit.  Covid, the worst Holocaust in our lifetimes, killed millions of innocent people.  Many of these were the people Trump openly said he wanted to eliminate for burdening the economic system in the federal government.  Seniors.  Illegal immigrants.  The sick.  It would seem Trump got his wish.  Isn't the mission statement of the devil to destroy mankind?  Well, he is here. 

Manners, Respect, and Religion

 I am in a new chapter in my life, and it is difficult.  I have had difficult patches before, and I guess I got cocky.  Over the years I solved most of my problems, and the solution was to change yourself.  Luckily there is enough depth to the aesthetic of music, and I was able to discard what became problematic and adopt new interests.   Some say jazz died at the bottom of a whiskey bottle, so why did I chose jazz music as a core component of my identity?  The reason is the definition of an art form.  Jazz isn't the only pure and original American art form, but it is at the top of the list for many reasons.  Jazz would not and does not exist without slavery.  That is an extreme concept, and some may disagree.  Most probably would disagree.  The common man is not equipped with the tools necessary to produce art.  Art exists on a higher plain of existence.  It requires more complex understanding, wisdom, and intellectual and creative processing.  Necessarily it deals with the more complex human issues.  Like all things, art gets pared down and often is a shell of itself made for commercial gain.  Some jazz music is shallow, but usually its purveyors genuinely are concerned with quality and strive to improve.  This improvement is a direct ratio to the depth of understanding you have.  The art cannot be better without this depth.  That is the way art works.  You can copy complex systems, but music as an aural phenomenon may be the most vulnerable to counterfeit.  You can try to copy it, but starkly is clear the shortcomings.  Again this is because of the depth.  In jazz music there are many components that combine together to form the stew.  None of them are meager, tepid, or insincere.  Every nut and bolt of jazz is a steadfast root that sustains the test of time.  Over time they mature, grow, and develop into beautiful meaningful art.  There is no other way.  The Trump Presidency represents the worst of shallow counterfeit.  Its model is the antithesis of human integrity, Christianity, and honesty.  In fact it is evil.  This evil dealt a severe blow to human existence and in cunning, deceptive, manipulative myriad ways which continue to degrade, diminish, and undermine human life.  In my lifetime for some reason I always have believed that elected officials were honest and sincerely wanted to serve the public interest.  Trump changed that, and he did it what may have been the greatest deception in American history.  Because America is a young nation, it stands to reason we would be subject to the same ills as other older nations.  Corruption in politics is on the time line, and although Richard Nixon spied on his adversaries, nothing will compare to the damage Donald Trump has inflicted on what was the world's most admired free nation.  Corruption in politics and thus governance is Trump.  It was implemented cunningly with a great deal of previous preparation, forethought, and premeditation.  They knew exactly what they were doing, and Donald Trump had been preparing his entire life for this opportunity in the American Presidency.  Exorcising his stooges from American consciousness will be a lengthy process, one that has begun with his own indictments.  His pawns are falling over and we now can begin to see the depth of his own jazz.  It is evil, but evil manifests itself and masquerades as good.  Bad jazz or counterfeit jazz does the same thing, but it is brutally honest when it fails.  It is because of something Trump's organization never would concede.  It is feeling.  You cannot patent a feeling.  You cannot counterfeit a feeling.  Feeling is supplied by God for the express reason of human integrity.  It is called instinct.  An abstract, complex, emotional process that we fully don't control ourselves is responsible for smelling out bullshit.  In a nutshell it is the God inside us.  Those that refuse this truth and operate without it for personal gain eventually will fail.  America has dealt with grievous challenges before, but the Trump Presidency is the most potent and dangerous of all.  It is because he is masquerading as something else. 

Mike's Johnson

 The American bubble of reality created by the media is fake.  America was and is more than Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  To continue to trumpet Donald Trump as the front runner of the GOP is a disservice to America.  This petty feud that has become politics is a sordid nursery rhyme corrupting the minds of citizens.  Our youth have suffered much oppression since the onset of Covid.  It should not be surprising their shortcomings as human beings.  They need guidance, education, opportunity, and happiness to evolve.  The campaign of weak parents to disguise inherent and necessary sexual identity only is a ploy to control their children.  Never could I have imagined that the identity of Adam and Eve, the God-given pleasure of love and intimacy, would become the arch enemy of modern man.  Perhaps it is because love conquers all, and that wields too much power for the fascists.  If we pop this bubble, this soap opera of mediocracy and focus on real Americans, the landscape would change.  Somehow this struggle between two old men  has been cast as the metaphor for America.  It isn't.  Pop the bubble and hold Washington accountable like every other American citizen.  Declare bankruptcy.  Thirty trillion dollars of debt, and we continue to let the children spend.  It is to empower the Federal Reserve and keep us on the hook.  The middle men.  The new American oligarchs.  I have written about the Russian oligarchy.  If we look bravely, America has become an oligarchy.  The economy does not work, because the oligarchs have most of the money.  America no longer produces tangible products of value.  The bubble of wireless telecommunications being our economy is over.  We must change our focus to the middle and lower classes.  Oligarchs demanding their bottom line from our pockets with lobbying, hidden fees, corruption, and deception has killed America.  They are living off us.  There is no more money.  Any sane nation would declare bankruptcy and take responsibility for our mistakes.  Tax these oligarchs and their corporations.  Who decided that they should pay no taxes?  Truly we have regressed to the era of Robber Barons, trusts exploiting the working man.  Washington allows it, and now we are screwed.  Seven years of bad credit score, but we start over.  This perpetual bubble of drama, of made-for-television mobster movies must end.  The Speaker of the House traveled to Mar-A-Lago on Monday to confer with his boss, and the media continue to empower him.  A criminal running for President is not unusual if you are a third World country, but must America suffer this illness?  It makes a good story, but the rest of America may not survive. 

National Security Concerns

 I would like to congratulate the Washington Post newspaper on the appointment of their new CEO.  Never was I a fan of News Corp or Rupert Murdoch.  It was appropriate when Fox News disintegrated.  What I do know is the front page of the Post has had more relevant stories in the last few weeks.  The political bent markedly has moved to the left.  It is refreshing to see groundbreaking reporting with in depth detail.  As the Trump animal slides further down the hole, its former prey is becoming more emboldened to care about human life without fear of being eaten.  It is becoming increasingly clear the far-reaching ramifications of a Commander in Deceit.  While the Hamas attack on Israel is an abomination, the Post's reporting on this attack is seminal.  It was enlightening to see in graphic detail the strategy of Hamas, and how they were able to launch such a devastating act of terror.  Their approach was something about which I previously had written.  Take out the mostly wireless security/surveillance system, and breach the wall.  Their tactical approach was a litany for the failure of future skirmishes.  ISR, or Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance has been the focus of defense since 9/11.  We have entered a Cold War of technology based upon wireless protocols.  This is not a wise thing.  Hamas targeted this technology and easily brought it to its knees allowing them to wreak havoc on Israel.  The Post outlined the attack in detail, and it was two to three years in the making.  It was very specific, and the information needed to carry out such an attack had to come from somewhere.  Let's put it in reverse.  Donald Trump has been indicted for but not tried yet for stealing national secrets and taking them to Mar-a-lago in boxes.  Ask yourself why.  He sold them to Iran for money, and this stolen information was used by Hamas to attack Israel.  The United States traditionally is an ally of Israel.  Donald Trump favors Russia, North Korea, China, and now Palestine.  For the Presidency of which country is Donald Trump attempting to run?  It could not be more clear who the enemy is, of America. 

Rose Colored Glasses

 My family always said my father saw life through rose-colored glasses.  Most artists do, because if you don't the brutal reality of the world will kill you.  We aspire to the greater good.  Always we strive to improve our situation through thought and work.  A useful adage is  "Plan your work and work your plan."  Sometimes life becomes so unwieldy and confusing, you lose sight of your plan.  I am there.  Never did I fathom I would be tasked with deconstructing our family.  Because my father and mother were so strong, the possibility of a transfer of power didn't seem possible.  After my father's stroke, a crack surfaced in our family.  In retrospect my father's mind never returned.  He lived a long time (88 years), but his aging became difficult.  Few are lucky to transition in an instant.  Seniors have become a large responsibility us.  Our family was successful taking care of him; most of this was my mother's work.  She had done it their entire marriage, so it was not surprising.  It was natural for her.  After my father died, we had to sort through his things.  We continued to live in our house, but it was important to discard unpleasant memorabilia and keep positive things.  This is tangible property.  Surprisingly my mother was accommodating to this process.  Many of the things we needed to discard were unpleasant to her.  We completed this stage of bereavement, and now my mother has moved out into an assisted living facility.  It is necessary, because she has had multiple compression fractures in her back.  She requires around the clock care, so she is in the right place.  There is a gray area now.  Her long term care insurance is for four years, and it is possible she may live longer.  Instead of spending my parent's life savings paying for her final years, I would bring her home.  We would have to find and employ around the clock care for her.  For Medicare to cover any of this subsequent care, we would have to spend everything.  I think they allow you to keep your home and a car.  The IRS looks back, so trying to hide money is not an option.  It is a prickly issue.  It is better to keep your home.  Eating your belongings through sale is unsavory.  You will devour them in a short period of time.  Investments are tangible, and a home is an investment.  All of that said, I find myself in my mother's home.  I have tasked myself with  organizing her belongings.  Most families would have an estate sale and rely upon complete strangers to discard their family's belongings.  In some cases this is necessary and favorable.  In our case because I am living in the house, it is possible for me to do this in increments.  If I remove my rose-colored glasses for a moment, this reality becomes sorrowful.  I am deconstructing my family's history.  I am looking at everything we have amassed and has enriched our lives and discarding it.  I didn't ask for this responsibility, but it is necessary.  I choose to bear this burden, rather than letting a salvage company bury our family.  I am single and alone, and this situation could be overwhelming.  My plan is to unclutter her house.  I have survived in my lifetime.  That will not change, but being the sole bearer of this task is taxing.  Each day I am facing the disassembly of our family.   Perhaps I am being proactive actualizing the grief before it comes.  Then I will be better prepared for my own future. 

The Great Fantasy Generation

What is disheartening about politics is candidates won't acknowledge reality.  Their reality is different than mainstream America.  We, the people, are stuck in a time warp, and it is a bubble of Donald Trump's creation.  Mainstream America was tooling along, until celebrity and millionaire Donald Trump infiltrated the Presidency.  Now we are living in the wake vortices of his destructive campaign to hijack our nation.  I am sick of hearing it.  We are stunted as a nation with the media fixation on Donald Trump's continued attempted coup of America.  They are treating his dire criminal threat like a made-for-TV movie.  It doesn't qualify for the big screen, because it wouldn't pass the censors.  When did it become acceptable for the president to amend the Constitution, appoint criminals to office, and try to maintain power?  It is a potent television movie, although those no longer exist. The media has made him the continuing movie-of-the-week.  Late night hosts always have professed how much they need bad politicians.  It is the basis of their comedy. The media and politicians may know he is not capable of winning the Presidency a second time.  Either he will be convicted of a felony, or the states will take him off the ballot.  Meanwhile we the people are wallowing in his feces and are tired of the smell.  Tabloid television is over, because Fox News blurred the boundaries of fantasy and reality beyond salvage.  How much shit must we endure? Theye have degraded America, and the  it like a game show.  Consequently America no longer lives in reality.  We are living these fantasy scenarios created by entertainment conglomerates to sell soap.  It is possible we have lost the ability to recognize, acknowledge, and mitigate reality.  The reality is so dire, we can't understand how it happened.  How did it happen?  The beginning of our end was Bill Clinton.  One President chose our fate with one decision.  Without that decision our world would be a different and better place.  The telecommunication and defense industries would differ.  If we look back, we were a better country with wire.  Telephones were better with wire, because you could hear the person on the other end.  Music play back was better with wire, because it was analog and there was no drop out.  There would be no attack drones controlled by satellites.  There would be no autonomous cars killing innocent pedestrians.  Foremost weapons would be controlled by men, not software.  Imagine an Apache helicopter pilot navigating his craft from a virtual reality helmet.  This is a video game.  This isn't real.  A multi-million dollar attack aircraft, and it is controlled by a computer. software.  If the computer glitches or the software fails, the pilots die.  I would rather be in control with a primitive stick and pedals.  We have transitioned into virtual reality, and we have lost touch with our host planet.  We have become a rogue species raping and pillaging the land not unlike previous generations of settlers.  It is refreshing watching older movies, because they deal with reality.  Back then there was no virtual world, and it was better.  Reality was difficult, and it made appropriate subject matter.  It was dire enough on its own.  Crime in America.  Survival.  Courtship.  The fantasy world via comic book characters, Disney, and animation have deceived us and hindered out ability to understand real human interaction.  I have a friend who is a jazz saxophonist living in New Hampshire.  He was a substitute teacher until he was told by the principal that he had to accept students coming to school dressed as cats and trees.  The cats required using a litter box.  He quit.  I would have to.  How could anyone educate a youth when they are this far removed from reality?  Politicians don't have the gumption to see and confront reality, because we have become a superficial people.  The GOP has no agenda.  What should their agenda be?  It would be the same as the democrats.  Illegal immigration.  Drug trafficking.  Insurance reform.  Health care.  Jobs.  Education.  We are so dire in every area, how can anyone not know these issues?  The insurance industry has ruined the health care industry, and they no longer want to heal us.  They want to kill us and take our money.  Insurance takes more money than anyone.  They want our children to be ignorant.  They want us to be high and violent.  The essence and fabric of America has been inundated with violent extremism, and this has come from the outside.  We have lost track of any reality except what Big Tech is throwing our way.  The trouble is unless we wake up, grow up, and man up, we will die in an insipid puddle of cum dripping off our laptops.  

America's Corporate Communist Construct

The Great American Digression was inevitable.  For most of my sixty plus years beginning in the 1980's, life in America was superlative.  With the exception of the Viet Nam War (circa 1965-1975), America upheld her purely American ideals.  Eastern Bloc nations would tease us and suggest Coca Cola, bubble gum, apple pie, and hamburgers are our appropriate metaphors.  A more telling and appropriate characterization of America is penned in our United States Constitution.  It is this document, the treatise for American freedom and our right to the pursuit of happiness, which has come under fire.  Simply put Communism and eventual fascism are seeking to conquer America.  Our coveted and enshrined rights to peace, security, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness are being attacked.  I am beginning to think this is a result of jealousy.  Ignorance may play a role, but if a man is given the spoils of a happy life would he instead choose violence and war?  First he would need to experience these spoils.  Before he could understand these things, he would need to understand them.  We are free to chose our own destiny. (at least in America)  In Communist nations freedom is oppressed, and the government demands compliance and obedience.  You personal desires and expression are limited and not important.  The potential for diversity, development, and evolution of human life is stagnant.  America's torch of liberty is allowing actualization, development, and nurturing of the human mind.  It is the human experience.  This is what America has lost.  This Great American Digression was inevitable.  We have downgraded, demoted, and disempowered the human experience in lieu of cyberdom.  This cyber life is not driven by human thought or emotion.  It is controlled by technology (the Borg, the Tet, Google, or Meta) and like Big Brother it seeks to unequivocally rule the world.  Because A.I. is not capable of thinking or solving problems (only can it process preexisting date) it will kill itself and the Earth.  This scenario has been prophesied often in the arts.  Literature and film have explored this eventual challenge as an interesting and creative plot.  We should have learned.  This is the role of the arts, to synthesize the harshness of reality and create palatable solutions.  The human mind is required for this.  A.I.  will not suffice.  I watched the film "The Cell" last night, and it was startling how ignorant America has become.  To watch actors portray human thinking and emotion in real time is an anachronism.  Today instead we react like primitive beings fighting for survival.  Jealousy for our freedom and potential happiness is a product of ignorance.  If you don't understand something, you lash out against it.  First we must disempower technology from ruling our lives.  Second we must create a capable economy consisting of human jobs.  Third we must educate our youth.  Only then will it be possible to dismantle the corporate communist construct which has attempted to overthrow America.   

Cowboys and Indians

Discovering the true culprit in America has become difficult.  The Golden Age of Television (and early film) depicted a stark delineation between good and evil.  Cowboys vs. Indians.  Good Guys vs. Bad Guys.  White vs. Black. (and not negro black)  Light vs. Dark.  I Recently saw a Broadway musical whose subject was a family who embraced darkness.  Once it was called "Goth."  That title and Goth's idiosyncracies have Fallen by the wayside.  (like many American popular culture tendencies)  "Preppies."  "Jocks."  "Nerds."  America had harmless stereotypes of small subsets of youth culture.  It was a useful.  You had to define your own identity, your inner self, and make decisions about how you would live your life.  It was common that you may not be accepted into the group of your choosing, so you had to persevere.  When forced integration and resultant "bussing" was implemented into the public schools, I was bussed across town to the predominantly African-American junior high school.  It was in what could be considered an "inner city" neighborhood.  Because America no longer talks about these significant social issues, an inner city is an area that the middle class has abandoned for greener pastures.  It was "Fight or Flight."  That is an accurate summation.  Drugs, crime, and violence are endemic in inner cities.  There is little opportunity, nonexistent social mobility, and no future.  There is an area in Fayetteville, North Carolina that economically is classified this way.  If you hailed from this area, your chance of succeeding were almost zero.  Inevitably you were forced into drugs, crime, and their ensuing violence to support your habit.  Drugs are a major determinate of life in an inner city.  There isn't much else to do.  When you are addicted and craving a fix, your behavior is premeditated.  Get the drugs!  The methodology becomes inconsequential.  When I was bussed to Washington Drive Junior High School, I feared for my life every day for the two years I attended.  I never got into a fight, but often I was threatened, almost daily.  "Give me some money, boy!  "We're gonna kick your ass after school!"  Tough ghetto black students would skip class, hover in the halls, and terrorize the younger white junior high students.  There were plenty of tough white kids as well.  There were a lot in my neighborhood, and often I was bullied by them.  We had several feral packs of dogs which were unleashed and chased me from the bus stop home.  Often I was bitten.  (I still have a taste for the sanguine!) Going to and from school was the challenge.  At home with my school teacher parents, I was safe, creative, and productive.  I had neighborhood friends, and we played in the rain in the streets, explored the local woods, and rode mini bikes together.  I skateboarded.  (and this sport changed my life)  While I don't feel like it today, I was adept at navigating a "sidewalk surfer."  I worked on it, and I excelled.  It was able transportation from our house to  local Eutaw Shopping Center.  When they paved its large front parking lot, I was in skateboard heaven.  This was before America began a war on skateboarding and its youthful aficionados.  This was the late 1970's, and America was a more culturally adjusted nation.  A healthy, vigorous, emotionally exhausting activity is cathartic for youthful sexual energy.  For two decades America has been brainwashing our children by allowing them to sit in a chair and kill viciously in Japanese-created video games.  With little parental guidance how can our youth determine the difference between cyberdom and reality?  What is reality?  This violent behavior has inundated American life, and it is called mass shootings.   If our children physically were active expunging their repressed feelings and sexual longings, then maybe they would not manifest in violence.  If America returned to a less conservative and more traditional heterosexual existence, then maybe we wouldn't be killing each other.  We would be "making love." (or at least having fulfilling sex)  "Make love, not war," but we have divorced this hippie philosophy.  We have chosen to blur gender identities further complicating the complexities of puberty and adolescence.  I am beginning to understand cross-gender tendencies in most likelihood are promulgated by parents.  Once parents knew how to be strict and disciplinarian with their children.  Otherwise they were in a world of hurt with unruly recalcitrant children.  America has experienced a  failure of humanity, and the neglect of public education has proven that other supporting cultural habits such as family and religion are not enough to rear intelligent, moral, responsible adults.  We have succumbed to the "The Lord of the Flies" scenario.  We have digressed to the lowest tier of survival.  The jury still is out on why.  Without being preachy God's model of Adam and Eve sustains the test of time.  Life is not easy.  It is a struggle, but the rewards of human love are what enable us to endure.  

The Old Ways of Jim Crow

 I was fortunate to be hired as a pianist for the cruise industry.  The  perception of my job was a paid vacation.  It was not.  It was difficult and challenging .  In retrospect uncontrollable variables made it more difficult.  Other people making your life and job more difficult?  Welcome to politics!  I never thought much about, because I wanted to keep the job.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so they say.  There were many obstacles.  Most were human.  Music can be difficult, and it can cause neurosis.  The adage became, "Do the best  you can," and they would fix it in the mix.  I didn't understand this until later, and the rest of the musicians were floundering.  They depended upon the pianist to provide the foundation, as they do in most musical settings.  The pianists accompanies in church, in the theater, and in jazz.  Oscar Peterson commonly is cited as a diligent pianist, but most don't possess his technique.  Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, and Fats Waller had formidable command of the piano.  The concept was to make the piano sound like an orchestra.  You needed to be heard.  This is not the only approach to the piano.  Listen to Claude Thornhill and his orchestra, and you will understand.  The piano has many faces, and many sounds can be made from this dynamic hammer action instrument.  In jazz the desire is to get away from the roots of the chords.  If a pianist wants to be "hip," then he doesn't play the "shell" with his left hand.  (the root of the chord and the seventh)  Instead you voice the chord, or change, in a hipper inversion with varying internal intervals.  Playing this way over the bassist's "root" of the chord creates a spacious and more interesting sound.  There is more space in between the notes of the chord, instead of a dense cluster of notes.  Everyone for which I ever have played wants Oscar Peterson or Count Basie.   Neither was my chosen aesthetic.  I admired Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, and Wynton Kelly.  By the end of Bill Basie's career, he was too feeble to play anything.  This is why Sammie Nestico wrote his arrangements the way he did.  Less was more, and the Count sat for most of the tune mugging at the audience.  Never in my lifetime, until I learned to produce my own accompaniment tracks, have I ever been able to play the piano in jazz the way I wanted.  This is when the bassist plays a foundation of solid roots of chords, and the set drummer plays a solid swinging rhythm.  You, the pianist, could play on top of their groove.  Rarely it happens anymore.  With the passing of most  jazz greats drummers, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Philly Joe Jones, and Max Roach, those who understood the music waned.  Consequently on the ship gig, rarely did I ever play anything that  was enjoyable.  It was rote work providing accompaniment for pop singers.  Little did I know that pop doesn't swing at all, and it was its beat was small and repetitive.  The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Elvis, and Jacko all swung.  It was not until the late 1990's that this new style of pop emerged when soul, physical exertion, and mojo were not necessary.  It became a kind of ploy, where the microphone capsule became the audience, and the P.A. system did the work.  Separating the body and soul from the music was foreign to me, and still I am not interested.  There is cool jazz, and there is relaxed distant playing, but creating music with your mind purely as a cognitive product is fake.  Music originates from your body including your "ID."  This was more of the challenge playing music on cruise ships, not the music itself.  Production shows were challenging, but only because the arranger tried to make the music seem difficult.  Often the score extractions were rife with mistakes, misspellings, and pure bullshit.  They tried to make it difficult for you instead of making it palatable.  When you understood this, you could begin to exert a small amount of personal interpretation.  You created other musical outlets to satisfy your musical soul, because the gig didn't satisify.  None of this is about what I wanted to blog, but other people making your life more difficult is.  Without the government, there is no one to enforce the United States Constitution.  When the government becomes compromised, democracy is at risk.  I cannot fathom who or what motivated Americans to be virtuous.  Normally it would be our judicial system, its laws, and oversight from law enforcement.  All of these things have become eroded in American life, and injustice and oppression have escalated.  It is occurring from within by favoritism, nepotism, discrimination, white supremacy, and more.  Our system of governance has been attacked, and Super PACs and lobby groups are controlling most of the government.  Corporate America has taken control and doing what they please.  The general consensus is they want to "thin out" the population.  Donald Trump said this in plain English many times during his Presidency.  He wanted to lessen burdens on the federal financial system by eliminating entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.  Specifically he targeted the elderly and immigrants.  This is not a democratic philosophy, so it appears as if Mr. Trump wants to himself change the core of American life.  Now we must assume that those who continue to support him support his new agenda for America.  This of itself is a catalyst for civil war, because no one has asked the public if we want to abolish our free society, free market system and instead implement Authoritarianism, Communism, or Socialism.  His desire has no relevance at all.  First because the President is elected by the people, for the people, and second because he no longer holds any power over the American people.  Everything he says or purports to know is useless rhetoric meant to incite the population.  It is not dissimilar to Adolph Hitler's methodology first seducing the people, then committing genocide.  He killed millions of Jews in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.  The parallels are tangible, and the American people need to understand the danger of this man. 

We Are More Than Our Politicians

It is an unsavory taste in the mouth, local politics, especially in North Carolina.  Gerrymandered voting districts favoring Republicans were just re-drawn reinforcing their original deceit.  Trump appointed judges continue to do his bidding seemingly ruling the country from Mar-A-Lago.  (or currently from the defendant's table in a New York lawsuit for business fraud)  Does this sound familiar?  President Joe Biden has not surfaced, and the Don is spewing threats from the side lines.  It is not a double edged sword.  It is simple.  The media continues to report that Donald Trump is the front for the GOP nominee in the 2024 Presidential campaign.  Whence their polls come no one knows.  This is not certain, but the mainstream media continues to report it.  Who are Trump's opponents?  There is a debate tomorrow evening.  We know a few names.  The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.  (two mob bosses vying for control of the rackets)  Chris Christie.  A former Governor of New Jersey and a prosecutor.  Nikki Haley.  Former Governor of South Carolina and Ambassador to the United Nations.  (South Carolina is as red as North Carolina, and their Senator is Lindsey Graham)  Vivek Ramaswamy.  Pharmaceutical company Chief Executive Office.  (Big Pharma has proven their worth and value addicting Americans to opioids and making their fortunes on Covid vaccines)  Tim Scott.  Senator from South Carolina.  (pawn of the Koch Empire - minus one)  If Donald Trump is the front runner, then those continuing to don red feathers support him as well.  Do they?  Does the North Carolina Legislature continue to back Donald Trump in spite of his traitorous insurgency at the U.S. Capital?  Inquiring minds would like to know.  This is an important questions in lieu of Republican's illegal gerrymandering in North Carolina.  They  diligently are working trying to provide themselves an unfair advantage in future elections.  Recently Tricia Cotham was coerced to defect from the Democratic party delivering a G.O.P super-majority who continue to overturn gubernatorial vetoes.  Roy Cooper has been rendered a sitting duck.  While the governor continues to whore out North Carolina to the Department of Defense and other big spenders (supersonic air travel), Chemours is shipping tons of PFAS from the Netherlands to Cumberland Country for "disposal."  The Cape Fear River is laden with forever chemicals up to Jordan Lake.  It is in the entire water table.  The DEQ is a bureaucratic construct side stepping real issues.  It is jobs for friends.  We must understand that those who continue to feign Republican, at the behest of the media, continue to support the ex Commander and Insurrectionist.  It would be wise to shift Republican support to a more viable candidate.  Highly it is likely that Mr. Trump will be convicted of crimes.  All ready he has been found guilty.  To continue to support him markedly and staunchly declares that you are a supporter of an American traitor.   Never before have I felt the need to stand up for and protect American sovereignty, until now.  There is more to life than the hand that feeds you.  If we are human, then we are tasked with acknowledging and caring for our fellow citizens and countrymen.  This is what a nation is.  Donald Trump has split America into a primitive, barbaric, tribal factions, and with the demise of public education and regulations of corporate emissions, drugs have infiltrated our daily perceptions and responses.  We are being manipulated into violence for the sake of our own control.  Resist.  Wise up.  Find your center.  We all want the same things.  How did it become the metaphor of Biden versus Trump?  The fabric, integrity, and humanity of Americans is far deeper than these two men.   

Project 2025

 The Hamas attack on Israel is a diversion from the Trump Organization litigation.  If you want to weaken your opponent then tilt the table.  Upset the foundation of your opponent's existence.  Threaten their families.  Berate them in public.  Send death threats.  These things are the desired qualities of the next American President.  Consequently before a consensus upon is agreed, America has discarded her Constitutionally protected rights to freedom, pursuit of happiness, and rule by the people.  The people have been side stepped and military backed authoritarianism is being implemented by a not yet elected President.  (not to mention under indictment on both state and federal charges)  We have entered a new era of politics in America, and we did not have a choice.  It was determined that Donald Trump was elected President, but it was not honest.  The rhetoric they have spewed about a rigged election describes what he himself achieved in 2016 defeating Hillary Clinton.  They coerced electors.  They exploited weak and vulnerable state Electoral Colleges.  They convinced state legislators to doubt the integrity of their own election processes and overturn the choice of the people.  It has been intricate, calculated, legal maneuvering, and this is how Trump has risen to power.  His organization wears down our in place systems by sheer determination.  It is a monumental test of American integrity.  Will the ideals of American democracy remain, or will they be defeated by corruption?  Trump's judges are exploiting orphaned seniors appointing guardians who fleece their bank accounts.  White collar crime has reached a new pinnacle under the example of the Trump Organization.  Now that the Holy War has been revived and the cameras have moved Gaza, Project 2025 is spewing incendiary rhetoric intimidating everyone who is against Trump.  If he wins, he will use the American Presidency like a fascist dictator, implement marshal law, use the military to oppress the free public opinion, and rule the United States like a Communist dictator.  It would seem almost half of the nation is on board with this, because it seems to be in the works now.  It is time to build larger prisons if we are going to enforce American law and the United States Constitution.  Trump has assembled a mass of racist, discriminatory, violent barbarians who want to run America.  Civil war is near.  The tension is palpable.  People are tense and afraid, but much of this is coming from propaganda from the media.  Turn it off.