Wealth Achieving Tax Cuts for the Rich at the Expense of Life Saving Health Care for the Poor

 Never have I been a fan of North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis.  For a mild two days I became a fan; he chose not to support Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."  In actuality this hugely ugly bill will eradicate my own personal health care.  Has it become personal?  After nearly a decade as a caregiver, I received coverage by Barack Obama's Medicaid expansion plan, which originally was blocked by the GOP in North Carolina.  This money was allocated, and Republicans chose not to accept it granting health care to the poor.  After a prolonged wait and with the urging of past Governor Roy Cooper, Medicaid expansion finally was approved.  I received this health insurance for the first time since leaving cruise ship work in 2014.  I became ill during the Covid pandemic, and I not yet have recovered.  It has been far easier with health insurance, because Medicaid pays for prescription medications I need.  I take it for granted, the four dollar medications, including antibiotics and antifungals which are necessary because of the lingering Covid virus.  Thom Tillis was on the cusp of becoming an exemplary senator resisting the Trump Administration's bullying and keeping North Carolina's Medicaid expansion for the poor.  After Trump's mob completed their work, Senator Tillis succumbed to their antagonism and announced he would not seek reelection.  They forced him to change his vote to support this tax bill which will add three trillion dollars to the American peoples' debt and abolish health care programs in his home state.  There could be no better metaphor for the stench of America.  Appropriately Ken Burns' documentary, "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History," aired on PBS this evening showing the right thing.  No more money can be squeezed out of the poor, but the wealthiest Americans can continue to force the lower classes back into slavery.  Almost we are there now.  To allow the rich further to avoid their appropriate tax responsibilties is criminal.  To see Donald Trump's methodology of lies and slander in action to achieve his own personal goals is criminal.  Senator Tillis could either make the history books by pulling a John McCain, or he could pack his books, give up, and go home to his family.  The rest of North Carolina will not be so welcoming.  Vote, "No!"

The Dreaded C-130 Aircraft on the Domestic Front

Because of the American socioeconomic system, a business financial market which feigns a Democratic Republic host with a Capitalist free market, deception is everywhere.  Since the inception of America by our Founding Fathers, and their carefully penned Declaration of Independence and Constitution with its Amendments, America has been trying to do the right thing.  As a nation it was important to seem to care about her people.  This centuries old fight between the GOP and the Democratic party, essentially a fight between the wealthy and the rest of America, is nothing new.  The first time I heard Harry Connick say the words "Robber Barons," I was confused.  In my lifetime we had been taught to revel in the success of the upper class.  The accomplishments of the dominant families were akin to royalty in England.  The people admired and vicariously lived through the spectacle and pageantry of the Royal Family and its trappings.  If you are dirt poor and have little, seeing this wealth could gives you hope for the future.  It shows you possibility, even if it is not for you.  I would not say the British Royal Family has forsaken the people.  They were a monarchy, but instinctively they knew the people of a nation are its core.  The wealthy alone cannot domestically imperialize their own economy in a Democratic Republic, or the freedom of the people is lost and the nation becomes both Authoritarian and Totalitarian.  This can happen and all ready has through deception.  Local, state, and the federal government have been purchased for use by the wealthy, and this use is akin to abuse, because it does forsake the common people and manipulates the socioeconomic system in the favor of the rich.  They system all ready has become autonomous, and America has ceased to exist by the trade of goods and services.  We have no economy of which to speak, because the viability of small businesses has been undermined.  The wealthy seek to operate on an epic scale controlling huge swaths of commerce simply by moving money around.  The Hedge Fund has been the major purveyor of this abuse building immense power and wealth for doing nothing more than pooling and reselling mortgages.  The American economy no longer is functioning, and the Trump Regime is trying to sell us monarchy.  The good news is our Founding Fathers planned for this criminal change of regime.  It was not difficult, because this regime was from what future Americans were fleeing in England.  I am not sure Donald Trump commiserates losses of power in the Royal Family in Great Britain, but clearly his sentiments toward Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un have been crystal clear.  He admires these men and their respective systems of government rule, and he wants to achieve that in America.  If a nation's economy were robust enough to provide the sustenance for a military dictatorship through commodities, that is one thing.  When a nation's economy is limping along neglected and forsaken because the people are not deemed important, then a coup will not be possible.  More ensuing poverty, inflation, homelessness, and violence only will spark rebellion against such an effort.  The quality of life in America all ready is in a state of war with only total destruction left as an alternative.  Most Americans are fighting for survival each day they rise with little to no security, future, or happiness.  What is this deception of the socioeconomic system?  It also is nothing new.  It is deregulation allowing corporate America to operate completely free of oversight or accountability to the American people.  America has become a whore to the wealthy, and the American people are inconsequential.  They have been trying to eradicate us since the advent of HIV.  One only has to look at patterns of the United States military to see questionable methods of warfare including biological, chemical, and unconventional, the now preferred domestic choice.  This relatively new practice of covert actions champions subversion, diversion, sabotage, espionage, sanctions, propaganda, and guerilla warfare.  On the domestic front think of an Air Tractor lacing your property with a hopper full of chemical or biological pathogens.   Who would consider a commercial air fertilization company could be involved in such activity?  Who would have considered commercial jets would have flown into the World Trade Towers in Manhattan?  The weaknesses of nations is from the skies, and the sky continues to host these devastating sorties.  There is no question that the presence of low flying C-130 aircraft most often brings physical illness and emotional unrest however that manifests itself.  

The Darkness All Around Us

It is uncanny, surprising, and nauseating how unseen forces negatively can influence your life.  If one is religious and acknowledges some form of higher spiritual power such as God or Allah, the devil is this force.  Spirituality is required and necessary largely because Satan has been ascribed by medieval ecclesiasticism to be able to change forms.  In modern American cinematic scope this could be called "shape shifting" or "tuning."  Kiefer Sutherland, the son of actor Donald Sutherland, has played many effective  and influential roles in American films.  As I watch DVD movies in the evening for entertainment, because cable television has become mediocre, often an particular actor emerges as a thread.  It becomes gratifying to watch a series of an actor's films, because their personality becomes familiar and comforting like a friend.  Perhaps camaraderie once was part of the fabric of Hollywood film-making, but not anymore.  On a lucky day the strains of Hollywood film characters echo in my head, and their monologues enrich my own sheltered life.  There is no question "Nature versus Nurture" is the most operant process in my life living in my childhood home absent of both parents.  There are no disciplinary senior voices guiding me.  What is there is Nurture, and today that equates to homelessness, pollution, oppression, and violence.  In the film "Dark City" Kiefer Sutherland plays a doctor tasked with helping a population of energy beings wreak havoc on the world.  Could they be the devil?  To me it has become indisputable that evil is everywhere, and often it is invisible.  This invisibility has become potent force in the social and political message of the GOP.  They contend because you cannot see it it does not exist.  We cannot see sound, but we know it exists.  Almost it would be unimaginable to consider human life without sound, not just because music would be excluded, but because the sounds of nature would be absent and communication would be excruciatingly cumbersome.  Our lives would be a shell of themselves without sound, and yet modern society has forsaken sound as an enriching and artistic medium.  As the enraged protests of the 60's and 70's amplified through Leo Fender's new inventions are reduced to the quiet church like incantations of ear buds, so are our lives.  Sometimes it is necessary to yell, because the power that drives that sonic message also fuels other social and political processes.  Modern American society seeks to quell our dissent, herd us into a corral, and march us to the edge of the abyss.  Our American freedom is what allows us to survive.  Without it we will perish. 

American Fascism

Of all current events perhaps the celebratory parade in Washington, DC this past Saturday is deserving of reflection.  Like many other wholesome American traditions, the parade grossly has been tainted by murderous violence.  What once was a joyous and very American experience of community and celebration now is reduced to a vehicle for insane extremists and would be dictators.  The devolution of America is unfolding before our eyes, and it couldn't be more disconcerting.  One only has to look at other once Third World nations to see the model.  Hugo Chavez.  Muammar Gaddafi.  Saddam Hussein.  Vladimir Putin.  In a gross homage to the two hundredth and fiftieth anniversary of the United States Army, the parade lacked any semblance to a joyful patriotic celebration.  With no floats, marching bands, horses, or twirling batons, the eerie squeak of an Abrahms tank track was more reminiscent of a Nazi invasion of American soil.  Upon reflection that is what it felt like.  Covid all ready has dealt a huge blow to Americana, traditional America cultural practices that make citizens proud and engage them solidarity.  Instead the misery of Fascism is upon us limping weakly along like Jim Crow Junior.  Racial prejudice, extremism, and oppression have crept into American society through the illegal drug trafficking of Vape shops, violent messages in video games, and propaganda in social media.  If only the creepy memory of this parade will fade away.  Out of left field a strike on Iran, the pinnacle of what to avoid at all cost concerning foreign policy.  Barack Obama had a nuclear treaty in place to stop Iran from enriching Uranium.  Upon election Donald Trump immediately withdrew us from this treaty.  The ultimate and guaranteed result of an American strike on Iran will be a dramatic and stark increase in the price of gasoline.  That would be the sole purpose of this strike, and it is a grievous mistake.  The first Heat Dome of this summer is settling over the nation, and it is man made.  Those responsible continue unabashedly creating havoc, fear, and trepidation in America.  

Extremism and Ensuing Anarchy

 North Carolina does not adhere to many common sense practices.  When trying to deduce why Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger wants to allow eighteen year olds to carry a concealed handgun, ask yourself why the states or the nation as a whole never have outlawed holding a smartphone while driving.  If Mr. Marshall, the drivers education teacher at Terry Sanford High School, were still alive he would be blunt.  So would have been Percy Warren.  Driving an automobile is a full time responsibility.  Your requirement when operating a motor vehicle is to watch the road, not your phone.  How these requirements have been diluted is not dissimilar to how Washington eases regulation on corporate America.  They weaken the agency by withholding their money.  Sound familiar?  DOGE.  When you drive a vehicle you need to be seen by other drivers, and you need to see other drivers.  There should be no hiding behind tinted windows.  Recently two elected officials have steered North Carolina's extremist/anarchist bent back to logic.  Governor Josh Stein for the first time criticized vape shops and what they represent.  Americans have been under siege, and it was not just Covid.  It would seem North Carolina has a death wish, or at least a desire for chaos.  Let's allow any eighteen year old to tuck a .380 into their pocket before they run to the store.  You can open carry in North Carolina, but this law does keep me from doing that.  When I do carry I tend to conceal, but I am sixty-two years old.  Eight hours of gun training and a written permit are the appropriate means to conceal carry.  It has been proven over and over again how misguided youth are prone to murderous violence when guns readily are available.  Making it is easier is not the right answer, nor is offering addictive tobacco products to vulnerable and unhappy teens.  We have been exploiting our youth for so long, we have forgotten what it is to be Christian.  Marty McCarry, the acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs, was forthright in his condemnation of ultra-processes foods.  Almost everything we eat today is not fresh nor nutritious.  It is the main cause of obesity.  To hear these two men speak with logic and candor was refreshing. 

Where to Begin?

 There was pond scum in the bottom of my Keurig.  They got into trouble for this before, when the tank was not visible and detachable.  I drank coffee yesterday, and it made me sick.  The need for clean water is paramount.  America's answer to clean water was to bottle polluted tap water and sell it for a profit.  Polyester resin bottles have become a worldwide nemesis.  The film Chinatown chronicled the "Water Wars" of Los Angeles at the beginning of the twentieth century.  Plentiful clean water and a healthy burgeoning populace are synonymous.  Cumberland County, the host county of Fort Bragg, has the poorest water in the state of North Carolina.  Michael S. Regan, the sixteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden Administration, made strides in regulating the amount of PFAS in local water supplies.  While DuPont continues to disguise the hazard and dissemination of Gen X into the Cape Fear River Basin, Mr. Regan successfully classified the substance as a carcinogen.  Immediately upon election President Donald Trump announced plans to rescind regulations on four types of toxic PFAS compounds keeping only two in place.  Largely these two chemicals have been phased out having been replaced by various mixtures of these nebulous and nefarious toxins.  It is a deceptive game of Three Card Monty gambling with human mortality.  In local news Kirk Deviere, Chairman of the Cumberland Country Board of Commissioners, nixed the one hundred and fifty million dollar downtown event center project.  After having been approved and was underway, Deviere commissioned a review conducted by Scott Flowers of the Hutchens Law Firm.  It was prudent stewardship in light of both W.B. Brawley Company and Mohammad Construction LLC (which changed its name to Apex Contracting Group) defaulting on their multi-million dollar city contracts for a new Fire Station No. 4, a Mazarek Park Tennis Center, and various Mable C. Smith Park recreational projects.  In the last year certain parts of Fayetteville have come to resemble a forgotten ghost town.  Half-built abandoned structures, burned carcasses of dilapidated buildings, and now a barren, empty, dirt lot that cost the taxpayers thirty million dollars and relinquished needed parking spaces for downtown.  Mr. Deviere, a former democratic state senator and city council member, has made a wise decision to reel in aberrant spending with judicious city contracts that have proven detrimental to Fayetteville.  The Mirror Lake dam cost the city over five million dollars for what is now a sludge-covered duck pond.  The Chinese Communist Party has been using graduate students at the University of Michigan and Stanford to spy on American research.  Likewise a Chinese researcher and her boyfriend have been charged with smuggling Fusarium Graminearum, a fungal plant pathogen into the country.  U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement is at the forefront of a flashpoint for civil rights.  Recent raids on undocumented aliens have provoked protests which have spread nationally.  President Trump has dispatched the National Guard and the Marines to quell potential violence citing an alien invasion.  With tanks rolling into Washington, DC for a Saturday parade commemorating the anniversary of the army and his own birthday, the stage has been set for what could unfold as another Kent State or Tiananmen Square.  Trump carefully has set the stage for more divisive and polarizing activity staging the United States military against American citizens.  The enforcement of current immigration legislation along with many other federal programs now are more difficult with recent severe cuts by DOGE.  As an aside, and although the United States does not have recent history of domestic deployed troops, I feel it is appropriate for the Commander in Chief to make that decision.  Widespread drug smuggling and human trafficking at the southern border merit a forceful response, and the federal government has not been effective curtailing either.  The dissemination of Fentanyl has worsened as have deaths by overdose.  To use the deployment of troops to fight such issues should not be an example for the widespread domestic use of the military, especially against citizens.  Considering the history of violent protests and looting in Los Angeles, it is reasonable to utilize these resources to ensure peace.  What is interesting is President Trump quickly and easily deployed the National Guard to California at the objection of its Governor.  On a day when the nation's Capital was besieged by violent protestors, no such deployment occurred.  It would seem we have a selective President who chooses to use national resources for his own use.  The stage has been set for Saturday.  The first ever militaristic commemoration in Washington, DC and hundreds of thousands of protestors is an ominous foreshadowing of ensuing human carnage.  Will Donald Trump use this opportunity to solidify his new role as a self-proclaimed American dictator?