The Shipping News

 Mitch McConnell's wife has a Chinese shipping company.  The price a business pays to ship a container from China to Long Beach or from LA to China has risen to $20,000.  $20,000.00 for ONE metal container.  That's a tidy profit.  It's beneficial to be a Congressman in America, although the Constitution forbids it.  To reap personal gain from an elected office meant to serve the Republic is contentious.  America is in a state of contention, and North Carolina is a state of hypocrisy.  Republican led gerrymandering is rampant in North Carolina, and they have yet to redraw district lines fairly.  McRae Dowless, a Republican political operative, was convicted on multiple felony counts.  North Carolina's General Assembly is the Big Bad Wolf, and the state is its hen house.  Multiple foreign nations own businesses in North Carolina including Chemours, who have been dumping Gen X into our rivers, air, and ground water for decades.  I have a hand growing out of my butt from showering in Cape Fear River swamp water.  (not really)  We stopped drinking that filth years ago, but I still cook with it.  Teflon is in the bloodstream of every single person on earth.  Bezos and Musk may not be good guys.  To let them build personal satellite systems with no federal regulation...   The ill effects of the George W. Bush Presidency are lingering.  Bill Clinton created the first real wireless network.  Al Gore didn't create the internet.  Skynet is bad, and it is time to review historical science fiction movies.  (even bad ones)  Their predictions are accurate, and we need to pay attention.  Who will be America's modern day James Bond?

A State of Hypocrisy

 When the lottery came to North Carolina it was a watershed event.  I was absent, and in my absence a change occurred in my native state.  When I was growing up in Fayetteville attending Terry Sanford High School, and then moving to Chapel Hill to matriculate at UNC state standards were high.  This was the 1980's.  Everyone knows the 80's were a different era, and often they get a bad rap.  Indulgence.  Glamour.  Fashion.  Cinema.  Blockbuster.  Romance.  Artistry.  Expression.  Popular music.  I don't equate the decade of the 1980's with decadence, although there was some.  Ronald Reagan, who previously I felt was an adequate president, was a chosen actor for both the job of Governor of California and the President of the United States.  When he came into national office the tax rate for the rich was seventy percent.  I'll repeat that figure.  Seventy percent of the income earned by the wealthy went back to Washington.  Needless to see creative accounting came into play, and CPA's found bountiful and creative ways to reinvest earned income.  The way I remember it was this surplus capital was reinvested building businesses.  Cross Creek Mall was a metaphor for this practice.  Then this mall was a museum, and a symbol of American success.  Each designer store offered unique, quality-made, integral products marketed to American consumers.  It created a mainstream, a foundation for American Capitalism.  Other may remember these glamorous and romantic times shopping in a New York Macy's department store.  America was at her height, and now we are in the sewer.  I never thought I would see the day when a lottery would become legal in North Carolina.  Governor Jim Hunt was conservative, and under his leadership our state toed the line.  "Driving Under the Influence" became "Driving While Impaired," and for this offense you would lose your driver's license and spend two nights in jail.  For passing a stopped school bus, also you would lose your driver's license.  Those were his priorities, and they were good ones.  North Carolina was tight, and today we are a polar opposite.  With fifty vacancies in the Fayetteville PD, traffic in Cumberland Country is one of the worst in the state.  Violations are common and often as are violent crimes.  Recently the city decided to raise police officer salaries to a comparable level with other cities, but teacher salaries still are almost the lowest in the entire United States.  If tight were the adjective to describe North Carolina when Jim Hunt was governor, it also could describe Phil Berger's General Assembly.  There is money in North Carolina thanks to the military industrial complex, but it is not spent wisely.  Our state lawmakers could be one of the most corrupt of any state, and Duke Energy is a part of it.  A "State of Hypocrisy" is the title when one touts billions in earnings in lottery profits that "go to education."  Please.  Certainly North Carolina does not have an education lottery, because public education no longer is a priority for state or federal politicians.  We made a conscious effort to neglect public education years ago in favor of exploiting America's younger generation.  Let's lend then money to go to college, so they graduate with a note to Uncle Sam for $100,000.00.  When we should have been investing in and educating our children, instead we fucked them.  The rest of American society followed along.  When Norman Lear, Aaron Spelling, and Sherwood Schwartz were penning family stories and setting examples for American life, Donald Trump was plotting his communist overthrow.  It should be of no surprise that mass killings have become common.  There are no examples left of sane, rational, and enlightened living.  Turn on the tube or rent a movie and you see murderous violence as entertainment.  We have become desensitized.  America no longer has any idea how to behave like intelligent adults, because the Trump organization has dismantled America.  No science.  No art.  No philosophy.  No religion.  Only riches and money.  It is a hypocrisy to call it an "Education Lottery," because it is not.  The money carefully is funneled to the same places always it has been.  Nothing has changed that way.  It's the same rich folks  controlling the same poor folks.  Wonder why mentally challenged adolescents are shooting up school?  What other example do they have?  Even with America's neglect of public education, Covid sealed the deal.  School closed for a year and a half.  It's kind of like who decided that putting our garbage in plastic bags was a smart idea?  In doing such a thing, putting our garbage in these bags, it prevents the natural process of Mother Nature.  Bury organic products under the ground and they decompose.  Put anything in a plastic bag and bury it beneath the ground.  It will be there forever.  Forever.  Plastic is a forever chemical, and we don't really need it.  We could do without DAK Americas and their Mexican owners.  We could do without Teflon and its Chinese owners.  In fact who changed the law in America that allows foreign entities to own American companies?  Smithfield?  The Chinese.  Poultry?  The Chinese.  This shit has nothing on NAFTA.  The North American Free Trade Agreement?  Bill Clinton thought this was a good idea, and we invested heavily in South America.  Then the peso collapsed and lots of people lost their life savings.  Mexicans had no desire to work in factories at slave wages, but India and China?  Which President made this legal?  The problem remains that Gen X, the same chemical as C8, has not been declared a toxic substance by the EPA.  It is smoke and mirrors.  Presto chango.  Slight of hand.  Meanwhile thousands of American have died and have disease.  Is this right?  Education Lottery.  How to get educated in how to lose your money.  Shop at convenience stores.  But lottery tickets.  Once schools were the place you learned to be smarter, but they decided against that.  Now the well has dried up and America along with it.  I don't think we will recover. 

America's Covert Aerial Assault

Bill Maher is the pessimist.  If I discover I am being the same, I can turn on his HBO program and hear the more dire and negative perspective.  He thinks America will be in hand to hand combat in the streets soon.  Metaphorically that means we are moving toward either civil or revolutionary war.  It can be difficult to discern which.  Do Americans really hate each other, or are we just divided on our political views?  Donald Trump succeeded in identifying and pitting American factions against one another.  This was his plan implementing a potential communist overthrow of American democracy.  We do not understand the breadth, scope, and preparation of his assault.  He prepared most of his life.  America is gray, and we need solidarity.  With a dysfunctional government it will not happen.  We watch  Congress flounder influenced by the lobby machine.  Most Americans have realized Washington is not capable of caring for the American people.  We are on our own, and  it is time. Our own convictions must drive our actions.  I feel this way.  I feel no support from anyone or anything, and I am okay.  I know my convictions, but perhaps I am not willing to devote the rest of my life to ensuring fairness and freedom for America.  We are lucky to have had it.  It is not ironic in our lifetimes civil unrest or rebellion would unfold.  It is simple, although I am convinced few Americans know what it will take.  The majority are sucking on the teat of Uncle Sam, and metaphorically they have become Communists.  Always we have been a socialist nation, so for idiots to shout this word is ludicrous.  Look at whose checks come from Washington.  There are fifty thousand contracted civil employees at Fort Bragg alone, and this qualifies as socialist.  As America has devolved in intelligence, philosophical capability, and morality this socialism under the urging of Trump has morphed into Communism.  "Are you a party member?"  This is going on.  Nothing is honest.  Nothing is Christian.  Nothing shows compassion for one's fellow man.  Instead American Capitalism has bred selfish narcissism.  We have lost the capacity to question, think, or discern reality.  We have been absorbed by the Borg, and that Borg is Donald Trump.  Only being in power matters.  God's teachings have been rendered moot by this Trump ideology.  Ask ourselves what integrity do Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or Tim Cooke possess?  We do not know.  They have been successful manipulating American Capitalism in their favor.  They are shrewd businessmen.  They are geniuses, but that does not mean they are moral, Christian, or good.  They have risen to the American throne because of accomplishment, but this does not mean they are good.  Why do we not question their intent, their philosophy, or their sentiments?  Traditional tenants of man and his substance are as moot as our reverence for God.  It is a disaster waiting to happen we are so in the dark.  Both Musk and Bezos have proposed low altitude satellite networks.  Each wants to build a satellite network of their own that will circle the globe and provide internet for the world.  That is a shiny business prospectus.  Internet for everyone.  Is it really necessary thirty thousand satellites in low earth orbit?  It is wise to question such a proposal, because all ready we are being scrutinized from above.  There are two choices for the source of Havana Syndrome.  While infrasound from land based vehicles is likely, the sky is the limit.  Either aerial craft, manned or unmanned, or satellites are the probable culprits.  How do I know?  How is it possible that an advertisement appears while I am searching the web for a product no one could know I need?  I restore Rhodes electric pianos in my garage, and no one occupies this space except me.  I do not speak aloud about what I am doing, and I do not have an Alexa device in this space.  Yet after I work on a very specific part of a Rhodes piano, an advertisement for this part appears in front of me on the internet.  This garage, although it has been upgraded for comfort, is rife will airborne electrical energy.  Perhaps it is static.  I believe it is low frequency alternating current emitted from nearby diesel electric locomotives.  That is not the only choice.  Fort Bragg is less than five miles away, and it only takes a few minutes to find the website for the targeting system they use when firing rockets at the potential enemy.  It was written in the Fayetteville Observer their ambulatory radar rig also uses sound waves to triangulate potential targets.  My garage happens to be in the middle of all of this industrial activity.  It was not a problem until Donald Trump became president.  In 2016 was the last time anyone cared about the average American.  The Trump presidency yielded the strongest and most ruthless corporate structure in a century.  It has not ceased, and it will not cease until Joe Biden and the democrats reestablish corporate oversight.  The most glaring deficiency has been in the aeronautical industry.  Ask yourself how long it took for a handful of Islamic terrorists to infiltrate commercial airlines and fly planes into the twin towers in Manhattan?  America never batted an eye about pilot security.  Instead George W. Bush created a whole wing of government bureaucracy with his Department of Homeland Security.  We policed the American population and made it more difficult to fly, be we did naught to police the commercial airline industry.  In fact systematically we have deregulated every industry in response to the fierce lobbying of deep pocketed oligarchs like the the Kochs.   Never has there been more freedom for anyone to fly a plane anywhere.  I have an entire folder of airplane registration which run the gamut.  There are nefarious and nebulous LLC facades hiding the ownership of personal aircraft, and they fly at will with little oversight.  The East Coast of the United States has become a military stronghold.   How can any American defend themselves against such aerial assault?  Object like I do to low flying commercial aircraft over your home, but what really can you do?  I suggested earlier a prudent nation would identify offending corporate activity, and if Washington fails to ensure our safety and protect us from this assault, address the issue ourselves.  Is that bold?  A well armed militia is the last line of defense against a tyrannical government or oligarchical milieu.  Without RPG's Afghanistan could not have protected herself against invading Russia.  Which Congressman gave them such weapons?  If Islamic extremists managed to infiltrate the commercial airline industry and fly planes into the twin towers, how difficult was it to lobby the FAA into changing traditional flight paths so planes could fly over our homes?  This happened in Colorado, and to the month when the new flight paths were approved Covid appeared.  It was no coincidence.  

Trump, the Two Bit Hoodlum

Big Brother chooses who sees your posts.  We can call it an algorithm, but it is communist oppression.  "Are you with the party?  Are you a party member?"  That translates to, "Are you a 'Good Ole Boy?'"  Jim Crow ll.  The Deuce.  It is nothing new.  Don't make waves.  Let the chips lie where they may meaning allow the "Old Money" (what is left of it) to continue on its immoral path.  As for the police anarchy is not an option.  It is what we have now.  A few bad apples have tainted the police force, and a tidal wave of ignorance was ignited Trump style.  Defund the police?  You must be crazy.  A lack of proper police enforcement is what has created "White Flight" in Fayetteville.  It is a ghetto.  Those fleeing the wrath are mum on their reasons.  If you are sucking on the teat of the cow, then readily you cannot criticize her.   This is their sacrifice.  "Are you are party member?  Are you with the party?"  Righteousness left the picture when the faux "Good Ole Boy" network adopted communist doctrines.  God was exorcised from American government, and corporate America was free to rape and pillage.  That means pollute, radiate, or oppress the population at will because it lowers their bottom line.  Responsibly dispose of C8?  Monitor and regulate emissions?  Enact a program of conservation to protect the earth?  No thought has been given to such things.  The plan is to migrate to Mars?  That economically is rewarding for future space transportation.  Is it wise to discard the earth?  How is it possible to mitigate such large scale crisis when CSX is unable to understand one lone ES44ACH operating incognito for the service of Cargill wreaks havoc on a community.  It's just a ghetto.  Who cares if they die of Covid?  The white race is supreme, and only they deserve consideration in this life.  It was Jesus who changed this dialogue.  He was a hippy who saw through hypocrisy.  With all of this some good old academic logistics could make a world of difference.  It's called corporate regulation.  With the stark absence of God and morality, someone has to insist that the right thing be done.  We are not China.  "White Flight."  Those who are aware simply move.  "I've got to move."  What about those who choose to stay?  Instead of targeting hypothetical examples an enlightened society would target oppressive forces.  The forte of the "Good Ole Boy" is disguising reality, selling snake oil, and inciting violence.  Oh, that is Trump, a two bit hood for our generation.  

American Castigation

When I look around America I see no semblance of the Avant-garde.  America is in the throes of cultural darkness.  This vacuum of human creativity and Christian love is the result of a Communist siege.  In communist nations religion is a cornerstone, because evil is rife.  Man is sociopathic and money is his graven image.  The love of money has destroyed Capitalism which made America free, honest, and great.  Capitalism was built on grassroot values of common people instilled by a love of God through religion.  America has exorcised God, and now Beelzebub walks the earth.  He is winning.  Our two choices are to accept and renew ancient Greek Humanities, or inject cyber poison.  The prophecy of 2012 is true, and Big Brother is our Attila the Hun.  Tainted air, water, and food with contrived, inflated, health care have quelled the productivity of poor Americans.  Traditional products no longer exist.  Uniquely American products which defined her and gave her her soul are silent.  Film, music, art, and television, the voices of the people, now bark for Big Brother.  Instead of spreading humanity they spew worthless, mind-numbing, controlling Communist propaganda.   The canvas of America is laden with cancerous inaudible noise.  Silent sounds are lethal.  Music once was the language of America, and the human spirit was ignited.  Our language is beleaguered with corporate pollution.   Transportation has silenced song and telecommunication has castrated art.  The raping and pillaging of America by billionaires is complete.  There is nothing left but Communism.  Health care is mandated by insurance, Washington is corporate America, and Big Brother is our dictator.  America yearns for Revolution. 

It's Mitch and China, not Moscow

 If we were to consider everything around us, it would seem a conspiracy.  In reality conspiracy only is corruption by those with power.  While our Founding Fathers were geniuses in some ways, their method of choosing the leader of the free world is flawed.  To become President, the most powerful leader in the world, it is a popularity contest.  It is a return to the glory years of high school when football quarterbacks and cheerleaders were popular because of their looks and athletic prowess.  Athletic prowess is a favorable trait and if coupled with intellect and wisdom is a potent leadership model.  "Revolution  is in the muscles," it is said, and few of Washington's current elected officials exhibit athleticism.  On the contrary they have become effeminate, cowardly, probably homosexual men.  It cannot be denied the sexual status of America is skewed.  On one pole are the male heterosexual predators (of which there are too many to list), and on the other pole is the rising LGBTQ community.  Good old red blooded American adolescent sexual angst has disappeared and has been replaced with insecurity, depression, and sexual identity confusion.  It would be difficult to look at the incumbent Washington society and see anything worthy of leadership.  Whether it is athletic ability, artistic talent, or scholarly knowledge, Washington has become a swamp of privileged rich kids.  These kids are pushing seventy.  Nothing has changed.  The "War in Afghanistan" was nothing more than an extension of our Russian "Cold War."  It was all posturing about who had the biggest thing.  There was no real troop development, only the proliferation of high tech toys of war netting Boeing seven trillion dollars over twenty years.  The indigenous armies of the Middle East proved to be more capable, because they were grass roots minute men.  What they did each day was what they were.  There was no sprawling American defense industry to promulgate a new Middle Eastern cold war with Muslim terrorists.  Again nothing has changed.  What ensued was an attempted exploitation of not-so-bright Americans.  Doubt science?  Doubt academic institutions?  Infiltrate almost every American corporate entity for the sake of pure profit.  Thus Big Pharma reliant upon a subservient medical establishment has assaulted the people it was meant to save.  Create disease to sell an antidote.  Wage genocide on the American population.  Taint drinking water, air, and the food supply and expect no one to notice.  "I can't show you what is in the nose cone of this aircraft, because I will have to kill you."  The truth is what is in that nose cone will kill you.  Havana Syndrome.  Because it is invisible is proving to be the most elusive foe for our intelligence community.  Nothing has changed.  The Cold War has continued.  Corporate America has raped and pillaged the American citizen.  The defense industry is evil personified.  It's time to wake up and smell the coffee. 

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's "Planes Operation Jr."

I googled "Flight Paths of Grannis Field," and I was hoping to be redirected to an FAA website official in nature.  Since many airports are locally owned and operated (municipal), it would seem that regulations governing their use would be clear and available.  Instead the top Google hit was a lawsuit in Colorado against the Federal Aviation Administration.  Recently a DC appellate court threw out an an ongoing lawsuit suing the FAA over changed flight paths negatively affecting Colorado residents.  Stepped approaches to take off and landing, the current method used by pilots, were replaced with gradual ascents and descents.  These new graded approaches have encroached upon the peaceful living of millions of Colorado citizens.  In a nutshell no consideration is given for those living in close proximity to airports.  The entire aesthetic of regulating air traffic to ensure the health of people on the ground has been tossed out the window.  What allows a government agency serving a private industry the power to abuse the American population?  In a statement about the lawsuit it said the new flight paths took effect in March of 2020, the same month the Coronavirus emerged as a deadly pathogen.  Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is on trail at Guantanamo Bay for the 9/11 attacks, cited as the conceptualizer of the "Planes Operation."  The month the flight paths changed for the worst for residents of Colorado elicited a deadly pandemic that is still killing millions.  Previously no planes flew low over residential neighborhoods.  Neighborhoods were an enclave against the evolving brutality of American urban life.  In one fell swoop or decision of a government agency, the airline industry began assaulting its potential customers.  Ironically there was a mandated stoppage of air and rail traffic because of the virus.  Like Donald Trump's four years as president, the damage all ready was done.  Similarly in Fayetteville, North Carolina commercial jet aircraft never have flown over residential neighborhoods.  Never have chemtrails been seen in the sky.  Never has there been any smog in Cumberland Country.  Thanks to BRAC and the emergence of Ground Forces Command at Fort Bragg, smog has become common place in our skies.  PSA Airlines and Endeavor Air both are flying to Charlotte/Douglass Airport in express early morning flights previously nonexistent.  These flights do not used the stepped method of take off or landing.  Instead the gentle and shallow trajectories into and out of Grannis Field require a low altitude flight directly above the city of Fayetteville including the "Gold Coast, "Skye Drive," "Van Story Hills," "Briarwood," and "Huntington Park."  The emergence of Covid 19 coincides with these flights.  If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed masterminded flying jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, which would have taken years to accomplish infiltrating the commercial American aviation industry, then gaining access to peoples' home from the air for dispersion of a biological/chemical agent is logical.  The exploitation of the Federal Aviation Administration and the introduction of new and unfamiliar corporate entities in the airline industry meld as a potent and deadly strew of terror.  We are yet to recover. 

Yuppie, the Sequel

A strange turn of events.  Four years of a Trump presidency with a benediction of Covid 19.  It is becoming clear what really happened through the media's mandate of quality reporting.  Currently though we are in a blitz of confusion.  The war in Afghanistan is bottled up and sitting on a shelf.  What to report?  Ida wreaked havoc in its corridor up the Eastern Seaboard.  Actually there is a lot of tragedy.  Covid remains devastating, and America is grappling with her own selfishness and irresponsibility.  People are killing themselves.  Boatloads of unvetted Afghan immigrants have been hauled into the United States.  Talk about an immigration disaster.  Because  public schools have been reincarnated, politics has been pushed to the surface.  Millions of school kids, after over a year of compromised and most likely ineffective teaching, are back together under the dark cloud of deadly plague.  It is a difficult time, and I would not wish it upon anyone's children.  The lasting effects of Covid on the new generation of America will be seen in the long haul.  Meanwhile, as Colbert would say, things have come into focus, for me anyway.  Four years of deceit, lies, and skullduggery from the Trump administration in his covert and savvy proposed communist coup of America.  One look at his wedge of hair, and now you will see Kim.  It is all he ever has wanted, to be a dictator.  It is a selfish, childish, and demented fantasy.  Almost it has ruined this country.  Whether or not we recover remains to be seen.  Without the ruse of Afghanistan things settle clearly into place.  The American military is a mediocre body of high school drop outs needing guidance.  Always it has been, but Trump has instituted lying as administration.  It is about the pitch, the sell, the Big Lie.  The truth does not matter, because you are trying to sell a product for profit.  We promote our military with a great cavalcade, a NAMM show of defense products.  With this great opportunity of economic gain, the basics have been neglected.  Always the grid and the satellites will fail, and we will be fighting hand to hand.  This is why we lost in Viet Nam.  This is why we lost in Afghanistan.  Trump uses the show as his product rather than taking the time to develop a quality commodity.  This has become America's method.  Quick money.  In the mist of the Covid cloud, America has become lost.  Both Chemours and Smithfield have been sold to the Chinese.  As many people do not know, their pigs are raised in North Carolina, shipped to China for packaging, and sent back to America for sale.  This explains the excruciating puzzle why with this pork plant only a few miles down the road our white meat is so bad.  It's the same for chickens.  They are grown here but are sent to China for distribution.  I haven't been able to buy fresh chicken that tastes worth a damn in several years.  It is notoriously bad in quality.  America has been taken to the cleaners.  Covid has disguised this whole economic onslaught.  The rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and a new Yuppie class has been born. 

The Worst Evil

I'm not sure what America is anymore, and net neutrality has something to do with it.  At first the World Wide Web was a warm and fuzzy collegiate entity.  Netscape Navigator was a seductive blue browser that opened portals to pleasure.  Music streaming was at its inception.  Steve Jobs built the iTunes store, and the commercial music industry failed.  I am an Apple fan, but also I am a musician.  I could not afford the prices of albums or CD's in my adolescence, but as an adult I appreciate recorded music not in an MP3 format.  The internet has ruined America.  We don't know how to be, so I assume more than ever you must pick your aesthetic.  Our Founding Fathers were geniuses, but the process for choosing a President is flawed.  A popularity contest with no confirmed credentials is no way to pick the leader of the free world.  We have seen this first hand.  It has been a lack of knowledge and integrity which have doomed America.  Academia sold out.  Health care sold out.  What else is there?  We cannot be healthy, and we cannot be smart.  We are ignorant and compliant.  Now is an episode from the "Twilight Zone," and I am having nightmares.  We need relief.  I fear the American military is an opportunistic haven.  Thom Tillis is their cheerleader.  It has become blind allegiance for money.  The wives and the children are methods for profit.  The marriages are business agreements to benefit both parties.  Love is far from the equation.  I have met two Army families, and the husbands are the oldest sons.  Vivian Howard puts it bluntly.  Matriarchs run the American South.  Women.  Women have become the problem.  Original sin is real.  Eve is offering us a bite out of the apple, so man must understand.  Man has become polluted, and young girls are his temptation.  R Kelly.  Jeffrey Epstein.  Bill Cosby.  We need examples, and there are none.  Instead we are presented with sickness, failure, and desperation politicizing integrity.  How could a disease become political?  I should be grateful, because I am revisiting the past.  I have been through this before, so I am resistant.  I am familiar, but my soul is being chosen for me.  The problems are the same as they were thirty years ago, but we have grown into adults.  There isn't much to lose.  You are afforded the right to exist.  The playing field is clear, but it is not level.   Achievement should be notable and rewarded, but only in a free and honest society.  As Fred Rogers said, "The worst evil is trying to make you less than you are." 

Orange is the New Red

Depression is a physical illness, and the mental malaise is a direct result.  Imagine trying to dry yourself in the rain.  It isn't possible.  Try cooling the planet when those responsible won't acknowledge their guilt.  It is bordering on evil.  Destroying the planet and ultimately the human race is severe.  It has become religious in proportions, so God must enter the picture.  We are battling Satan.  Evil is surprisingly immature.  It is easier to justify with mental illness.  Mental illness is obvious, because the effect that is being created directly is caused by the irresponsibility.  Microwave transmitters are appearing everywhere with no state or federal regulation.  Once regulations existed so cell phone towers could not be erected by schools or in neighborhoods.  Some caution was extended for human health.  Suspiciously this has disappeared.  Not only is the human race under direct assault, the safeguards of American government have been repealed.  Donald Trump is responsible.  Fake news says he did not want to become the American President, but his four years as the leader of the free world have created bedlam for the human race.  It will take years to recover, and this recovery cannot begin until Donald Trump is eliminated.  Joe Biden is the correct President, and we are grateful he was elected.  He can only do so much when America is controlled by evil.  It is disheartening trying to dry yourself in the rain.  The line of demarcation between freedom and communism is more obscured than ever, and this is purposeful.  Donald Trump's rants as an honestly elected American President were too extreme to take seriously until now.  Listen to his words and reflect.  This assault on America has been his.  Once I felt George W. Bush may have been Satan, but color doesn't lie.  Orange really is red.  

Without God in Our Sights, America Will Be no More

We have reached a turning point in American history, for our lifetimes at least.  Inefficient, lobby-driven, irresponsible leadership at the state and federal levels have failed to shore up the foundations of a free America.  Without the crystal clear vision of our founding fathers, necessarily our mission statement has morphed into a contract of economic fruition for the wealthy.  The wealthy always have been around, but pundits of our democratic republic always have been successful keeping America on her clear path.  Now that path has strayed.  Not unlike America's irresponsible exploitation of her near virgin Alaskan state, leadership in the last three decades has failed to recognize and preserve our national infrastructure.  This infrastructure, while necessarily brick and mortar in some ways, philosophically has been deconstructed and retooled in the looming shadow of the internet.  The internet and wireless communications rapidly have destroyed the majority of America's previous economy.  Without a clear picture of what America should be now, her destiny ultimately will be shaped as the byproduct of the newest generation of entrepreneurs.  Are Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates well schooled enough in civics, politics, and leadership to offer a shored and fair America?  The answer unfortunately is no.  Exploiters of America never have learned to give back.  Down the road less traveled the Gates may have seen fit to charter a charitable trust, but what they are incapable of doing is understanding the basis of America.  Never have they taken the time to become statesmen, because this is a gratuitous undertaking.  One does it for the sheer spiritual feeling of Christianity, and this American feeling with God in its sights has been battered by Satan.  If ever Satan was present, it would be now.  America as a nation has failed to understand the necessity of Christian spirituality.  Without it we have nothing but the dark bleak path to which we wake every day without God shining His light on us.  Communism has become the chosen system of America without our even knowing.  The American populace has forgotten our country must be lead by the people, not wealthy, communist, Satanic zealots.  When America was nearer the dream of which often is spoke, the picture of our nation was crystal clear.  It was steeped in statesmanship, savvy governance, and honesty.  It was driven by Christian tenets and guided by God.  Today the other force has driven its way into power.  I do not see a return in America.  The American Dream, its sentimental and emotional bubble, easily has been popped by elites.  They are so immersed in their high lifestyles, it would be too much to try to understand what America has been.  Without continual reinforcement of our civic responsibilities in our system of public education, America is doomed.  This system always has been the necessary infrastructure of a renegade nation seeking asylum from the repression of tyrannical England.  Always it was clear what we were choosing to leave.  With the unpleasant taste of the Covid Oppression, it should be becoming clear again.  The freedom for which America always has stood is not difficult, but it is complex.  About it must be thought a lot, and we have stopped teaching it in public schools.  The public schools, once the cornerstone of American mobility, now are a scrap yard littered with refuse.  We are the junkyard rats scrambling for the bits and pieces of sustenance.  

Reggie Hammond is in Town.

There is a Covid outbreak in Cumberland County.  Although my consciousness won't allow it, it is deja vu.  We have been vaccinated twice by Pfizer in March and April.  Yesterday we self-administered our first Aegean Covid 19 test at the drive through pharmacy at Walgreens.  Still we wear masks everywhere in public and have been sheltering in place.  We will receive results in four to five days via E-Mail notification.  My lymph nodes have been swollen for a week, and I have a slightly sore throat.  It is better today.  I have other medical issues.  As I watch the myriad of those administering Covid vaccines, all I can think is how unskilled their needle technique is.  It if it a metaphor for health care in America, we are in trouble.  No one seems to know how to give a vaccine.  Nurses are health care professionals who have studied for many years.  It would be logical their technique is superior.  No longer is America a specialty nation.  Once we were.  Once our economy provided a diverse landscape for work.  Without control of our health care system by Big Pharma and insurance, once there were many varied, well-paying, professional health care occupations that flourished.  Now Big Pharma, insurance, Walmart, and Apple, and Amazon control everything, and they are not liberal with their spoils.  Specialty jobs are extinct.  Everything is generic, and you can control it with your smart phone.  You can pay online.  You install your own cablevision.  You renew your driver's license on the internet.  For the majority of our household goods, we now shop on Amazon.  Dramatically and deliberately the American economy has been dismantled and replaced with Communism.  The things that made America free, diverse, and rebellious have been replaced with generic, mundane, party-administered services.  Democracy has been dealt a severe blow by the tyrant Donald Trump.  His four years in the presidency have put into place the foundations of American Communism.  "Those wonderful loving people, my party."  "Are you affiliated with the party?"  In four years eight hundred billion tax payer dollars were allocated to the United State military.  Afghanistan has been a ruse to take this money.  The siege, the insurrection, and the campaign have been waged by defense contractors.  This is nothing new, because Haliburton set the state.  Past VP Dick Cheney paved the way for private interests to fleece Washington.  He did it, and now they have been doing it for twenty years.  President Joe Biden has said, "Enough."  The heroin supply will dry up.  Trump's funding will dwindle, and the military industrial complex fueled by burgeoning technology will have to reset.  How can they sell to now?  Saudi Arabia?  Donald Trump was their broker, and they bought from us through the president of the United States.  (conflict of interest)  Joe Biden is in town.  There is a new sheriff, and it's not Reggie Hammond.  Cool.  All right. 

The Gravy Train of Afghan Terrorists

 Life is a funny thing.  I support President Biden one hundred percent for pulling America out of Afghanistan.  It has been too long a war.  I grew up in Viet Nam.  I lived from three until thirteen with the extreme violence of Viet Nam on the evening news each night.  Violence.  Murder.  Baby killers.  Richard Nixon became President, and in 1975 he pulled America out of Viet Nam.  It was a crazy turn of events.  Pol Pot was poised.  I am glad Joe Biden is intelligent enough to pull America out.  It is all they ever have wanted.  "Get out of my country!"  (which means leave our oil alone)  The Bush Clan wanted that oil, and Dick Cheney was the mark.  Spiro Agnew was a traitor, but Dick, Colin, and Bush?  It was a mirepoix of bad fortune.  At the moment, the gravy train has embarked.  The Biden administration necessarily is evacuating a host of personnel all seeking refuge from the Taliban.  For the first time in several years "ISIS" has been mentioned.  ISIL was created when the invasion of Iraq failed, and the United States military left equipment in the desert.  This terrorist group succinctly took control of our abandoned military equipment, and rose anew.  We would hope this would not happen again, but surprise.  In less than the blink of an eye, the Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan.  The conundrum is the influx of refugees.  Immigration has been on the docket for years, and now in one strategic political decision by President Biden the flood gates have been opened.  Covid does not seem to be an issue.  The only pressing issue reported by the media is people want to get the hell out of Afghanistan.  They were living a good live there, and now the jig is up.  While General Milley seems to think those seeking asylum are being vetted appropriately, America has opened up her doors to a network of potential terrorists.  Covid seems of no concern, and sorties of boatloads of refugees now are streaming into Texas, New Jersey, and Florida via the United Stated military.  It is time to stop and think. 

Havana Syndrome and the Invisible Enemy

Mitch McConnell is transparent.  Is it not difficult to believe the senator from Kentucky suddenly has grown empathetic about women's rights in Afghanistan?  Since he cares little for the general populace of America, perhaps he could fare better as an interim President of that remote nation?  He is so sincere in his opinion on the botched pull out.  One would almost think he has vested interests there. (along with the rest of them)  Is it the poppy trade?  Is it minerals?  Certainly there is something other than 9/11 and the Taliban that have drawn America  there for two decades.  Hypocrisy is so transparent.  Listening to the senator from South Carolina, Miss Lindsey, the same story unfolds.  In pure Trump fashion their glaring cavalier irresponsibility to the American people no longer will garner irreverent support.  Those times are over.  That contingency is being hobbled one insurgent at a time.  Does Mitch support the infrastructure bill?  Does he feel Apple and Amazon owe America something in return for their achieved wealth?  It is okay to pillage our country with no finders fee?  No need to pay it forward or back?  Just keep all the money.  No one has taken a basic Economics 101 class or Polysci.  The money must flow through the system.  It cannot sit idle in sheltered overseas accounts growing mold.  For Capitalism to function the money must flow through the classes.  People must earn money, and they must earn enough money to be able to spend for themselves.  This is how the system works.  Evidently there is no Covid in Afghanistan.  They must feel their turbans magically shield their nostrils from the Covid molecule, because no one is wearing a mask.  No one is sick.  They are just doing what they do best in the tribal Middle East.  Rape and pillage.  Take child brides.  Kill elders.  Fun for them.  War is all they know, and it is more visceral and satisfying than peace.  Perhaps if they had Rock 'n' Roll?  Do they partake of their own poppies?  Such sincere sentiments for a foreign surrogate territory, the United States territory of Afghanistan.  What the f?  No Covid there, but select individuals are being targeted with ISR.  (If you rearranged the letters it would be IRS, a more frightening and taken acronym)  Intelligence.  Surveillance.  Reconnaissance.  ISR is huge in the aviation industry.  More specialty aircraft have acne than teenagers drinking coca cola.  Protrusions.  Pods.  Spheres.  Bays.  All of them contain state-of-the-art surveillance systems spying on everyone.  Infrared topography is a big one, and only defense contractors are licensed to use these frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum.  That was Bill Clinton.  He is responsible.  Perhaps they are just surveilling certain people, but those high tech surveillance systems haven't been tested, like AC Traction hasn't been tested.  No one knows what the effects are on human beings, but they have a pretty good idea.  In the process of surveilling the pulsed microwaves are so strong they start to cause damaged to the human organism.  Brain damaged.  Symptoms of concussions with no blows.  Perfect.  Untraceable.  It is spreading.  The invisible enemy.  

Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley 8/19/21 Press Briefing

This is likely to be probably the second-largest NEO conducted by the United States. Our key tasks are to establish and maintain security at the Kabul International Airport. Defend the airport from attack. Evacuate all American citizens from Afghanistan who desire to leave this country. Evacuate any third country national, or allies and partners as designated by the secretary of state. Evacuate personnel with State Department-designated Special Immigrant Visas. And evacuate any other evacuees that the State Department designates.

The president of the United States made a decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan on April 14th. Since that date we conducted a deliberate and responsible drawdown of U.S. forces to less than a thousand with the specific task of securing the U.S. embassy and our diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. Since then, the security situation rapidly degraded. Today, the situation is still very dangerous, very dynamic, and very fluid. And all of us can be proud for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who are executing this mission. They are currently in harm's way. That needs to be our focus. There will be plenty of time to do AARs, but right now our mission is to secure that airfield, defend that airfield, and evacuate all those who have been faithful to us.

There will be many postmortems on this topic, but right now is not that time. Right now there are troops at risk and we are the United States military and we fully intend to successfully evacuate all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan, all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan. They are priority number one. In addition, we intend to evacuate those who have been supporting us for years and we're not going to leave them behind. And we will get out as many as possible. Our troops in Kabul are taking high risks to accomplish that mission. Every minute these troops are on the ground making difficult decisions with incredible skill, incredible bravery, and incredible valor.

Currently, the security situation at the airport is stable. However, there are threats and we're closely monitoring those at any moment they could happen. We can identify them. If we identify them we will take immediate military action without hesitation, and according to our rules of engagement. And the Taliban and every other organization in that country knows it. The Taliban are in and around Kabul right now, but they are not interfering with our operations. Through the State Department, the Taliban are facilitating safe passage to the airport for American citizens, that is, U.S. passport holders.

We also have a risk, as you saw the other day, of unarmed innocent civilians massing on the airfield where they became a safety hazard to our airplanes our aircrews, and also to themselves. And we currently have that situation under control inside the airfield. There's many other risks out there. And the troops are dealing with those every single day in this volatile environment, which can and likely will change rapidly.

Let me make one comment on the intelligence, because I am seeing all over the news it that there were warnings of a rapid collapse. I have previously said from this podium and in sworn testimony before Congress that the intelligence clearly indicated multiple scenarios were possible. One of those was an outright Taliban takeover following a rapid collapse of the Afghan security forces and the government. Another was a civil war. And a third was a negotiated settlement.

GEN. MILLEY: However, the timeframe of a rapid collapse, that was widely estimated and ranged from weeks to months and even years following our departure. There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days. Central Command submitted a variety of plans that were briefed and approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense, and the President. These plans are coordinated, synchronized, and rehearsed to deal with these various scenarios. One of those contingencies is what we are executing right now. As I said before, there's plenty of time to do AARs, and key lessons learned and to delve into these questions with great detail. But right now is not that time. Right now, we have to focus on this mission because we have soldiers at risk. And we also have American citizens and Afghans who supported us for 20 years also at risk. This is personal, and we're going to get them out. And we, in uniform, have a deep commitment to this mission.

Now, let me give you an operational update. The security situation, as I said, is currently secure at this time. And since 12 August, we've deployed 12 -- or correction, two United States Marine battalions, one battalion from the Minnesota National Guard, all three of those were pre-positioned in theater, CENTCOM AOR, as part of the contingency planning. In addition to that, we alerted, marshaled, and deployed the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters and a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, consisting of three airborne infantry battalions and associated enablers.

And finally, there was an infantry battalion from the 10th Mountain Division, securing the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. In addition, we are operating on the ground with a variety of Special Operations Forces. That in combination with the ground forces, we have some of the best soldiers and Marines the world has ever seen. In total, there are 20 U.S. maneuver companies currently on the ground with about 4500 troops, and the flow continues. The President has authorized, as you all know, up to 6000. On top of them as the United States Navy and Air Force. We have multiple squadrons of F-18s, AV-8s, F-16s, AC-130s, B-52s, and MQ-9s. We have a significant amount of rotary-wing aviation on the ground, including attack and lift helicopters. In addition, we are working with our allies and partners through our British infantry rifle companies, along with British special forces on the ground working with us. There's also a Turkish security force; there are other international Special Operations Forces. This force is capable of extracting a significant amount of people on U.S. Air Force aircraft. Right now, we're averaging about 20 sorties of C-17s every 24 hours. We have the capability to significantly increase that throughput as the Department of State makes evacuees available.

As the Secretary said, we've already evacuated approximately 5000 people, and we intend to increase it. In addition to the military airflow, has a variety of commercial and charter flights, taking out evacuees, and we have various other countries and NGOs. The military side of the airfield is open, and the civilian side of the airfield is also open. And we intend to keep them both open for military, commercial, and charter flights. One caveat on the civilian side, however, is that the airframes have to come in by visual flight rules only. And a NOTAM has gone out to all the aircrews. The State Department is working to rapidly increase the flow of passengers available to get out on the aircraft, and we are fully supporting them with our military personnel at the entrance gates. In this highly dynamic environment, there's a number of unexpected challenges that can and likely will continue to occur, and we rely heavily on the talent, skill, and training of our troops. We've got great people across all the ranks and services out there right now on this mission. In addition to Afghanistan, which is clearly our main effort, we're also conducting humanitarian assistance operations in Haiti in the aftermath of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake with a significant loss of life. On the West Coast, we're fighting wildfires, and we continue to conduct COVID support and other Operations around the world.

As we reflect on these difficult and challenging times, every soldier, sailor, airman, marine, Coast Guardsman was fought or conducted operations in Afghanistan. Almost 800,000 should hold their head high. For more than 20 years, we have prevented an attack on the U.S. homeland. 2448 lost our lives, 20,722 were wounded in action, and many others suffered the unseen wounds of war. To each of them, I want you to know, personally, that your service matter, as the Secretary said, for both he and I, this is personal. And I know it's personal for each and every one of you. Thank you.

 

The New American Musical Voice

When I was applying for financial assistance for medical care on Monday, abruptly I was reminded that jazz music radically expanded the technique of many instruments.  I know this, because recently I began researching a college level jazz history course.  The music evolution transpired in the first two decades of the twentieth century are significant and substantial.  I would be bold enough to say most people aren't aware of their substance and sophistication.  Early jass or jazz most often is characterized by the term Dixieland, which was coined in Chicago to describe New Orleans jazz that traveled up the Mississippi River when Storyville was closed by the Navy in 1917.  "Dixie" commonly was applied to the American South.  "Dixieland"mistakenly has been applied to Early Jass, and upon closer examination it represents a genre of itself not necessarily the same as the early black music of New Orleans.  Most likely it was a white term.  Dixieland does represent a particular body of American popular songs played in a style very different from later jazz music.  It was loose rhythmically and played in a "Two Beat" feel.  The term "Two Beat" itself merits its own study, but I will suggest that musical term alla breve is the root.  An important distinction in playing jazz music is how and when to play with a two feel rather than "Straight Four."  Early Jass for the most part utilizes a two feel or "Two Beat," and this feel is a major characteristic of the music.  The genius of the two feel is it is poly-rhythmic, and you can count or feel the music in either of two ways.  One is with a two beat subdivision, and one is with a double time straight four subdivision.  The most effective metaphor for alla breve used in jazz allows dancers to articulate either rhythm of their choice.  If they dancing couple does not possess the gumption to Jitterbug or Lindy Hop at its fast and athletically demanding tempo, simply they can choose to "Glide Walk" or Foxtrot.  It is graceful, elegant, and conservative movement.  The "Two Beat" feeling of Early Jass is a unique and surprising rhythmic feeling.  It is tighter than later jazz, and this more compressed rhythmic subdivision is articulated with a zestful and energetic energy.  Musicians play swing sixteenth notes derived from the natural strumming pattern of the American four string banjo.  That jazz music transformed the technique of many instruments also is of equal significance.  The refinement of European orchestral and chamber music adequately did not express emerging African-American exasperation, desperation, or need.  While there is a similar depth of feeling in "classical" music, a more primitive, visceral, and often erotic expression was desired.  It was rebellious, playful, and sexual music, and most importantly it was infused with manic energy.  The ready availability of cocaine is a likely source of this exuberance.  The "Blues" emerged as a necessary African-American expression after the Jim Crow laws were passed in the American South.  The slaves had been freed by Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" and a bloody civil war, but the South failed to acknowledge the equality of Negroes.  Instead they waged a horrific campaign against American blacks, which often resulted in their hanging from ropes dead.  Africans captured, bound, and trafficked to America for sale to plantation owners against their will now were fraught with equal consternation about their rejected entree into American society by Southerners.  It was a shite state of affairs, and the lamentation inherent in the new "Blues" music was crucial to Negro psychology.  Moaning, crying, and the mournful wail of the steam engine's whistle combined to create a new canvas for African-American musical expression predicated on white oppression.  It was a natural evolution for black musicians to express these deep feelings in a different way on musical instruments.  Because they had been slaves working tirelessly in the masters' fields, their physical prowess readily was applied to musical technique.  While classical and jazz instrumental technique are not mutually exclusive, a division has been created by the same racism and discrimination expressed by the American South during Jim Crow.  Donald Trump successfully unearthed this seeming dormant white nationalism during his 2016 Presidential campaign, and implemented a similar policy of divisive, extreme, and inciting rhetoric in America while President.  Jazz has not recovered, and again America is searching for her appropriate musical voice.  For the nation to heal it is imperative for this expression to come to fruition quickly.  

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

 I am reluctant to voice my dreams, because always it is best to live in the trenches, unobserved and innocuous.  One's dreams always are their flanks, and when one's flanks are exposed they will be bitten.  It must be human nature or God's animal kingdom.  It is survival of the fittest.  If you want something, it is your greatest weakness.  Shakespeare knew this, but to love and lose is the crux of the human condition.  One must be careful.  I don't pontificate much about what I want or don't have.  If you have survived depression, then you know it is counter productive.  You can't get what you want, so it is best to move on.  You move on by changing yourself and your desires.  The more I remember things once I have desired, the more disappointed I become.  This disappointment isn't really that at all.  More it is anger that my enemies are determined to defeat me by not allowing me what I want.  If you don't attain monetary success, there is no reason why you can't be hugely successful in other ways.  This has been my philosophy of music, and also this is why I designed and assembled my own music recording studio.  I am going to indulge myself for a moment and express some desires I have had over the years.  First I wanted to be a college professor, but I had not learned the political skills necessary for this extremely high profile job.  It is more politics than knowledge or talent, and also it is diplomacy.  I never paid much attention to either, politics or diplomacy.  If I had I would not have accomplished the things I have.  Instead my philosophy was, "Take no prisoners," and make the best music possible any way I could.  That I have done with the aid of musical technology.  I am tired of playing with myself.  I am too vain to musically masturbate, so all of my music is distilled and important in some way.  Usually it is a documentation of something I have learned.  As I continue on my musical quest, it has become more apparent that what interests me musically derives from other aesthetics.  The main one is dance.  Dance.  Dance is a volatile word in the American language like jazz.  No one really knows what it is.  It is surprising that dance itself, which I will be bold enough to say merely is human courtship, is misunderstood.  If we knew more about it and engaged in it, we would be a more content, peaceful, and loving society.  Both music and dance attempt to provide this impetus.  That is why there exist.  Life without either would be a vacuous, empty, disappointing session of torture by those who voted for Donald Trump.  The line of demarcation has emerged in America, and it is stark, brutal, and tragic.  This is because God has been eradicated from out consciousness, and only God can provide the appropriate spirituality for His earth and people.  We have become a lot of Satan, and it is startling and disconcerting.  The crux of it all is we don't know how to swing, and now it has become clear those running America don't want swing.  With fake news the real, tangible, and rewarding spirituality falsely has been labeled socialist.  To care about one's fellow man or spurn economic wealth would be inconceivable.  The most simple concepts of life, the things for which I do pine if I acknowledge it, are humanity.  I have lived my entire over half a century of life without the things truly I want.  All I ever have wanted is a jazz rhythm section with which to play professionally.  Even without verbalizing this desire, somehow your enemies all ready are cognizant.  Traditionally "Jam Sessions" exist so anyone can come play, and they seek talented musicians with which to perform.  The more talented you are, the more fun and rewarding the music is.  This no longer is true.  In Nashville now you must "Pay to Play."  I never have heard such an absurd concept.  I will rot in a box in the ground before I would pay a Nashville club owner to allow me to perform in his club.  You can go fuck yourself.  Satan seems to know the exact thing you need to open your creative and productive petcock.  His job is to deny you those things.  I knew this early on, and it determined my musical philosophy for the rest of my life.  "Take no prisoners!"  I have not, and consequently I have written, recorded, and performed a lot of music.  Much of it is original.  I have many copyright claims for my original music.  Each and everything I have written is copyrighted in the Library of Congress.  No one can steal my music.  If they chose to use it, it is probably I would consent.  Today no one utilizes music.  A once highly musical and human nation now has become a dull, lackluster, stupid populace of narcissists.  We don't know how to swing, and we don't know God's will.  We don't know how to be human.  It is ironic that all three seasons of Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" were based upon trying to be human.  As the crew of the Enterprise traveled through the universe encountering alien species, the message always was recognize our humanity and all of its gifts.  This is what Jesus, the Son of God, sought to teach us.  We have forgotten, and in our lifetimes perhaps we will get lesson number two. 

A Hugely Unswinging and Communist America

After our extended and continual bout with Covid 19, and when our reality gets misshapen beyond our control, necessarily I adapted by abandoning my traditional pursuits.  Because I am a musician always there is some goal to be tackled.  Because most of my life has been on hold since 2013, my musical path has been divergent.  There have been  pitfalls, and when these occur I change gears and turn.  Consequently my accomplishments also have been divergent, but there have been a lot.  Consciously I must sit back and reflect on what they have been.  I won't go into it here, but I have accomplished most of the things I have set out to do.  I am at a new juncture where Covid has affected my path.  Like millions of Americans finally I am succumbing to this disease's evil grip.  I have not had to worry about eviction or bankruptcy, but I have had to contend with the ill effects of Covid.  Never have I been tested, but never have I had a fever above normal.  Never have I had flu-like symptoms.  Contrarily I have had a host of other physical maladies which mirror the symptoms of Covid.  This is when I learned that this engineered pathogen purposely exacerbates your underlying conditions.  It is a dangerous, often deadly, ruthless and macabre foe, and still it continues to wage its war on humankind.  The most unsettling sentiment is that we do not know who unleashed it upon the world.  Rest assured Covid is not a naturally occurring virus.  For it to exhibit the characteristics it displays, thousands of years would have been needed for it to develop and mutate.  It is an engineered pathogen, and most likely its source was the lab in Wuhan, China.  The only question which remains is who sanctioned and paid for this virus.  This scenario would be golden for the literary world if we still had one.  We don't.  Americans no longer read, and this absence reading novels has left a void in American consciousness.  Similarly film provided a necessary foreshadowing of the future.  The speculation and its accompanying scientific logic created a burgeoning industry in Hollywood.  Rational life as we have known it could be capsulized by the genres of Hollywood films.  No these categories seems foreign and dull, because our emotional senses have become altered in response to the Communist plot.  Ironically the pursuit of red often has been of interest to America, and yet we can't remember that.  McCarthyism was such a tenant.  Hollywood itself embraced the eventual threat of Communist ideals with a tangible black list of known sympathizers.  Can you believe this?  If you were found to sympathize with Communist ideas, then you were singled out and scorned in public like a witch.  Evidently the threat of  Communism in America over the decades was a formidable and important threat to America democracy and freedom.  These witch hunts continue to look like histrionics, but I am beginning to understand that this pursuit of red was merited.  Why?  In the last few days while Covid seems to be making a resurgence, somehow my mind has been cleared of the spin.  We have taken Covid seriously, and I am fully vaccinated.  Still we continue to shelter in place, and it makes a difference.  The information about the disease has become hearsay and a political tool.  What are we to believe?  People fully vaccinated are spreading the delta variant?  It never has been more clear this pandemic is closet genocide, and its goals are far reaching.  If we still had a functioning literary community, a populace intelligent enough to understand complex human issues, then Covid should be a gold mine.  We are not.  We no longer speculate on the future.  We no longer explore human emotion, and consequently the genres of film are becoming increasingly extinct.  Do we still possess the capability to synthesize varying emotional states and enjoy them?  I think not, and Covid has not helped.  Live music and theater traditionally are a core vehicle for these indulgences.  Television once provided such a need, but all of that has been stymied with the onslaught of Communism.  The freedoms, emotional reactions, and indulgences of man, which are the core components of American life, have been assaulted.  Consequently we have mutated into a dense, insensitive, and uncaring animal.  We have regressed  to mother nature as speculated in the novel "The Lord of the Flies."  Communism, if anyone cared to look, wants what is happening in America, and the major titans of the American way of life have been film directors, musicians, and other artists who understand what swings.  In the last few days it has been distilled in my mind like pure alcohol.  The determinant is and always has been, "Who can swing?"  

America's Covert Conversion to Communism

 I never spent time thinking about red.  Red and blue states emerged  as a political distinction.  Whence this came I do not know.  I paid no attention.  When Donald Trump ran for president, I was required to understand red states were the new Republicans (extreme far right), and blue states were democratic.  A schism occurred in American history, when the parties reversed.  All of it is a fabricated attempt at chaos and anarchy in American politics.  It has succeeded.  I live in a red state, which in my memory always was blue.  Once this state truly was conservative.  When Jim Hunt was governor things were tight.  Now this state is a circus of crime, military warfare, and corrupt republican politics.  Phil Berger and his majority Republican state house are a disappointment.  What kind of state senate enacts legislation which reduces a governor's power because of his party affiliation?  It is corrupt.  Gerrymandering is as common as spraying agricultural fields with animal feces and urine.  Kinlaw Farms has done this a long time, and luckily a judge ruled in favor of the poor black folks who live near these farms.  Contrarily our state no longer is desperate for revenue.  This revenue goes mostly to wealthy republicans.  Our General Assembly refused Obama's Medicaid Expansion money, so millions still are uninsured.  Our state voted for Donald Trump, and he is a criminal.  Talk about being in the lion's den.  Always I have known our state inherently was evil, and it continues to prove itself.  Thom Tillis has proposed another pay raise  for the military.  Why?  The answer is to secure their votes.  Soldiers with no collateral are given sizeable mortgages ensnaring them in military service for life.  This works for Uncle Sam.  Get a soldier on the hook for a house he can't afford, and he must stay in.  This began with Bill Clinton and the entire sell anyone a house policy.  Who cares if they can't afford it?  Sell it to them anyway, and write it into the mortgage their payments will double or triple unbeknownst to them.  The United States Housing Crisis was begun and resulted in our 2008 Financial Crisis.  We have not recovered.  The era of honesty in America is gone, and Communism covertly has taken hold.  It has been a sly on the down low transition.  The modern generation is too ignorant to know any different.  Basic human desires and inclinations have become skewed.  Only this could explain the current Conditions of America.  There is no rationale to our lives, and human needs no longer are important.  We are a herd of cattle, and the vestiges of American freedom and happiness are gone.  We don't even know what freedom is.  Basic human need is not considered much less accommodated.  Trophy Wife may be the best title.  A trophy wife feigns the appearance of success, but rarely is she.  She is desperate and thinks Cooking and Fucking are cities in China.  Trophy wife families are dysfunctional, because they are chasing the grail.  In military families the marriage is a business relationship which seeks to exploit Uncle Sam.  Rarely are the based on love.  Instead they are opportunists with very little formal education.  I have traveled all around the world, and America is the most maladjusted.  Our pattern of behavior has been on television for a long time.  Zombies have been in fashion, and zombies we have become.  How could it be worse?

The Orchestra Piano Gig

I have had lucid dreams about the cruise ship orchestra piano job.  Somehow I got stuck with this gig, and it is because there are not many brave enough to tackle its challenges.  While often the position becomes a lame duck spot (because keyboardists simply can't do it), and when this is the case the musicality of the entire vessel sinks to the level of "canned" or "industrial" music.  The music on a cruise ship by default is such.  They have elaborate production companies who design, implement, and produce their shows.  Within this construct is an amazing amount of ship politics, and this political regime is infused with homosexuality.  Why?  What does being gay have to do with producing ship production shows?  Your guess is as good as mine.  I don't care to spend my time thinking about such things.  It is an unnecessary evil, and exactly like the American military (directly from the horses mouths) you better accept it.  It is not spoken about.  It just is.  We have the Catholic Church, their clergy, and their alter boys.  We have the Boy Scouts, their leaders, and their prey.  We have Hollyweird.  We have Bill Cosby.  We have Jeffrey Epstein.  (or we had him until conveniently he leaned against a towel tied to his bed and seemingly suffocated)  We have gay Army generals, of which no one speaks either.  I am beginning to think this Gay Mafia is the new enemy.  I did not intend to write about homosexuality.  I would rather never think about it again, but it has become entwined in every aspect of our lives unbeknownst to us.  Necessarily when you do a ship orchestra piano job, you will be dealing with homosexuality part of the time.  What a drag.  What more it is a total and complete distraction from the job intended.  It becomes manipulated into something other than what the company intends.  The creative or artistic component of society often gets skewed to the gay side.  Why?  There is enough on the plate of an orchestra pianist without being distracted by this.  If the employee who finds himself in this position is not capable of fulfilling its requirements, then the cast and orchestra become a drag show.  This often is one of the slants applied to cruise ship production shows.  If your production singers are not strong, then the easiest methodology is to turn the shows into camp.  It is disgusting.  In one particular show the capable and strong female production lead belted, "I am the Man of La Mancha."  Clearly she wasn't, and it was a tragedy those on the production end were irresponsible enough to ignore the gender identities of the original songs.  This is an issue with which America is faced today.  The idea that human beings have become androgynous amebas, big globs of non gender fat cells with no identify of their own is ludicrous.  It is gender or sexual orientation that makes life interesting.  To regress to the level of earthworms is disgusting, reprehensible, and sickening.  It is a requirement to become gender neutral when working in the cruise industry, but I won't go into why.  Certainly it is easy to control your herd if they are mindless, sexless, amebas.  With that idea in mind lets look at America.  We are Communist.  Our major providers who pay no taxes are Amazon and Walmart.  Legislation was passed by the Donald empowering corporate America and enabling them to take from the coffer but not give back.  We are Communist.  Our rebellious voices have been quelled, our artists and role models have either died, sold out, or become sexually depraved, and there no longer is economic or social mobility.  We are addicted to smartphones and walk around looking at our palms.  What does any of this have to do with America, the orchestra piano job, and the rest?  The answer is you must adhere to these unspoken principles to survive.  Fine.  You know that going in.  There will be little or no creative license in your keyboard performances.  You will do as you're told, and you will try to play to match the rhythmic concept of the "canned" or "industrial" nature of the production music.  In a nutshell this means there is no live feel to the music, because it is prerecorded with a rigid click track, and the 'tracked' performances usually realized through MIDI are generated by a computer sequencer.  These computer programs choose the most base and rhythmically devoid rhythmic concepts in existence.  As you will find trying to match a keyboard track for many cruise companies, the physical motion is stiff, robotic, and unmusical.  This is a musical fact, and never will it change.  It would be far too difficult and costly to ask a producer to provide human musical performances.  Some cruise companies are better than others, and whether you believe it or not groove, musicality, and humanity in the production shows predicate ratings.  For one ship only I was allowed to bring keyboard equipment to my job.  I designed and assembled a small rack of keyboard modules that sounded much better than the stock Kurzweil provided in the theater.  I had worked on the ship before, so I knew the shows.  I brought to the productions a heightened musical sense with keyboard performances to match.  In less than one week the ship was rated number one in the ratings.  Suddenly new enthusiasm emerged for the shows, and they began to renovate the sound and lighting systems in the main theater.  New equipment began to arrive including a sophisticated espresso machine for the crew mess hall.  This is the power of music and a well conceived, produced, and performed musical show.  The majority of ships do not have this.  They have compromises, because the musicians hired do not have the skill or understanding how to articulate a quality performance.  Live music is a thing of the past.  How does a keyboardist confront this problem?  It is not rocket science.  Often I say my compositional collegiate training allowed me to keep the job on the ships.  I spent the majority of my time re-writing the keyboard charts, so that they could be read and played.  Most often they were a travesty of fly specks, gibberish, and compositional narcissism.  If you want the music to be performed, it must be written and copied well.  There is no short cut.  The rules of classical composition apply, and these guide lines allowed me to wade through the ego of cruise ship production politics.  People feared me, because I knew more about music than anyone on a ship.  This meant you had to take this music seriously, study it, practice it, learn it, and perform it each week.  Often it was a major drag, but then again this is work, not fun.  The concept of the "Showband" piano job was it was meant to be a "pick up" gig.  That means that the music should be written in such a way that a new hire should be able to pick up the music in a few tries.  There are no overly complicated sections.  There is little classical fare.  Often you fill in the gaps like most commercial keyboardists playing in bands on land.  Again certain cruise companies are better at this than others.  A keyboard can add a certain dimension to a show if needed, but often the orchestration is rich enough on its own and features the production singers.  One particular company used the piano sounds as the basis for everything, and its content was not unlike the music of J.S. Bach.  It was written in four voice style the way a classically trained pianist often would play.  This is unusual in commercial music.  As such these notes in the piano parts were the foundation of the entire show.  This piano part had to be articulated accurately and clearly, because everyone in the cast relied upon it.  (What a drag!)  The aid to learning a densely composed show was analyzing its content.  A copy of the prerecorded tracks was a necessity.  You had to sit and listen to these tracks (although often they were musically painful) and watch the music go by.  You would be watching poorly notated, computer generated, piano notation with few corrections.  Often the show had been transposed for a needy production singer.  It was your task to organize this music into numbers, put the numbers in the proper order, and learn the sequence of music.  More often than not the transitions between numbers were more difficult than the numbers themselves.  You learn this trick over time, just like you learn how to play Count Basie arrangements for a Captain's Cocktail.  Count Basie was a pianist, and later in his life as his skills waned he created a style of minimalist piano "licks."  He sat and grinned most of the time, and then he would drop in a few tasty piano "licks."  If you were to be successful as the pianist in the ship orchestra playing Count Basie tunes, you had one task.  Before the set you would put your music in order and look through the tunes to find these particular "licks."  Often they would be intros or endings with a few transitions thrown in.  The notes were specific, so you had to learn them cold.  Then it didn't matter if you played much during the arrangement.  What mattered was you feigned Count Basie accurately.  There are many tricks of the trade, and the biggest one is to have recordings of your shows.  If you could listen to an upcoming show ahead of time and get it in your ear, you would survive the rehearsal better.  Rest assured with certain Guest Entertainers the playing field was tilted the pianist.  Taking your written music seriously and designing and setting up your keyboard rig are the two largest requirements for the orchestra pianist.  They will try to divert you, and they will try diligently to make you fail.  Like any college trained pianist, you make the music your own.  That means having a quality digital piano set up exactly the same way with the same sound for every show.  You should program it yourself including the necessary sounds you will use on any commercial gig.  To date I have yet find one simple MIDI module that provides all of these sounds.  Instead you will have to program the given digital piano on a particular ship.  This is a drag and is time consuming, but it is the job.  If you accomplish these things, then the ship's orchestra can function without neurosis.  They rely on you to hold it together.  If you fail to do this, the gig will become a drunken sideshow.  It could be fun, but those who call themselves musicians really prefer to play the music.