The Trench Take

Switched to Substack

2022-01-20T13:44:00.004-05:00

Like the linkage to GETTR (@askforcor)

Ability to include in e-mails to friends.

https://wcoreytrench.substack.com

I have also left LinkedIn. Very problematic viewing of posts and I am NOT looking for work.

Instant Gratification (Written December 7, 2012)

2022-01-10T13:21:00.002-05:00

Our world is instant. For every need or problem, a fix or service may be found – when all works as expected and we command sufficient funds or credit.

Think of everything the day brings that satisfies. A cup of coffee, a cigarette, a spin on the bike, a striking profile, the morning paper's scandalous headline, a deadline, a text message, a light switch, a swig of alcohol, someone waiting for us, a stirring gaze, a hot shower, pleasant smells, the sight and touch of love, a familiar personality flickering on a screen, taste of a fine meal, a surge in the Dow Jones, a computer game that becomes reality's obsession. A drug that masks the truth.

Aren't we saturated with an emotional response when we don't get what we want and when we want it? For the powerful, and not always well-intentioned, a wonderful weakness and opportunity has arisen. Product and service purveyors first compete, then consolidate to monopolize our compulsion for instant gratification.

Human brains, once small, morphed and grew – quite shockingly at a stage of evolution – and then started to shrink. One theory is that we have become less aggressive and combative for scarse resources, more specialized in our skills, and therefore more dependent on each other for something more than survival. While being alone in the wilderness would require a heightened sense of awareness and almost infinite knowledge and, thus, a weightier brain.

It's just a theory, but what does it say about our times and circumstances when so much is demanded of us?

We have been trained to expect instant gratification. We have been trained to follow – even penalized and shunned for veering away from its path – the crowd. It is a wonder individuals find the courage to wander off into the wild to reflect, aggravate, create, improve life for all. Had conventional education consistently taught us to lead, individuality would have been heralded and many new possible directions spawned. Every so often, a spectacular light shines, captures our imagination, and steers herds into an expansive corral that acknowledges each of us. That form of leadership we laud and seek to magnify, only to later crucify and incorporate it into an even larger, questionable ring. Social justice: Gambling for education. Smoking for healthcare. All tax the weak to keep them weak and perpetuating funds for cocktail soirees in public institutions for good intention and history's recognition.

When we think with these smaller, more powerful brains, can we not see that our own desires for instant gratification subsume us? Large scale domestication, while its benefits are mutual cooperation for mutual benefit, surrenders us to power, control, and domination by the few. Perfectly legal monopolies. Alternatives: They are the enemy to smother.

If we were truly free, we would not seek to ruin the individual. But, we do. Think B.F. Skinner applied to the classroom. The secret formula? Instant gratification. A well sung song in unison, doesn't that appeal to everyone? Powers and influence simply allege, threaten panic, and then promise our satisfaction. We fall to our worn knees in praise, humming imperceptibly.

Not true? Count the promises and excuses that beckon throughout 2012. Will none call for the rebirth of the pure and true sovereign, and humble himself? Isn't it time to free the individual, stripped of all tethers, heavy obligations and guilt, that paralyze? Our patience shall be rewarded.

2022: A continuation of 2020 and Covid-19 Government Mayhem

2022-01-01T09:56:00.005-05:00

It's the New Year. Seems like a continuation of 2020. Yes, 2020.

More division. More uncertainty. Less harmony, less healing. Little inspiration.

Consider the Year Ending White House statement. If you are unvaccinated, death awaits you this winter. WOW! That's uplifting.

(If you watch no other interview, watch Robert Malone, MD interviewed by Joe Rogan. Yes, he is very careful and rambling at times. Most scientists are. It looks like it has already been banned. Like Dr. McCullough's the week before. Wow!!!!!)

Had decent argument about vaccination with my son Phil before he left. He felt that I was too emotional, irrational, and defensive for a learned human being. Wondered why I would rely on one guy (McCullough) as evidence for my decision to opt for self-care and early treatment over vaccination.

My ability to argue is not as sharp as it used to be. I was never good at rout memorizing. On this subject, I would be willing to bet that I have read much, much more on the subject than the average person. I also believe that my instincts about the credibility of scientists is stronger than most. (It comes down to how they express themselves around uncertainty and evidence.)

What we could agree on:

1. Neither one of us trusts the government to lead our lives.

2. We should be free to speak and make our own decisions.

3. For people who are elderly, over 65, the vaccine appears to improve a person's ability to recover from Covid-19 (faster), at least the alpha version. (By about a 1%. Not statistically significant.)

I will admit that when I am insulted and told that I am crazy for my views, I tend to cut off a conversation with someone.

Phil sees the our government's and the world's decision to push vaccination as a calculated risk to avoid massive death. (The models were way wrong, of course. Jury is out on whether we have killed more than we saved.) They did not want to risk having hospital's over-run. The data on this are clear. People were dying.

He also believes that children were spreading the virus to old people and therefore we needed to contend with this situation. Close schools, require mask-wearing, and vaccinate children.

My family, two sons and one wife, all believe this is true and that I am persuaded by the skeptics who do not provide evidence against this decision-making. Maybe even believe that those of us who do not like this vaccine are only Republicans and voted for Trump. (Which is pretty well established as untrue. (Cue RFK, Jr, Naomi Watts) Most are either rather learned, people who have been mistreated by the government in the past and doubt that the government has their best interests at heart, or others who look askance at any abrupt decision made by government that is a one size fits all solution.)

Phil, Corey, and Suzy believe that the government will not mandate vaccination, nor require passports. I am skeptical. They will defend my right to decide.

If you close restaurants, shopping, and employment to people who don't show proof of vaccination, then you leave people no option but to self-isolate and form new communities of acceptance (which may be okay).

I am playing golf every day on a military base because once if I am ever required to show proof, a card, my membership will be over. Recall, I mowed fairways at the Golden Horseshoe and had to stop because proof of vaccination was required.

While I am signed up to attend the mandate protest in Washington DC Jan 23, I am unlikely to attend. One thing I agree with Phil on is that I have no young children. This is not my fight, but I do support parents who are against masking children and vaccinating for Covid-19. Also support medical doctors right to treat patients as they see fit. I want to be there for them, but honestly I feel fragile with the loss of Collin. Don't want to wind up in jail for simply being there.

Collin and I found having to take the vaccine stressful. Could have been being around people. He passed on his appointment to take it. He was concerned about my decision, which I explained to him and he accepted. I assured him that I had taken precautionary measures. Shared them with him. As a balance, I shared his mother's concern that I might be influencing him NOT to to take it. He assured me that that was not the case. Now we know that something larger was looming in his mind.

Paul Marik, Peter McCullough, Harvey Risch, Robert Malone, Zev Zelenko, Pierre Kory, Richard Fleming, Peter Breggin, Joseph Mercola are a sliver of the American medical doctors of incredible reputations, research, and practice who we have censored in this country and believe this vaccination program should be STOPPED to evaluate and debate the results and harm.

My point to Phil is, When he considers a deal, he spots RED FLAGS. My first red flag was when Trump bragged about Warp Speed and skipping steps. He abandoned doctors who were begging for early treatment therapy support. Yet, he used these methods in his own recovery. I lost faith in him at this moment. He buckled (I hope it is not worse, but Dr. David Martin describe an Executive Order that he signed. An explanation is required. For me, this takes him out of contention as a candidate for President again.)

Would you invest in a person who skipped steps of a tried and true process that allowed the production of a TRULY safe and effective vaccine?

Would you experiment with a brand new technology (mRNA technology), used for the first time, on the world's population to save 40 and over people from death, with the majority dying because they are fat, and vitamin D3 deficient?

Never has the government advocated weight loss, exercise, better nutrition, vitamin D3 level checking as preventive measures.

Red flag.

Our government is lying to us, as they have done many times before. That extends to other governments. Why? I HAVE NO IDEA WHY! Except greed. Materialism and hubris will be the death of humanity, not disease or famine.

We all want to see harmony in this world. I am not sure we can get it here. That does not mean we stop.

In the short run, I would rather be in a red than blue state, because at least there is the possibility that I will be free to make my own decisions. Live my own life. Speak freely with other people.

Tribute Video to Collin: It's impact

2022-01-01T08:13:00.001-05:00

Since joining a father's group, I have learned that we are the only ones who can comprehend the magnitude of the loss of a child and its impact on our lives.

Like so many experiences in life, we say, You have to have been there. Marriage and parenthood are two good examples.

When I am with these guys each week, I feel that there is nothing you cannot say. A response will come that provides a comfort in knowing.

My layers of armor are so thick. From years and years of learning to hide my hurt and tears, dating back to my early childhood, a switch has emerged that automatically shuts down my emotions. An extended period of shock is perhaps normal. I could not feel a thing on seeing my own sons body, motionless, dead for perhaps a week. Yes, I prayed a short prayer. Otherwise, I did not know what to do.

Over my day, I think about him constantly. He is always on my mind.

Finally, when my son Corey showed this video tribute, I was able to feel and cry. In an uncontrollable way. I was safe and with family.

You can tell yourself, as a father, you are no responsible for his decision, but you will never fully convince yourself that you are not. I could hear this said by people a thousand times a day for the rest of my life, but I am father. He was my son and it was on my watch.

God entrusted me to teach him. Yes, you raise them to be on their own. "They follow their own path," as I said in our documentary, A Fortunate Son. It's as if I forecast and showed my own sorrow at loss years ahead of Collin's loss. A rationalization that cannot be fully accepted.

We make many mistakes in life. Some small and stupid. Others are unforgivable except by God and then only then when we pray for forgiveness. And, then who knows?

Collin was not long for this world. He was born dealing with problems his very first year of life. Yet, he lived. He was fun. He was smart. He was thoughtful. He was kind. He kept learning, exploring, developing new skills.

If only he had found one friend who would had been there for him. Who he trusted and felt he could share with and experience no judgment. A major consequence of living with a serious mental illness. I know he has this now. Accepting it is a whole other matter.

America Driving Blind

2021-12-25T08:40:00.002-05:00

You find yourself at odds with all who cooperate with the government, including your family.

A tough place to be. The contrarian.

At some point, you have to find your own mind. I miss the conversations I might have been having during this period of duress. Perhaps I will find him at Deer Cove today.

America is driving blind. Merry Christmas, America.

All TV and major press reports as you would expect. The same thing. Over and over. Without deviation. No mistakes.

Message 1: Get vaccinated. Keep getting vaccinated. Until we say, Stop.

Message 2: The unvaccinated are the life extension of the CoV-2 virus and its evolution.

The coming message is. Isolation.

As I was walking at Corolla Beach, I could not help but thinking, This is it. The end is coming. Turned around. The beginning is here. He departed before things would get rough for all of us. He knew.

We have no driver. No leader. No direction.

It comes down to us. The few. The skeptical, the sensible. Those who took Virology 101.

I have long believed that we lead ourselves. You think of a hike into the woods. All by yourself. Maybe there is a path. Maybe not. No one is directing you.

It's up to you. You are responsible for yourself.

Where it gets complicated is when others join you. You have to decide which way to go. Who shall you believe to make that decision? Do you vote and the majority decides? Shall it be a consensus?

You can quickly determine why going alone is easier. You make your own decisions. Learn from your mistakes. Don't have to resort to persuasion. Yes, you do not have the benefit of another view. That's a disadvantage.

You can be wrong. Way wrong. The group decision can be wrong. Way wrong.

Still we are not a civilization of one. We need each other. Until we find acceptance and forgiveness, there is no room for hope.

Prayer and meditation provide the place where we can begin to see our way. Writing allows me a place to release and reflect. Try out ideas, with no repercussions. It's my space. Does not matter if I am wrong, right, or neither There are no triggers. Only the imagination. One's own mind.

I love this place. Belong here. Need a comfortable place to sit. Quiet. Some light. A keypad, pen and paper.

If I went through all my writings, digital and printed, I wonder what I would find? My guess, I would re-discover the peace that is always there. Experiences. Lessons.

I was crying at the end of "A Fortunate Son" when I discussed finding your own path. It is the art of letting go, where we recognize that we diverge from being a group to that of being an individual. Each of us is unique.

We don't do what our parents what of us. If we are true parents, we let nature take its course. This is a hard thing to do. We are men and women with egos. Each of us think he or she is right. We want control. To know that we are driving. We are slow to give ip the wheel and let someone else drive.

Inevitably, we do.

What you ride in a driverless car? You did not know who was driving? Worse, did not trust the driver?

A blind person has no choice. If he drives, he has no control. He must select his driver carefully. Once he gets in the car, that's it.

Blind. It's a metaphor.

The Boomers' Crisis: Our WWII Challenge (Written February 17, 2009)

2021-12-10T09:27:00.003-05:00

We can't help being born in our times. We're the Boomers. That is our place in American history.

The kicker is that even though we have arguably achieved the most, individually and collectively, of any generation with our demography, we have not been tested. Think about it.

Sure, we have had set-backs, but they pale in comparison with those of our fathers and mothers. As children, they knew real Depression. They experienced a lasting sense of potential annihilation by nuclear weapons. They truly feared for our futures, even though they were loathe to express it. That had no particular expectations for the rising value of their homes, portfolios, and longevity of their lives. They had more faith in God, a bigger plan that was not in their hands.

We have had Viet Nam and Watergate. We have had 9-11. We have experienced significant rises and drops in our stock market and our savings. We know high and low interest mortgages. Refinancing. Funding our kids' college educations has challenged our credit. We worry about the care of our parents. Our faith is more mystery than destiny.

But, as a generation, we have benefitted fantastically by advances in computer technology (micronization of transistors) and medical care. The notion of choice, having choices and opportunities galore. I would argue that we are significantly better off, massively, than any other generation in our history, not because of the value of the dollar or real wages, those have suffered by dilution and inflation, but because of the accessibility of knowledge (the internet, cheap books); the ability to communicate frictionlessly, digitally, anywhere, anytime for pennies; to travel to-and-from work comfortably and worldwide inexpensively. We have the prospect for living long, high quality lives, because of diet, exercise, and medical care.

Maybe, because of our numbers, we have diluted the value of our assets. What good is a closet full of valuable stuff, when the house burns down?

Our generation's presidents are Bill Clinton and George Bush, the beneficiaries of the self-sacrifice of those who protected us from Nazi control. Can we think of two more self-indulgent leaders? Well, there was Kennedy, the clandestine one.

Two and out.

Now, we have a leader in President Obama, who comes to us with a mop and bucket. He has learned quickly and well from his older brothers that to govern is to manipulate by fear and threat, followed by retreat and observation. Act calmly. It might be a valid approach to control the masses. A higher level of control, intimidation, works for China.

Our generation shows no signs of wanting to finish what we started, our over-achievement, we are still wanting that brass ring of retirement, and abdicating to the next generation, our little brothers and sisters to bail us out of our self-indulgent behaviors.

Mortimer Fineberg wrote a book Why Smart People Do Dumb Things. It boils down to one word, in my humble opinion, hubris. That would be our Waterloo.

All you have to do is listen to the spoken word of celebrities, politicians, industrial titans, and government bureaucrats. Hubris is abundant.

Humility and honor, as broad-based ways of living, conduct, are largely absent or considered expressions of weakness. Comedian and DC Radio Talk Show Host Mort Saul famously said, in 1980, eventually we would be selling each other Ford Pintos. That would be our economy. Our lives. Sales. You can't make a sale by being quiet.

Most of us know that we have built a house of cards. What we forget is that that house is actually a home built out of liberty. Our individual freedom is the strongest asset that America, as a society, correctly discovered and turned into a society, a place, and a way of existing. Individual freedom. Freedom of free people to assemble. Assembly.

As boomers, we understand the benefits of freedom. Enterprise. Then why have we done more to take it away than any other generation? We would need personal lawyers, accountants, and regulatory experts to possibly comply with every law and regulation that we have created. It shows how suspicious we are of freedom, in its purest form. Trust and freedom. Those words travel the same road.

Our test and challenge, our Moby Dick, has surfaced, but we have not seen him, pervasively. Had we, we would stopped the madness of hubris.

High IQ is naturally equatable with hubris. On the bell curve, these beneficiaries have native intelligence and great capabilities. Although not always, people of high IQ attain positions of authority, respect, control, and greater responsibility for their decision making.

Freedom knows no intelligence. It just is. Our mere conception is an expression of a form of intelligence that cannot be measured. It cannot be tested and, thus, subjected to a population curve. Yet, the intelligent among us, who find themselves in ruling positions, might falsely believe that in order to guarantee freedom among individuals that they must exercise power and control over the masses. That, again, would be the argument of the Chinese government.

This is a prescription for dumbing down freedom. Ultimately, our generation has done that. We have put straightjackets on everyone. We are all equally free or restricted. The rationale is that there are too many of us. Our actions impinge on each others freedom.

Seeing a pattern?

Over my consulting career, I have interviewed company executives and high level government agency officials on issues relating to the environment. Inevitably, when asked an open-ended question about their perception of the problem with environment al least one executive will opine that there are too many people.

Too many people? (Bombay has too many people, I would think.) As-in, if we had fewer people in the United States, on the planet, there would be fewer environmental problems. Think Stalin, Holocaust, human extermination.

If there were no people on the planet, there would still be waste, air and water pollution. It is the nature of life and death. The nutrient cycle.

In context of the globe, this pollution would be infinitesimal, at this point in linear, life and death, astro-geologic time. With 6.8 billion people, it still is vanishingly small. Uh? Our hubris is the reason we believe that we matter. We don't.

That does not mean that we cannot act with humility and honor, respect for other's freedom and right to it, and conduct ourselves accordingly. Such a simple thing that has absolutely nothing to do with the number of us in this world. That's a global excuse for population control, which happens quite naturally when resources are scarce.

We have the ability to exercise choice, more choice than ever.

The Boomer Test? It will be the nearly impossible one. Keep every one of us, and our future glimmers, free, just as we are when we arrive on this earth and leave.

That is our test, in my humble view. It is hard to imagine losing any more freedom than we already have, but we could, like sand slipping through our fingers.

There is no recipe for freedom. It is. There are many ways to take it away. The question is, What can an entire generation of over-achieving, self-indulgent people do to allow inalienable rights: Freedom and liberty to live immortally.

Reading Past Works: Journalling

2021-12-06T10:07:00.002-05:00

My writing is always fresh. Edited little. Often driven by some emotion (e.g., anger, love, sorrow, joy, creative impulse, intense curiosity).

Deer Cove @ Cheatam Annex: Finishing a Round

I have been reading this book called AWE: The Automatic Writing Experience by Michael Sandler. He describes the method as accessing another world. Channeling from something other than our egos. My wife said that she figured I already did this. Many writers I am sure do.

Michael's approach begins with meditation, prayer, an expression of gratitude, and then asks a question or seeks guidance. A formula to help you access higher planes. He describes himself as a writer. I would do the same. Writers don't have to be wildly known or published. A creative writing teacher described the best writing as being read by few. Inspiration enough for me in a world that is motivated to ask one question, What do you do?

When I write, it was for my own pleasure and education. Like AWE, it could be described as flow. CHICK-SICK-MUH-HIGH-LEE flow. Like golf, I do it for no measurable purpose. Not score or competition. I play for the joy of it. Being in nature, solitude. When I write, as I am now, it is the same thing. Carefree focus.

No one has to read it. Not even me. You can replay a golf round in your mind, but why? Maybe to relive the feeling of a particular shot. My posts, I re-read to recall earlier views and projections. Correct mistakes. Sometimes.

Over four hundred posts are here at The Trench Take. Last night, I searched on a word to see what I had previously written between 2009 and today, 2021. Twelve years. Seems like a long time, but it is not. I started journalling in 1977, but threw all those journals away because they served no purpose other than to work through something.

Writing was unnatural, as was reading. Both came slowly. At the beginning, I was an extremely slow typist and even slower reader. How I know that I am connecting with something outside of me is that I will suddenly type better, more accurately. Not backspace so much. Maybe keep up with the incoming information. Reading ... it is the same thing. A book connects and I can move lightening fast.

In my 12:30 AM search, I believe we have had experiences, been given information that does portend the future. We get caught up in events of the day. They inspire a reaction. As a generation, we Boomers have encountered ZERO mass challenges where defeat as a nation or world was a possibility. I have often wondered if we would ever know such an event.

The WWs, Spanish Flu, stock market crash, Depression, Dust Bowl ... these are all monumental events that change an era. Defeat and loss would change the people who survive.

Covid-19 is a symptom of the world-wide society in which we live. Materialism defines the separation of people. If we ascend high above ground level, into the spiritual world, heaven, we look down on a mirage. None of it is real. Certainly, famine, lack of nutrition, no shelter, disease are real. But at the opposite end of materiality ... it is unreal. A fantasy that would be devastated by an untreatable disease. Mean nothing.

Our challenge is something much bigger. It is our minds. Our reaction to all the artificial stimulation. Newsprint, movies, TV shows, sports events, music... the prospect of death. Man-made systems of governance, care, transportation, water, sewer, electric, internet, social networks .... We have known since Viet Nam, in our generation, that we can be deceived by elected officials and public servants. Combined with news, we have been moved in one direction, massively, that proved detrimental to our freedom. Yet, we would be persuaded that the opposite was true.

The addiction to know, to relive an emotion, whether we voluntarily relive it or take a drug to help us get there ... in either case ... is powerful. What we think, convince ourselves of, is we must know what is happening in the OJ trial, for example. What Fauci's view of the latest Corona virus protein.

I re-read my first post about Covid-19 and my updates. Corona Virus: Event of our Lives (March 12, 2020) and its links to other posts about the power of events.

Collin's death was such an event for me. Corona is an event (albeit hyped event) that affects how we think and emote. A distraction. A form of paralysis of fear. All staged. I wonder if we had known nothing about it, what would have happened?

Older and unhealthy people would have died. At a faster rate than normal. Maybe. For a time. We never let natural immunity take hold. We interrupted it artificially. Government interfered with personal sovereignty, freedom, individual choice, free assembly.

The result: societal PTSD. Fear of living because we might die someday. Almost finished McDonald's United States of Fear. How did our mass state of mind happen? An LA psychiatrist, he offers view that will repulse liberal thinkers, but it has happened.

To be a man, a 50s man, became unacceptable in our society. Knew men my age and older who lost jobs to women simply because they were men. Society demanded a re-balancing. Same thing has happened with race. The right thing to do for society. In whose opinion? God's or Government's. But, government is us, right? It's one thing we learned from Trump. The swamp runs things, not the President. It happens because we let it. Feed it from our colleges and universities who produce nothing more than automatons. Chips off the monolith. How sad?

We put white male talent, experience, creativity, en masse, in a huge closet. Worse, we not so subtley told them that it was their fault for being born as white males. You think this did not happen?

Many people hated Rush Limbaugh. Not conservative men (of all races by the way) or women who favored real men. The ones who opened doors and held chairs for women. The ones who died inside at the thought of abortion. Those who are unafraid to acknowledge that they were Christians and believed in God. Read the Bible. Prayed to Almighty God for forgiveness. Believed in an afterlife, an eternity that was contingent. How frail and sinful we truly are.

What are today's results.

Open borders. Anyone can come in. Anyone can vote. Laws and regulations mean nothing. Cities being openly burned and stores looted. All run by liberal democrats. High crime rates. Homeless everywhere. Statues of white men, historic leaders, being removed. Streets and buildings renamed. National debt that has no ceiling. Suddenly the white male has become endangered, unless he acts and speaks the right way. Or better keeps his mouth shut.

Horrified, yet? Show me how I am man who does not care, defend, help, and act for another human being? I would defend women and children no matter what? I could do much more than I have done. At the moment, I must keep an oxygen mask on.

In my view, there is very clear before and after. You can see that America I knew (that cheers the flag, embraced a national, freedom-rooted identity) is not coming back. Not here. You cannot deny it. All of this has bred incalculable anxiety and fear. Inaction. I am revolted by our generation's lack of concern for humanity. McDonald's right, this is the fault of men who stopped up standing up for themselves and their views. Men who caved. How many conversations have been in about principles that I kept my mouth shut in the interest of peace and someone else's views. Too many.

Why? A matter of economic survival.

At this point, I really don't care if I have a single friend who thinks similarly. I really don't. I am on the doorstep of my demise. We all get there. We're born alone. Die alone. The only regret one could have is not living what you believe. Faking it. We have let Marxist, atheistic, anti-individualist, abortionist views over-run us to the point that China will never fire a shot. Our values have become theirs. Human life is expendable. They own us because of the greed of our US corporations, Wall Street elite, and politicians who sold us out. Not just white men, but mankind. The people doing it? Ironically, are white men ... Biden, Fauci, Gates, Bezos, Soros ... and white men I can't name.

Name one person of color who is leading us? (Obama plays golf. Probably every day like me.) One female?

The Boomers have been thrown down the gauntlet from a higher plane. God's challenge to us. Will we claw the earth to save our own lives or will we save our children, the next generation, from mass vaccination? It boils down to this one action.

What cause are we willing to die for?

I hope it is the future, unborn generations and not our own flesh.

Finding My Way (Revised 12/6/21)

2021-11-15T09:49:00.008-05:00

I have not written here for awhile. Spending my time playing golf at Deer Cove. A daily part of my routine. Walking with Steve and meeting with the guys at the Williamsburg Fairweather Lodge.

This is my recovery. A routine that I can handle. Not everyone will understand. The public me is not even close to the private me. Every time I come back to this place of solitude an event has sent me here. It is as if life serves me another lesson, an experience. To let go. Accept loss as part of life.

Is God calling me to a change of directions?

Here is a typical scene. Right along the York River at Cheatam Annex, Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. This is the green for number 7.

After Collin died, some days later I played here alone. Looking for myself. The word has gotten around to let me play alone. Very light conversation. Know few people here.

On the 11th hole, I was approaching the green, a par 3, where my ball had landed. And, a butterfly approached me, then circled the ball, then circled the flag and came back to me. Ever since finding him, I had been frozen. The thaw began.

For the past 16 years, I have been making stories up in my head about him, trying to be the father I wanted to be to him. To all of my three sons. The thought that he is gone is something I can neither comprehend, nor fully accept. He flies as a butterfly, changes shape in a cloud, communicates with me in some way. All the while assuring me he is okay and helping me to rationalize that I did my best.

No father, no parent, no brother, no friend should have to endure such a loss. Yet, it happens. (More often than we know.) When we do, there is some portion that nurses memories. The best ones. Some portion of us looking for peace, sleep. Another that wants to feel joy and lightheartedness again.

Regardless, in every respect, I am a father. This was my main mission in life. Here we are at The Pompey Club. Collin worked here, then Phil. Corey made Born Under a Bad Sign, a film noir, here. We played this crazy golf course event, set up by Phil, and actually placed third (I think). Corey had never touched a club. Collin had played when he was little. Together we were an amazing team. A beautiful memory.

At the dinner afterward, I learned that Collin (17) found lobster made him sick and we ordered a steak (everyone knew him there. He worked in the restaurant and as a cart attendant). I can remember one of the servers bringing the steak to him, only to happy to. "Here you go, honey." His elders really liked him.

The Pompey Club, Stan Gorman, gave Collin an opportunity to work. A chance. When he needed someone to believe in him. I will never forget that. Collin never let them down. He worked hard for people. Our family does. For some reason, we over-do it.

For me, this is life. How I will always see us. How I see myself. A father and his sons. All I ever wanted to be. I can hear them teasing one another, teasing me, laughing. Happy. All of us happy. Together.

Here we have taken a father and son trip to Southern California. Corey is already living there, trying to make his way into the TV and film industry. Phil is finishing up college, Collin is at OCC. All attended Onondaga Community College for two years and raved about it. Then, went on to four-year.

Like typical Trenches, we take the hard route. We decided to travel during the economic crisis in 2009. It's January. We will celebrate my 55th birthday with a walk to The Last Tree in LA, Corey's thesis film. (One of my favorite films.)

To see them using computers to arrange hotel rooms was a real trip. All culminating in seeing the LA Lakers. Once again, a beautiful memory.

People I have known want to connect. I understand this. To talk with them now, though, I know will keep in the past. Make living harder. How is that? Losing a son, a part of you, is not something you talk away the sorrow with people who you know. Maybe some fathers do. Not this one.

When I joined NAMI Williamsburg, I felt the need to speak publicly about serious mental illness and do it in a very personal way. You impact people by being open about your struggles. Your loved one's struggles. You expose yourself. You expose them. You have to reckon with throwing them under the bus for a greater cause. I literally hated myself for doing this while I was preparing to do it, then doing it. Rationalizing, how else would people know that we have to change directions.

Collin knew all of this. How? He knew me, yet still loved me. Never criticized me for being who I was. When I spoke about him, it was never as a critic. I was describing his experience as best I could. It hurt deeply to tell this story. Over and over. But it set up the solution, which was Hope Family Village.

What I want people to know is that I am okay. Doing my best. On a new path. All created by single event. The loss of my son to his mental illness.

Imagine thick woods interspersed with open spaces. No clear direction. And, I am carving a path where none exists. You don't look backward except to assimilate from your experiences. What you are dealing with is what is right in front of you.

Yes, having me as a friend is a difficult thing. Suzy and I have been in Albany, NY, NOVA, SOCAL, Sacramento, CA, Syracuse, NY and now Williamsburg, VA. We will be moving somewhere again.

Maybe some who knew me, my work at the time, will wonder whatever happened to me. Maybe not. It does not really matter. I certainly think about them at points. We don't to know all the events and details. We simply need to care and live our lives where we are.

Suzy and I have changed directions, projects, lives. Periodic moves have suited us. All part of our adventure.

Now, what's next?

That I don't know. Carving the next path. Very slowly. No time pressure or expectation.

What do I know? Tranquility is a vacuum. Empty space. A home. Calm. A comfortable place to be. Here answers to self-imposed questions will always emerge.

Collin Wood Trench (June 10, 1989 - September 11, 2021)

2021-09-23T04:06:00.007-04:00

With profound sorrow, we announce the sudden passing of our son and brother Collin Wood Trench on September 18, 2021. His is survived by his father, W. Corey Trench, Jr., his mother, Suanne Shields Trench, his two older brothers, Robert Corey Trench and Philip Shields Trench, and a grandmother, June Shields.

He loved playing on the soccer team.

During this time of mourning, the family requests privacy. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Hope Family Village (PO Box, 982, Williamsburg, VA 23187, www.hopefamilyvillage.org), a public charity, inspired by Collin, and dedicated to serving the concrete needs of caregivers and their loved ones who endure serious mental illness.

Collin was born an old soul. Intensely curious, he sought to understand, appreciate and interpret this world. He framed his questions with purity and purpose. Without readily revealing his beliefs and opinions, he wanted to know yours, suspending judgement.

Though born with club feet, he never let this impediment slow him down. Throughout his life, he never complained. He did the opposite. At great risk to himself, he attracted and imbibed the stories and pain of others, then would offer to help them. He could also share in their joy as if it were his own. He reflected an uncommon empathy for humanity, while privately pursuing his own ambitions and enduring struggles. Always he expressed his gratitude for help and support. He shunned being a burden to others.

Collin loved animals (particularly cats) and they gravitated to him. He inherited this trait from his great, grandmother (Emily Wood, her daughter, his grandmother (Margaret Trench Sawmiller) and through his father.

When he discovered an interest, particularly later in his young life, he would dive into it and demonstrate an early mastery few could. Philosophy, logic, and quantum theory would capture his imagination. He enjoyed puzzles, chess, drawing, and music. He was a modern day Renaissance man, who quietly roamed this plane without fanfare. A modest man, he lived with few wants and needs. Only independence and freedom.

At 10 years old, he first expressed his desire to live alone, in the country, with no mail box. At 14, he received his working papers and immediately went to work helping the elderly. He dreamed of purchasing and owning a car, which he would accomplish by 19. He fulfilled his intent to live alone and be independent. By then, he had realized the necessity of having a mailbox.

All the while, Collin stayed true to his nature. He never stopped his inquiry. He kept learning. He kept listening to and helping other people. He set an example of courage and kindness for all of us to emulate.

Mandatory Vaccination: I may lose friends (and more) over this. (Written August 20, 2021. Updated November 19, 2021.)

2021-08-24T03:19:00.012-04:00

(An email sent to The Shoe Breakfast Club. People who work (or once worked) at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club (Williamsburg, VA) and associated golf friends of mine.)

(Edit 11/19/21: The madness continue three months later. Vaccine passports, lockdowns for the unvaccinated in countries. Mind-boggling insanity. Last night I watched this interview with Del Big Tree of The High Wire. Makes complete sense and echoes the views of our finest medical doctors and epidemiologists (almost went into epidemiology while in NYS). McCullough, Malone, Zelenko, examples. In so many fields, scientists are frustrated at the lack of opportunity for debate and the emergence of the absurd, political term "settled science." Here's a medical doctor from Canada, Dr. Byram Brindle. Cancelled. After listening to this, it's no wonder colleges and universities have become the center of closed mindedness. Not from what I remember ... they were just head-in-the-clouds, academicians, but obviously very political. (BTW, found this piece through Tessa. She writes this interesting piece about truth. Since I have been there, I know the culture that had emerged.)

At this point, it is all about saving US children (parts of Africa, India already saved and they deserved saving). And, I have joined The Unity Project (it will be CA Youth who will set the next trend). At some point, we will re-realize how precious individual freedom and human rights are. New leaders will emerge, who while loathing our generation, will see that a few of us tried to show the way. This is a human reaction that cannot be stopped.

All,

Henry and I saw Jeromy (Superintendent at the Gold course, where I have mowed fairways in the mornings, beginning April 2021) yesterday afternoon. He told us that Colonial Williamsburg (CW) had announced that all CW employees and contractors (Kemper Sports, our employer) required vaccination by October 1. (I will seek a vaccine passport entitled "control group.")

I believe you all know me well enough to know that as much as I enjoy life, a good laugh with friends, I am deadly serious about certain things. My health is but one of those things. I study, investigate, think, use my common sense, and evolve with more information and experience. I can always be wrong. (My wife, in an innocent way, never let's me forget these occasions.We are still married after 43 years.)

Over the years, I have changed my diet and exercise routine numerous times. Sometimes I have wondered if it was even worth it. I believe the Lord sends us here from some reason and calls us home when our mission is complete. I have had this innate sense for most of my life. Have not always acknowledged it. Father Michael has helped me.

My concern is not for myself, it is for other people, in particular, our youth, our future. On every level this coercion by our government and businesses is morally wrong and reprehensible. Yes, that is an opinion. We all have opinions. But, I have watched the most credible voices silenced one after another. People who have been respected for all of their professional lives, now muzzled and isolated. Peter McCullough, MD, Robert Malone, MD, and on and on and on. These are our top US minds.

Besides, the Government is not God.

We find ourselves living in a society that is no longer free. That encourages debate, discussion. There has been NONE on SARS COV-2 and Covid-19. (You know the difference, right?) Yet, there is evidence all over the place that this program, worldwide, has been rushed out of the lab and foisted on to the population under a tent of fear and terror. (Provinces in India and the country of Sweden took entirely different directions to their benefit.) Believe me, I want to live and keep helping people, golfing, going to breakfast with you all, working at the Shoe, as long as I am able, I take few decisions lightly.

When this began, no spokesman told people the truth. Americans are fat and eat an unhealthy diet. Don't spend enough time outdoors. Instead we told people to STAY INSIDE. And, what did they do? Received less vitamin D3, disinfecting sunlight. Ate more. Worried. Watched TV. This stunning lack of honest communication promoted continued obsessive bad behavior. Favored our worst industries. Junk food and Screened Media.

When I saw the first presentations of all of this by Fauci and Burks, honestly, I wanted to believe them. (How many times have I been fooled.) Trump was pumping them up. They are the best in the world (!!!), he boomed. In my heart, I knew this was wrong. These were not our top people. Not even close. Warp Speed was planned long before the pandemic or anyone had heard of Covid viruses. This is documented in a book by Peter Breggin, MD and Ginger Breggin. (Not even released, yet. Paid for and read the the online draft.) Theirs is one among many calling out this debacle.

If you love your grandchildren, which I know you do … we must save them from this tyranny. I am begging you now to watch this video about blood clotting (D-Dimer test. You can find others.) It will be up for only 48 hours on Mercola’s web site. And, there are so many more pieces out there. Never covered by our media, which is a TOTAL JOKE!

We all make our decisions. These are our lives. The idea that we are killing one another by not vaccinating is absurd on every level. We have to stop this madness. Not for ourselves but our future. I say this as a man who is two of five who is unvaccinated in his family. My son, Collin. Who many of you have prayed over, and I can’t thank you enough, who once said to me, I think the medications are making me worse. And, I thought, what if the experts are wrong and he is right? He lived fro 10 more years. Now, that’s him and not other people I work with in our Fairweather Lodge. But, it was his life, his choice and we decided to support him.

We are screaming down a hill, on the wrong path, in our society … on so many fronts, but if we compromise our youth, there is no future. No opportunity to debate. I will add, There is no defense of our country and our freedom. 99.9 …. per cent of most categories of people recover from this virus. Virology 101 says it would have dissipated with natural herd immunity. (Despite our successes, man cannot keep up with biology. It’s a folly. Can AI? I will take God over computer code.) We don’t know if people will recover from the unknown longterm effects of a vaccine (which permanently alters our biology) because it is an experiment. We are in a research project for a vaccine that has not been tested for its safety. Normally, this takes 7 - 8 years. (Why on earth does it take so long? I fault Trump here for his hubris, believing we could short-circuit a process on something with worldwide implications, if we are wrong. We had options (hydroxychloroquine and many other clinical approaches that work). He even pushed them and was shunned by his own health agencies. The government's views should always be questioned.)

If you read no one else, read Robert Malone, MD Read his blog. It will take less time than reading my email. He invented mRNA Technology and watched as someone else assumed the credit until a fellow bioethicist, his wife, Jill, urged him to speak out. We all know our wives are our better halves. And, Thank God he did. But he was instantly scrubbed. He knows we cannot turn around the government. Why? He works for the government, as a contractor. Defense agencies. (Where biologic warfare is real.) There is too much momentum. His goal is: SAVE OUR YOUTH. On every level, he is right. Yet, our universities are requiring vaccination as a condition of attendance. Criminal behavior. (Think scholastic geniuses cannot be morally wrong? Let's look at the vaunted College of William and Mary and slavery ... building a monument to make-up for past sins, as if a basis for exoneration and forgiveness. We all make mistakes, personally. Our institutional mistakes strike me as bigger and consequential, if we go along with them.)

If you are looking for bravery and courage at the ground level, look at the nurses who are walking off their jobs or being let go, rather than submit to forced vaccination. They should know, right? The choice between paying the mortgage and doing the right thing.

If we cannot come together on this, I feel certain we do not have a country. (You only have to examine the trends in sperm counts and strength and concentration of this vaccine in the ovaries to say, STOP.) But, I, for one old guy, in good health, who works at his diet, to keep a strong immune system and metabolic health, AM NOT, under any circumstances, other than new information and witnessing healthy debate, going to give up and submit.

I could be quiet. Go along to get along. Might lose friends. A job, I like. But … this is the real me. I will not sit silent.

Please think about.

Corey

The New Leper Colony (Updated: 8/23/21)

2021-08-08T10:09:00.006-04:00

As strange as it might sound, I have thought that possibly my community might shift.

Getting the distinct impression that the new leper is an unvaccinated person.

How this is possible, in a free society, escapes me.

The fact that I have taken care of my health. Boosted my immune system. Metabolic health. Taken precautions. Will not suffice.

A blunt instrument, which is how I perceive an experimental vaccine, puts me at enormous risk and could soon be mandated. Imagine nano particles placed in our bodies that surrender our natural protection.

How's it working? It's not! There is no consideration of your physician's view; they are badmouthed by central government geniuses.

Why anyone, who has alternatives, would do this is beyond me. And, I won't.

Shortly, I may be looking to associate with only people who will accept one's vaccination or non-vaccination status. Who wants to see the human face? I do.

Can't believe that I am writing this.

And, I am in the midst of planning a conference that I may be prohibited from attending.

When contemplating a place of acceptance for caregivers and people living with serious mental illness, I wondered about Molokai and the Leper Colony. How did isolated people live?

Found a piece written by Jack London entitled "The Lepers of Molokai"

My recollection is simple. They were happy and did not need the outside world.

Am I having a dream or is this my future? Has God brought me here for a more encompassing reason?

What is plainly being used on the world's people is scientifically and morally wrong.

My Go-To Resources for Covid-19 (Updated: 8-7-21)

2021-08-03T08:07:00.005-04:00

Like many people, my curiosity over Covid-19 and the machinations of our elected public officials lingers. Since 2009, I have found mass media useless.

I make my decisions based on evidence, what front line doctors have to say, and common sense.

We should all pay attention to the ongoings of Sweden. This was the only country to get it right, in my opinion. By getting it right, they adjusted to circumstances. They realized that they were slow (had insufficient PPE) and not prepared to address 65 and over, living in senior living facilities. They took care of the vulnerable.

If you care about data, you should watch read this and watch the video.

Is there a substitute for calm, reasoned analysis by real doctors who treat real patients? Peter McCullough, MD, Vladimir Zelenko, MD, America's Frontline Doctors, and countless others.

Nutritionist Joseph Mercola, MD is on Biden's dirty dozen. Top of the list. You do a search on him and a bunch of negative links surface. This is how you know the internet is now officially scrubbed, filtered, and anything but open.

I prefer diet, exercise and vitamins to pharmaceutical drugs. I have not taken so much as an aspirin since Covid-19 began. Why? I started studying, changed my diet and habits. Didn't need any medication for anything.

Now, I am 67 and anything can happen. I have outlived both of my parents. Have had hayfever and only mild cold symptoms of a cold. I wear a mask as little as possible. It's harmful to our health. Seriously. How is this debatable? Breathing your carbon dioxide and germs! And, I once had pneumonia (at 30) and was told to protect my scarred lungs at all costs. I have and I do.

Since March, I sample my pulse and oxygen levels every morning. More out of habit. I used to take my temperature until I realized ... Why? I never had a fever.

Someday I am going to get sick, which is why I have prescriptions for therapeutic medications, should I need them. I am not stupid. Should I add ... I don't travel on planes. This is me. I don't think that it is wise. I don't go to crowded events ... also (not invited to Obama's 60th ... that's safe?!), I don't think it is wise. Everyone has to decide for themselves. With Covid-19 ... what resonated is the word contagious.

I don't know a single person who has died from Covid-19. One person who presumably died after the second vaccine shot. In a seniors home. My aunt. She was 96 and a lovely woman. Mrs. Jones, her Mom, also lovely, lived to 100, I believe.

When I started to study all about mental illness, I looked into everything. What I found was disagreement. Welcome to science and argument over evidence. I found that old line drugs, their effectivenesses, was not studied because there was no money in the sale of inexpensive medications. I also found that nutrition and vitamins were not studied. Same reason. Yet both practices have been shown to yield positive results for sufferers. See Abraham Hoffer (he wrote this about himself).

I did not force my son to take medication. He was against it. He felt as though meds caused more harm than good. He had read the labels. It took 10 years, but he is living on his own. Med-free. He deals with his illness, courageously, the best he can. He is happier living independently.

What I ask of you is ... Have you read the label for these vaccines? Have safety studies been performed? Are you vulnerable? Why on earth would we force or shame any human being into taking an experimental vaccine against their will?

Well, one answer, from our government, who we trust, is that it will stop the spread of Covid-19. If you don't vaccinate, you are labeled a killer. How is this possible if this element of the vaccine, contagion, was never studied? How is this different than regular herd immunity?

Take a short course in virology and bioethics from Mark Malone, MD, the inventor of the mRNA Technology who has been ceremoniously scrubbed from the internet. Go to his web site. Read his bio, his blog. You persuade me that this is not a reasoned man. Do not send me Facebook Fact Checking. Facebook?!! The dating service app originated out of an Ivy League!!!

I like Malone approach to assessing your personal risk. He and Dr. Peter Navarro, Fauci nemesis, wrote this piece for the Washington Times. Also found this education video to watch before you take the vaccine. A little late.

Finally, I just pre-ordered Peter and Ginger Breggin's book and am reading the downloaded version. Dr. Breggin's site helped me to think about serious mental illness. I learned more about psychiatry from him than anyone else. Never met him, but I owe him a huge thank you.

What does a psychiatrist have to do with Covid-19? The common denominator is the pharmaceutical industry. His personal concern for his and Ginger's health and that of a mother-in-law. They set about investigating.

God gave us brains to think. It's In God We Trust, Not In Government We Trust.

If you want to condemn and isolate those of us who have not seen enough evidence to allow our bodies to be subjugated to this vaccine, then so be it. Find and send me the study that says we, and not you, are the spreaders of Covid-19. We are human beings. Allow us to live in peace, serving others in need.

Mother Teresa did not hesitate to serve the poor, the diseased, Lepers!!!, the dying. She always saw herself as serving Christ. There is something immoral and wrong with a country that treats the sovereign as ignorant sheep. That we pay attention to one man, one doctor who does not even treat patients, defies reason and wisdom.

I will consider that I am wrong, if you do.

America Paralyzed (Edited and Updated 6/10/21)

2021-06-06T06:53:00.006-04:00

I really cannot figure out what is going on in America.

Read two great pieces this morning. One dealt with academic freedom and a professor at NYU who has taught a course on propaganda for decades. Another entitled Learned Helplessness.

Then, I read that John Rahm, leading The Memorial Golf Tournament by six shots going into the final round, had to withdraw because he tested positive for Covid-19.

The PCR test is at the heart of the COVID-19 scam. Without the PCR fraud and the asymptomatic spreader lie, the COVID-19 pandemic would have been a short-lived blip

You talk about control. You cannot work because you carry a virus. A virus that virtually everyone recovers from if treated early by a caring doctor.

How many times do we confirm and re-confirm that our government experts get it wrong?

We will win a war in North Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq. Weapons of Mass destruction are in Iraq. There is no problem with real estate. JFK won the Presidential election and was subsequently shot by a lone gunman. There are no UFOs. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

Trust us. We're from the government and here to help you. The most terrifying words in the English language, according to Ronald Reagan.

Why do we fight the obvious. Our government and associated interests make poor, if not out right wrong, predictions. Only by completely shutting them off (and their media mouthpieces) can we live freely. Yet, we cannot help ourselves peeking behind the scenes to see what is happening.

I am as guilty as anyone. I want to know. But what am I knowing? Who is the absolute authority on current events, studies, claims, predictions, etc? What is truth?

There is one truth, I believe. Hidden from us. We have only faith to rely on.

A hopeless, helpless contrarian, I disagree politically with people who I work with. The division is stark. On every subject. Environment, abortion, role of government. Who has the majority in government, at any level, makes the rules. The mass media supports one political party. The last person whose voice is heard is the individual.

Was I lucky to have had career and saved for retirement? Yes. Have I been lucky to enjoy good health? Yes. Am I lucky to have married well, my best friend and not divorced? Yes. To have had three wonderful sons? Yes. To have friends who have accepted and supported me? Yes.

Is it luck?

A mentor/friend once told me, Corey, We make our own luck. We may believe that it is true, but it's the invisible hand of God and the unknown who holds the cards, I believe. Any adversity helps us to see the way.

If you have no faith, contemplate Jesus. The Prince of Peace. The man. Son of God. To know him is to know an unattainable perfection.

How would Jesus interpret my words this morning?

Government is not God. It cannot write morals. This comes down to us and our relationship with God.

Unfortunately, our government does not trust us to make good decisions based on that relationship.

No, instead, we create inferior standards and practices that quickly become rigid and inflexible. We find ourselves in a straight jacket. Paralyzed to act.

An uprising is coming.

Time

2021-06-06T06:02:00.001-04:00

It's all about time, Corey, Larry said. How true that is.

Larry is a retired Marine. He's been mowing grass at The Golden Horseshoe for 11 years. He also told me that his sphere of friends is the Maintenance Department.

This group works all the time. Then just don't care for the courses, they mow at the Williamsburg Inn.

In my last post, I was told by my supervisor that "anyone can do this job." Not true. Maybe you can grow into it, but without training and awareness, No, not anyone can do this job.

Only five days of mowing or observing in, Larry said that I looked more confident on this 1-ton or so Toro 5510D Reel Mower, complete with hydraulics. Everyday I am with Larry, I learn more and more about this "easy" job.

Starting something new, nothing is easy. I don't care where you went to college or what you did, we don't come equipped with all the skill and experience to jump into a new job. We may think we are ready, especially in those post-college years. But, we have no idea.

Back to time. It is precious. Sometimes you feel like you losing it. Like the sand of an hour glass, it is sifting through your fingers. When you are in the zone, you have no idea. Larry, he knows with 5 - 10 minutes what time it is. He does not wear a watch. He checks his prowess with me and my watch. He knows by where the sun is what time it is. Maybe that is marine training. I don't know.

Mowing fairways, at this point, is not boring. You have to watch everything. Your line. Pick reference points when you cannot see your line, which happens, believe it or not. That's how tight the fairway is. Thick sticks, stones, and pine cones: They are deadly to reel mowers. I missed one yesterday and dragged a line in the fairway. I will hear about this on my next day of work.

You have to concentrate while mowing if you want to create nice looking striping patterns. There is so much more to this, I won't even bother. It's about time.

Protect your machine, protect you, mow clean lines, and be fast as hell.

Life's Moments: Candle Light, Reading, Writing v. the Internet

2021-04-10T07:23:00.002-04:00

Who I am kidding? Writing here is the internet. Social media.

As much as I love computers and the feel of the keyboard keys, I really distaste reading about and listening to the views of America's fate.

The more you "learn", the more you don't.

Some people are born with natural wisdom. They instinctively know what it is truth and what is not. They have a knack for knowing the present, the future, and drawing on the past.

For the rest of us, we can draw on empirical evidence, if we can even agree on what that is. You present data on different graphs, use a different statical tests, you can get a different results.

I struggle between the planes. There is the plane which holds the stories presented by TV and the larger media outlets, Washington Post, NY Times, etc. that report all you need to know.

There is the plane which presents an often contrary interpretation to mass media.

Finally, there is the plane, "See no evil, hear no evil." You read literature (old and current), make your own observations, communicate with people, quietly write and think by candle light, pray to God, and take each moment, each day, as it comes.

I associate living on Kauai with this plane. Living through the Blizzard of 1966. Or, playing a round of golf, going for a walk, riding a bike.

Reality is, You can escape planes one and two if you disconnect voluntarily or involuntarily. Voluntary disconnection takes will power. Involuntary disconnection, you have no electricity.

Plane three is the your only option. In which case, writing here would be compromised by battery life. And, what a shame that would be.

As you know, I have not paid any attention to mass media as a primary source of information for a long time. Instead, it's secondary source. The places I go share it, then interpret its meaning in terms of basic human freedom.

Then, there is music. Playing it through headphones. Or, something I have not done for years, playing it on an instrument. Piano, drums. Making it up as you go along.

When I think of Hope Family Village, I first think about freedom from all the insults us. You only have each other within a community. It's a walk with Steve, as we do now, at 11 AM. A talk, share, and quiet spaces.

The obstacles to building a neighborhood, while immense, can be overcome. What drives you to create the place is that you are not alone to exist in plane 3. You make it up. Together. Yet, you still retain the privacy and freedom you seek, as long as you the community own it.

Will we make it? If we can assemble the collective and focussed will to do so. It will take much more than a writer tickling on computer keys.

Where this all works is shrinking distances. You could say this is no different than moving to a neighborhood that already exists, only your neighbors you already know and accept.

Ultimately, it is all in our minds. We determine that sense of either connection or disconnection. What we tell ourselves, we believe.

What I am telling myself is I think I prefer plane 3. The question is, Does anyone else?

Repost: Order of Giving Up (Original Post: March 1, 2009)

2021-03-12T09:17:00.008-05:00

I will blame my upbringing. Throw in some DNA. Life experiences. Know that I think on a theme to

extremes.

You can't escape your skin and its moments. Live in it until you and it do not physically exist.

My order of giving up. (Written in March 2009, updated in March 2012. It's fun to read now.)

Suzy asked me this morning, What would you do if not Hope Family Village?

We have engaged a financial planner, a firm, to prepare a plan for us. Something better than striving to keep on living below our means. Her question was fitting.

Next month, I will rejoin her in the workforce, part-time. It has been a 7 year absence. (HFV is philanthropy and volunteer work.) Yes, I expect to make my return to the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, working part time for the Maintenance Department. Yes, you read that right. Maintenance. I will be mowing fairways a couple of mornings a week on the coveted Gold Course. Picture me wearing steel-toed boots, a hard hat, ear protection, and carrying a walky-talky.

I have been informed, politely, that anyone can do it. I am anyone.

For many in our generation, they are about travel. Seeing the world. Until there was Covid. The threat of future Covids.

I want that for Suzy, if she decides it's for her. We have senior's passes to National Parks. Driving seems the better way to go today. We'll see.

What we share is the desire to serve people. She teaches young readers as a para professional. well over-educated for the position, she focusses on the right thing. The kids. She loved being a mom.

I have always had some project going on. An event changes circumstances. I interpret that as a sign. It is a sign from God, I now realize. That becomes my next mission.

Some of my fellow workers speak other languages. Once I began to learn Russian. Hired a tutor. Previously, I took French in high school. Four years.

Could Spanish or Vietnamese be in my future? Maybe.

The Good People

2021-01-23T04:16:00.009-05:00

For the past two years, I have been on a new quest. Find my way home to God.

It's not that He had disappeared from my life. Always there, I spent too little time acknowledging His presence.

For 10 years or more, every morning I have lit candles. Either to think about or pray for people. Often my mind simply wanders. All to easily it finds its way back to the daily. My person.

Father Micheal Pacella has been my guide. We're two different people. In many ways. Yet., we connect over common concerns. We see each other every week. Interspersed with the community information and problems we bring to share with one another, he teaches me about the Bible. Jesus Christ. Scholars. Mother Teresa. He shares books with me.

This past year, at 66, he finished his doctorate. Who does this? He teaches a full load at Christopher Newport on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Rather than retreat from the youthful, uninformed mind, he teaches them how to think. Critically.

Inevitably, Father Michael and I address the world. The people around us. Community. We exchange views and insights.

Who are the good people?

I'd like to think I act "good." I do things for other people for no other reason than it I want to. Reciprocity makes the world go around, but it is not my modus operandi. Yes, you feel good, but why would you do things that make you feel bad?

Our society has a warped sense of who the good people are. Mother Teresa knew who they were. Those with the least. She saw those in obvious need as Jesus Christ. By serving them, she was serving Him. A powerful notion.

The people starving, near death, don't make the news. Those with access to computers and smart phones and connections to social media and news screens do. They create, make, produce, tell us what the news is. What is important and what is not? What is good and bad? We don't have to think. We are supposed to accept their priorities, facts and opinions. You chose the channel, frequency that reinforces your views.

Truth?

They tell us who the good people are. The bad people. As if that is the truth. We don't accept it, then there is something wrong with us.

What does a media person, a politician, a government bureaucrat ... a system ... do for other people?

Good people, like Mother Teresa, do something for other people. She is the Gold Standard. She may not contribute to productivity and economy, but she did for others. Jesus Christ did for others.

Government and its systems have become our God and prayers. They fool us into thinking that these are the good people doing the good works.We have chosen them to direct us. Nothing could be further from reality.

As I wind my way into the next life, consciousness, yeah, I am on a quest. I want to do good. Not be evaluated as good or bad.

Just do good.

FREE!

2021-01-19T18:48:00.002-05:00

Praying and Fasting

2021-01-13T19:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I was watching War Room with Stephen K. Bannon. Near the show's end, on came a man from St. Jospeh Partners to discuss the powerful combination of prayer plus fasting to defeat evil. he described its biblical origins.

Yes, I see that the group sells precious metals.

What I was struck by was the simplicity of this call to prayer. Never had I thought that fasting and prayer were connected.

This morning I decided to try it. Pray for the defeat of hatred, which I associate with evil. Two groups, two groups who express hate for one another create hatred. While they see each other as enemies, it is the combination that makes for the bomb that destroys.

Think about it. Yankees hate Red Sox. Literally. Created is not sport for the sake of sport. One team prevails. Does the winner or loser leave any less hateful? No. The teams are mortal enemies.

Personally, I cannot comprehend that emotion today. Maybe once, when I was younger. But, hate, I am not so sure.

The presidential election brought out hate. Love of country is somehow lost. Not love, but want for control. You pick a side. I did. The one word I want to hear over and over again is freedom. Freedom is foundational.

What I recognize is that by picking a side, I am part of the equation that equals hatred. Hate + hate = hatred.

For a day, I have chosen not to play.

Not read the news. Not listened to talk radio. Not fired up my neurons into an emotional lather.

For the entire day, I have existed in silence. Felt God. Do as I write now.

What I have imagined is the consumption of hatred until there is none. Is that what fasting is? I don't know.

I have also imagined two big bubbles. One is love, the other hatred. Love consumes hatred until it is gone.

The last time I ate a full meal was 24 hours ago. Today I fasted on water, coffee, and two pieces of toast. As Father Michael, who I consulted about the basis of prayer and fasting, reminded me, it's not to loss weight. Maybe, though, it is too relieve ourselves of hth burden of hating. We can't if we chose love.

Two teams played a game. They did not care for one another. Like most sports, if you cheat and get away with it and win, the end justifies the means. That's sport. That's politics. But, who ultimately wins?

Neither side. Hatred wins.

Today I prayed and fasted. Love consumed hatred. You cannot live on hate. Only a few can. Love lasts forever and is inclusive.

I am glad I did it. Another 12 hours to go until I decide to eat. May my prayers and intent continue consume hatred.

What I believe

2021-01-11T04:54:00.000-05:00

I believe in God. Only one pure individual has inhabited this planet. Jesus Christ.

Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Live by the 10 commandments.

We are born free. Our one human right is personal liberty.

The truth is hard to come by.

Prayer works.

We all have God-given gifts. Though not immediately obvious to us.

Human life is valuable. It exists before conception and survives physical being.

We are consciousness. A thought. Light. That which we cannot imagine.

Despite all, we are loved by God. God is always with us.

I believe in peace. Like truth, it is illusive.

January 6, 2021: Fate of Freedom (Updated: 1-11-21)

2021-01-07T08:55:00.005-05:00

Most liberals, progressives, and Democratic Socialists reject one basic premise of a Republic form of government.

Freedom.

Freedom requires modifiers. Words like social justice, personal equity and safety. All of this adds up to authoritarian control. Not freedom of assembly, for example.

In our world, there is nothing more important than freedom. Trust the sovereign.

Censorship by social media, cancel culture, Covid-19 shutdowns and similar, comparable authoritarian approaches to controlling freedom are anathema to a free society.

The people who attended the Washington, DC event yesterday were there for one reason. Preserve freedom. (Ed. 1-11-21: Instead, for some, this event will be remembered for the actions of a few who broke into the Capitol. History has forgotten that the Capitol was bombed specifically to kill Republicans and the bomber pardoned by President Clinton.)

On any measure, from countless perspectives, this was not a fair election. Believe me when I write, I understand why you hate Trump. Could I say the same was true for me with Obama? Not that depth of personal hatred. Intuitively, I knew that Obama was more talk than action like most academicians and politicians.

From my point of view, Obama paved the way for a revolution when he called for a fundamental transformation of America. The disciples of radicals, he and his wife sowed the seeds for racial divide by their rhetoric. They were, are not, and will never be peacemakers.

Joe Biden will likely be the most feeble leader America has ever had. He follows a man who was the logical outcome of a government that forgot its foundation. Farmers, small business owners, truck drivers, hotel room cleaners, dining servers. The dwindling middle class. Rural America.

Look at a county map of this country. We are a red country. There will be no peace in a land that continually bails out its devolutionary and politically corrupt cities. Is there even one that is not ruled by Democrats? A country that insists on racial quotas. A country that does not value life, particularly the unborn. A country that subjugates families to institutional oversight. A country that supports foreign powers over our own sovereign people. A country that exports labor. A country in perpetual war. A country with no free press, no free speech, no personal right to defend oneself.

Borders, language, culture held us together. Michael Savage has been right about this for decades. The disintegration of all explain why our individual liberty is so tenuous. It's not our skin color or our sex. We are one race, mankind, under God. Sadly, no longer the moral leaders we pretend to be.

Many have written that this will be the century of China. (See Trends Journal.) Authoritarian control then is in our future. What do China's neighbors have to say about this? You'd never know if you turn on the TV news. We have no world news. No perspective. We have only Pravda (Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC, NY Times, Washington Post). Our major sources, internet and TV, all say the same thing. A mantra that was anti-Trump for 4 years. Non-stop. Yes, he brought much on himself. (You can respond to constant attack one of several ways. Ignore, fight back, or flee. Trump fought. He's a NYC kid.)

Trump was a leader. (Think Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer and the rising AOC will get this kind of cheer at Army v. Navy.) For us. For freedom. For our Republic. He arrived at the right time. He was the dam protecting us from being overrun by people entering the country illegally. He called out the loss of manufacturing jobs and the middle class worker, and flight of capital to overseas markets. He called out over-regulation by our federal government. Mistreatment of veterans. He called out our trade treaty negotiators. Worse, he did something. Took action. And he created his biggest enemy in Wall Street, who combined with Big Tech, George Soros, the Koch Brothers, Antifa, and Black Lives Matters finally took him down.

(Interesting, isn't it, we retrospectively take down great leaders when they no longer fit the modern era. Churchill, Thatcher, Washington, Lee, Lincoln, Reagan, Trump. Statues, street names ... we remove them, as if no one was there. (Perhaps Facebook, Twitter, and Google will similarly disappear. They are the even more ephemeral computer code.) Yet, all shared a deep devotion to country. No borders, no language, no culture. Ignorance and chaos can only be controlled by the authoritarian.)

Apparently, the simple strategy of flooding system with fraudulent ballots from major cities/counties in a few states worked. Needed were the cooperation of state and federal Supreme Courts. Finally, a Vice President. The actual American voter, the citizen voice, was never heard. Can you imagine, this is the concentrated effort it took to take one man down? (Ed. 1-11-21. The vengeful Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, now wants to impeach President Trump again. She has correctly sized up The Donald. He is a cat of 9 lives. Not even this action will end his inspiration. It will take a Leninist move. Americans beware.)

History recorded that Hillary Clinton and the Progressives called for the elimination of the Electoral College. This is how one perpetuates power and control in one party. The Communist Party. It is how one accomplishes One World Government. The Great Reset. You eliminate the sovereign. You become an annex of the People's Republic of China. A few achieve the Good Life. The Ruling Class. The oligarchs.

In short, you turn freedom, freedom to pursue happiness, freedom to worship ... into a myth. A fantasy. Your excuses ... too many people. That was China's logic.

The tragedy that happened yesterday at the Capitol was sad. To tarnish the people who were there would be wrong. Just as it is to call this election fair, right, and just.

PA, WI, AZ, GA, MI ... for better or worse, I will think of these states as corrupt and endemic of an immoral society. You are in denial if you believe that honest and truthful individuals did not call this election out at the grassroots level.

They did. They were brave. Courageous. The put their lives at risk. Some of us are not complaisant. The ones who road ships across the oceans were not complaisant. The ones who gave birth to 1776 were not complaisant.

Brace yourself. We are in for a bumpy period. America, somehow, will survive, in some form. The architects were too brilliant. And, they faced challenges.

For those who erroneously believe that without Trump this all goes away, you are naive indeed. The moment your leadership provokes new foreign war, widens the gulf between Main and Wall Street, disarms ordinary citizens, and further assails human life, an uprising will commence for which there is only one outcome.

Freedom.

The Improbable Superhero Joe Biden

2020-11-25T07:30:00.006-05:00

This election was about Hate v. Love. For now, Hate has prevailed.

For all those voters who hated Trump, Democrat, Republican, and Independent, they got their wish. Joe Biden has been certified the winner by the swing states. Not elected but certified.

Only one Sidney Powell (Arthur Anderson fame) and one Lin Wood (Richard Jewell fame), lawyers, stand between right and wrong. We will all know the story. (Or rather, those who read independent media.) And, only the deniers, the political deniers will deny the truth as it tumbles out.

Here is an article on the Federalist that describes the improbability of Biden's Presidential Victory.

What we are witnessing is the complete takeover of an election by machines. How else could all of this happened? It is our first glimpse of what artificial intelligence (AI) has in-store for us. The movie by the same name comes to mind.

You can hate the man for behavior but love the results. No more war. Incentivizing the return of capital to the US. Making countries pay back dues. Focussing on the care of Vets. Focussing on our borders. Giving tax cuts that benefited young families. Challenging our main adversary, China.

Covid-19 was the ultimate disrupter. One little bug accomplished the guise. Fear. Fear of exposure created the need for the mail-in ballot and created the cover for fraud.

Congratulations Democrats and Trump Haters! You did it! You elected a man who belongs in an old folds home. Without question.

Speaking of unleashing ... Here comes Cory Booker with the South African approach to dividing the spoils. Let's see how America's Farmers respond. And, this is only one ideological proposal. Seniors, confiscation of wealth is coming.

My focus is on local community. There is nothing I can do but write here and support the likes of Sidney Powell. I want to know the truth.

In addition, I have exited Facebook permanently. I may do the same on LinkedIn, if we see any further violations of free speech.

What I know for certain is that I am not alone in what I think and believe. Love will win.

Save America

2020-11-13T09:38:00.002-05:00

Have to get this off my chest before I begin a writing day. Phone off. Email off. Radio off.

I have rarely wavered in what I thought politically. A conservative-libertarian would be the best description. Having always wondered what others thought and believed, I did not known, en mass, until 9-12-09. When I met upwards of million people for first and maybe only time in my life. And, watched ourselves be ignored by every major media outlet. We weren't there. We were just angry, we were told. Yet, we left a beautiful city, a beautiful city. Stole nothing, but bore our hearts, souls, and intellect.

When we attended the 912 protest, many of us would know. We were not alone. In fact, we were in the vast majority of people who made the country work. We came with no prompting or payment.

So, how is it that the momentum shifted seismically on Tuesday. I am talking 5 - 10 per cent Trump leads vanishing and finding out Biden was winning. It made no sense.

Was it the Russians? The Chinese? Or, the opposition. The insiders. How about about the CIA, the FBI, and what we call, The Deep Sate. Add the believers in social democracy. Socialism. Marxism. And, above all else Central Control. Authoritarian rule. Wall Street, the Tech Giants.

They did it through technology and mail-in ballots. Not in-person rallies. Their candidate a complete joke. Watch his behavior in interrogating Clarence Thomas along the moral paragon Ted Kennedy. If anyone is about enriching himself and his family, it's Biden. The Deep State's ultimate candidate. Here is a professional liar. A real one.

America at its core is honest, truthful, moral. Believes in God. There is no way I could ever support a Democrat candidate that embraces their principles. For me, it's their view of life. It's not free or natural. It's an option. It's controlled before it takes a breath. How on earth can anyone embrace this value. There is no explaining this away.

Will this election go to the Supreme Court for a decision? We will find out. Holed up in our homes in cities and states, state and local governments are sending people home to solitude for yet another American self-sabotaging action. Someone look at Taiwan. Please!

I pray everyday for people, not political ideas. I trust God. I trust people. Not collectively. Individually. That was the foundation of America. Natural law, inalienable rights. Liberty. Freedom to worship, to make mistakes, express oneself without censoring.

Our task for those of us who went to DC is Save America, because she is on life support.

Masked and Loaded

2020-10-24T11:28:00.001-04:00

Living in a college town like Williamsburg, it's hard to know perspective. Get your bearings. You are surrounded people who think they are smarter that you are. Know best. They have Biden/Harris signs out in front of their houses.

They tend to wear masks 24-7.

Newport Avenue is liberal row. Signs at every house. At the T, the intersection with Griffin are two likely houses with Trump signs out front. I know one. Have met the other. (A resident there for approaching 70 years). Have respect for these guys and presume that they get along with the rest of neighborhood.

I am not going to even pretend that I know best. My thinking rests with libertarians and contrarians. My very first instinct at the suggestion out of DC to stay in doors was the opposite. Spend more time outdoors. I love the title of the book, The End of Common Sense. Never read it but you see it everywhere.

In my mind, a mind that is made up is a dangerous one. A mind that is not open to reason or debate is also dangerous. Yet, I have been accused of both, which is always pause for thought.

Global warming and man's impact on the warming of the planet is a classic. In 20 years or more, I have not seen a scientific debate. Why? One side assumes the political phrase, the science is settled. Science is never settled. It changes with new information, different hypotheses, and new studies. The simple hubris that accompanies this attitude should frighten us all. Why doesn't it? We stopped teaching the scientific method along with cursive writing?

Trump is the reality show President. He was elected because (1) we live in a crude, reality show world and (2) the previous administration created the forgotten man and woman. He won because he was running against unappealing personality who white women did not like. (She was voted off the island.) It is entirely possible that the same women could charge their minds and we get a senile old man as President and our first female President by default. That's how vain we are.

Our culture has moved from a general belief in God to one that it is fuzzy moral relativism. (If there is no God, no Commandments, No Hell. It's man who sets all the rules and can change them.) Abortion is an accepted practice and big business. We devolved from what we formerly claimed happened only in communist countries to adopting their approach. Life has no value. The idea that there is no life that one is ending in the mother's womb is absurd on its face. How on earth good man presume to render a judgement on this?

When it happens, for ever reason, and there are good reasons, it is a tragedy. It's a loss of human potential. Spirit. A soul. How anyone rationalizes it is something else. Yet, we have so normalized habits that abortion is a crude form of birth control that we accept when all else fails. Settled science and settled law.

We neither win or lose in this election. We have a culture that ripe for new leadership. We're becoming the new Hong Kong. We know how this movie would play out. In my mind, what stand between us and this fateful direction is how view a human life. At the rate we are heading, there will only be mechanistic and artificial life. And will parted with the sacred gift of soul.

Now, my attitude is always hope. Over my life I have become much positive in my general attitude. Caring for people living with mental illness and their caregivers helped me to see the value of a human life and progress. What I see is that at the community level we can progress. Even for people who disagree, they can find things that they agree on. One is, the value of a human life. How you will nurture that as human beings, not government or business institutions.

The Power of Events, Politics, and Managing Coal Ash (?) (Original Post: Dec 17, 2008)

2020-09-17T08:45:00.006-04:00

What a difference a few months can make. (Ed. 9-17-20. The I remember a theme, I will an old post. Compare it today. What's a BlackBerry? Coal, it makes up 23% of electrical energy production. Nat Gas is 38%. Who knew about fracking?! (Which Joe and the Harris-Biden Administration will end (Let's give Obama credit. He did bankrupt coal. Anything is possible.), have us wear masks and stay at home. Yeah. Let's see if that happens.) Check out Renewables. Wind beats hydro. Solar lags at under 2%. Originally written December 17, 2008. Add Covid-19 story, add consequential economic shutdown and market response. This event, unless there is an astronomical one, will be the event of our lifetimes. At every level, not just air travel and internet spying by the government, everything has changed. Brand new systems will have to emerge.)

Events (like 9/11, death in the family), more than any other life circumstance, can change the direction of history.

Up until January 1, 2008, more Americans were enjoying homeownership than ever. Hilary Clinton was preparing her coif for the crown of the Democratic Party’s nomination to be President of the United States. Americans were gainfully employed. The stock market was at a peak.

Shortly thereafter, the price of a barrel of oil began to rise, rapidly, followed by the price of gasoline, diesel, and every other commodity. Teaser home loans started to come due, en masse, and the possibility of a housing bubble became more than idle water cooler chat.

By late March, all was clear. Clinton was not going to win the nomination. The economy caught and tied "The War" as the top concern among Americans, as they watched their monthly savings disappear into the tank. The worst was yet to be revealed.

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (a former CEO of Goldman Sachs) drops a bomb on Congress in September. He requests $700B to buy, at his discretion, distressed assets, mortgage-backed securities or else the US economic system would collapse. (Ed. 8/1/11: For a balanced presentation: See Inside Job.)

At the rate of 10:1, Americans contacted their representatives to vote, “No.” What was being sold made no sense. The people stirred instinctively and overwhelmingly, but briefly. We still want to believe in this government (Ed. 5/4/11: Perhaps less and less). (Update 11/3/11: Think a voter does not matter? A leaderless movement is not possible? See the results. It took 11 years for politicians to hear their public (post-Stamp Act) before declaring independence in 1776.)

Congress overlooked the overwhelming public voice. And, eventually acquiesced. The day Congress votes on the bill, Bush signs his request into law (October 1, 2008).

Paulson would use Carte Blanche for something else. The Dow Jones Industrials, in a matter of two weeks, shed 3,000 points. (To remember, see Dow Chart.) It was clear that we would have a Democratic President, even though our boys and girls were already beginning to leave Iraq because of the un-media-predicted effectiveness of “the surge.”

Brokerages failed. Banks began to consolidate. Even commodities wilted. Oil-based products tumbled, but it was too late to save the economy. Consumerism, the hallmark of the US economy, was over, highlighted by the CEOs of the Big 3 flying to Washington, D.C. in their corporate jets to request $25B in loans, without taking pay cuts, all but the mercenary, Chrysler CEO. He followed Lee Iaccoca's 1970s footsteps, and would accept only $1 in annual salary.

Rightfully so, citizen disgust has not waned. Showrooms remain barren. (Update 4/20/11: The ineptness of government's investment prowess is, once again, realized from the GM take over.)

Somewhere in the melee, the global warming crowd assumed a position of power and control. Coal, foreign oil, cow gas, and nuclear fuel – sources of our daily energy needs – have been labeled among the four horsemen of the demise of America and planetary doom. (Update 2/1/11: Check out an energy analyst's estimate of 2010 global energy mix. See any solar and wind? How long until the original renewable, hydro, will be surpassed by these two up-starts?)

Carbon, the essential building of life, is bad. Sun and wind, necessary catalysts of life on earth, and, by omission, electricity, are all that remain of our energy future. Or, is this all the hot air of President-elect Obama?

If it was not enough …

Barrack plans to appoint a scientist, a Noble Prize-winning scientist, who claims to have nightmares about coal, to head the Department of Energy (Update 9/23/11: See what the NY Times says about Chu and solar capital infusion. Update 10/16/11: That worked out for Solyndra, not us) and Gore’s longtime, right hand gal, Carol Browner (former Clinton EPA Administrator), to coordinate energy and environmental issues in the White House. The revolving door in D.C.? Alive and well. No change forthcoming.

The debate is over. Energy-environmental policy set. We are officially warming because of carbon dioxide, even though the data and behavior of the sun, that big yellow thing in the sky, say otherwise. Could the lack of sunspots suggest cooling and and another L’ll Ice Age. Oh well, we can sit back and relax, and freeze. (Update 2/1/11: Events change the course, yet again: Carol Browner, Energy/Global Warming Czar, resigns. Poetic justice or politics all over again?)

No one can model the future with 100% certainty. Not when unexpected events happen. (Ed. 2/1/11: Everyone should read Taleb's Black Swan. And, Ed. 4/18/11: Add Atlas Shrugged (1957) by objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand. It's a 1000-page read, but worth the time. You are living her fiction 54 years later.)

And, how about that guy, Bernie Madoff, the manager of a hedge fund of other hedge funds. Dropped a cool $50B. He sure did “Made Off”, further eroding faith in the US economic system, capitalist titans, and organizations which make money by other than taxation. (Ed. 2/1/ 11: How were the SEC and investment banks so unaware, but one guy does some routine math, figures it out, screams at the top of his lungs, was and, yet, no one listens? Tells us about the virtue and wisdom of institutions and systems when they are not driven by moral man. The Founders knew this. Our leaders have forgotten.)

EFFECTIVE TODAY
The interest rate might as well be ZERO. What remains? Flood the financial system with printed money and increase the national debt … and re-build, construct infrastructure, the visible (roads, buildings, grid) and the invisible (wireless).

As we, the Boomers, check our yo-yoing retirement accounts (up 300 plus points today, and tomorrow? Ed. 4/28/11: But, Corey, it's back up, but was as George points out, It's only because of an off-a-cliff-falling US dollar's value, stupid. Not rocket science.), consider our mortgage balances and home valuations, and, most importantly, the future that lays ahead for our children, we indeed have some reality to face.

Let's turn to energy and its politics. Coal accounts for 49% of our nation's electricity. Picture access to your computer, the Internet, iPhone for only 11 hours per day. (Update 2/6/2011: Hmmm ... it is kind of happening? Maybe energy provider de-regulation was not such a hot idea after all.)

What does "the change" mean for coal?

In the scheme of things, not one thing.

Why?

People still need electricity. If nothing else, to charge their Black Berries.

Coal is still the fuel of choice until massive projects of any alternative fuel (wind, solar, ethanol supported by nuclear, natural gas) can be built (or re-configured).

How long will that take?

A Presidential Administration, or two, or [ten, if America exists in its present form], which means industrial services will be demanded to manage Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) onto the ground or into production and infrastructure projects. [Ed. Written before the TVA ash spill had occurred on December 22, 2008, an event which fueled EPA's current proposal to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste.] Most citizens haven't a clue how fly ash (of certain varietal), in the millions of tons per year, is necessary for highway production. What happens if there is an unexpected hiccup in material supply (ie, bauxite, cement) from outside our borders?

Besides, don't we want our concrete to last longer and be stronger? Aside from cost and availability, this is one of the delightfully unexpected discoveries not fully realized until after World War II. Again, no one knows.

In all likelihood, we’re going to see more air pollution control (NOx, SOx, mercury, arsenic), a lot more, to appease environmentalists, who will want, at least, clean air, out of this Presidential wild bunch. The worst might be that the US will utilize less coal ash, because of mercury. This all means the resource recovery industry will be managing more material that has to go somewhere, probably into the ground, in protected landfills. Enter logistics.

Obstacles hang over us like a dark, thunderous cloud.

We’re going to see more bad press (AP) about global warming, which is caused by coal, you know. Trade (Energy Central) and local (Times Union) bad press about “coal waste” disposal and utilization move on to the national media (USA Today). The press is the mouthpiece of the environmentalists and frustrated state bureaucrats. To force an energy transformation of unknown fuel, they must badmouth anything coal.

The response? Is there a story tell that makes an emotional connection? They don’t get an electric plug going into a block of coal. (Update 7/8/11: This reality TV show comes close.) From the light switch all the way back to the mine: This is where the energy story waits. It is not always pretty, but neither is recycling, nor is the solar cell manufacturing life cycle.

In 1996, the American Coal Ash Association re-visited its strategic planning. With natural gas as a hypothetical enemy, members considered their options. Five years later, this self-analysis was duplicated. With irony, only the heavyweight, TVA, was unhappy with national recycling goals. Lesson-learned, don't let the bully in the room be the guide.

Here’s the reality of the natural gas scenario: With T. Boone Pickens, GE and Duke Energy are all on-board with global warming, they need natural gas to get over the hump to something else. (Update: See my piece on the seminal work, Power Hungry, by Robert Bryce. Honestly, if you care about our energy future, want to know how green energy fits into the equation, you need to read this book. You will earn credibility. Ed. 7/8./11 And, I like cohousing ecovillages.)

So, what’s the business timing?

My bet is that, collectively, the utilities, coal miners, and railroads will argue that they are willing to do anything and everything to upgrade infrastructure (with Obama’s stimulus) to more efficiently produce, deliver, and conserve electricity (rate relief from PUCs), cleanly (less air pollution, carbon dioxide sequestration) so that we don’t need to build new power plants. (Update 10/29/10: For evidence, see Electric Utilities Brace for Next Round of Environmental Regulation.)

Example: We will use the same amount of electricity as 1990; create less air pollution (than 1990) with the same production capacity. (Update 4/18/11: Or, you simply kill the US economy and get the same result , without all the new upgrades. Take note of China's carbon dioxide emissions relative to our own, but that's okay, right?) They’ll toss in the obligatory wind and solar projects, where they make sense, turn on some gas turbines to keep Exxon and ConocoPhilips, T. Boone and Warren Buffet rolling in it.

Let’s just say we have two administrations (8 years) to continue, as-is. Double that (16 years) (2024) is probably more likely until someone comes up with a better coal-fired power plant, and we’re managing something that looks more like coal tar and can be safely exhausted into more energy. We need a hero, a breakthrough. It will come. (Update 9-22-11: Science is never settled. See CERN's apparent and cautious observation of the neutrino. Poor Albert.)

In the meantime, the best part, Government won’t have to deal with the universally hated – and one other third, don't touch, rail – nuclear NIMBY and waste depository questions.

With the advent of a more prominent federal role in banks and car manufacturers, the precedent has been set for government to assert itself more in all areas of life, and who is going to resist improved generation, air pollution control, grid infrastructure; the jobs it creates; and global warming benefits?

Answer: No one. A small price to pay to keep coal.

Another obstacle: We should plan for more enforcement from USEPA and states. There is pent up frustration in enforcement divisions for three decades now (80s, 90s, 00s). They have had no budget. [Ed. 9/26/10: The IRS (and other federal agencies) will add thousands of new agents to police compliance with health, environmental, banking laws and regulations. Remember, Government's top legal question is: Is it enforceable? Policing and oversight ... girl watcher's watch... will be hot.]

Now, they are going to be unleashed to make money, if nothing else, for their coffers. They have their “green light” administrations and will ask them for the seed money to hire people (jobs!!) and pay for them with fines. Everyone, both sides, will need attorneys (more jobs).

So, we’re going to need a strategy to deal with all of this.

(Ed. (2/1/11): This think piece and analysis was originally, and frantically, written (in a single 2-hour sitting) on December 17, 2008 to try and make sense of what was happening around us, and to apply unfolding events and situations to the business of coal ash management. It has turned into much more and is, far and away, The Take's most popular post – maybe because of its first position in a list of popular posts. Personally, I don't think it is the best-written or reference-cited, but I keep updating it, partly because I like re-visiting what-the-heck-was-I-thinking!! And, I want see how this book ends.)

Posted 20th September 2010 by The Trench Take

Labels: Black Swan Events clinton coal coal ash electric utilities energy Obama administration power of events strategies