Last night’s election in various locales brought some interesting and well deserved results. Especially in my beloved state of Virginia. But appears that the “PEOPLE” struck back at the efforts of the politicians, propagandists, dark money PACs and billionaires and of course the fascist-leaning Christian Nationalist like the new House Speaker. Calm and clear heads in many of the competitive elections cast their ballots to retain our democracy and individual rights.

Especially here in Virginia where ALL of the Legislature’s seats were up for grabs. I was particularly concerned that evening as I readied for bed, but the belief in our Democratic Republic’s concerned voters came through with flying colors. I awoke to find that the Republicans had lost the House majority and the Democrats were now in charge of both the houses of our Virginia legislature. We were able now to stop the Youngkin Administration and the Republican legislators from further damaging our school system with made up crises for implementing book banning, true history of our Commonwealth and the USA, and implement a religious tone to the promotion of collegiate information/topics. Plus the right of women to make their own decisions along with their physicians regarding the health and well being of their bodies and in keeping the government and religious fanatics out of their faces. Problems were rampant in those items and the invasion of the rabid right wing Moms for Liberty terror groups were defeated in school board elections across our state.

SO, we survived another assault by having true interested citizens who stood up to the tyranny of the Republican Fascism/Christian Nationalism and showed the entire nation that Virginians still stood for individual rights and the historical definition of freedom in the Old Dominion Virginia.

Makes me proud once again of my home town and home state.

In the history of our country several attempts to provide a better, more inclusive health care system has been approached or presented for consideration and political action. Each time the corporation interests have blunted and blocked the process through the Congressional representatives who are dependent on these corporate interests for political contributions. Universal Health Care is the standard in the rest of the developed world. With the Exception of the United States, full, comprehensive and excellent outcomes have become accepted as the norm in all of the other developed nations. Except us!

The United States is said to be the wealthiest nation in the world and that is probably true. However, it is not a situation that is all encompassing of our citizenry. Those at the upper reaches of our society are wealthy beyond imagining while those at the lower reaches struggle daily to feed, house and clothe their families. While I am unsure of the status at this point, a couple of years ago it was stated that over 30% of the people in this country were either uninsured or underinsured. They struggled mightily to keep their families healthy and it is a failing struggle for many. Many of the so called “working poor” were in jobs that provided no benefit what so ever, save a pitiful wage which in most cases failed to provide the necessities of life requiring both parents to work setting up the need for daily child care at exorbitant costs. One company was noted for pushing its employees to apply for state or federal programs rather than providing a benefit package themselves. This company at that time was recognized as the largest retail corporation in the country and its owners were worth billions of dollars each. They inherited this wealth by the way, from the efforts of their paternal ancestor.

A large segment of the regular working public had a bare minimal level of health insurance, which in the majority of instances was not much better than none at all. People had to forego treatment, medication and proper diets due to the vagaries of their work/life environment. I recall vividly the case reported in our local newspaper, of a young boy who died without proper care of an abscessed tooth which cause the infection to spread into his brain and causing his death. His mother was employed in a minimal wage job with no benefits and they could not afford proper dental care nor health care. Had this family lived in Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, etc. that young boy would have received proper care in a timely and appropriate manner. He would still be alive today!

In truth, thousands of Americans die each year due to a lack of access to health care and all because of our broken health care system.

In 2003, a Congressman from Michigan put forth in the 110th Congress a Bill labeled HR-676 that called for the establishment of a universal health care plan that would be a single payer system and replacing the current commercial, private, profit centered health insurance industry. Under this bill, every resident of the United States would receive a single health card that would be presented to their health provider for treatment or consultation. This card would also be used to acquire necessary medical equipment, respiratory equipment, prescription medications, dental and hearing treatment and implements. There would be no requirement or demand for payment at the point of service. There would be no limitation on work or other status so workers were not going to be locked to an employer because of their health insurance plans and not worry about losing health insurance if they changed jobs. This program, under the HR-676 bill would allow for access to any recognized health care professional, health care facility, or prescriptive/pharmaceutical source.

The Corporate Health Care Insurers and others in the profit taking areas of our health care environment would be restricted from offering services that were included in this program. Only those medical treatments or procedures that were cosmetic or individualistic in nature and specifically not covered under the HR-676 program could be offered by the corporations selling insurance. Of course this stirred up the hornets nest of the profit making corporations who were bringing in billions each year in profits through unreasonable denials and the most egregious was over billings. It has been posited that under the current programs put forth by the for profit health insurance providers, Medicare has seen overbilling in the amount of more than 140 billion dollars each year. These are taxpayer dollars that are going into the pockets and bank accounts of the insurance executives and the major shareholder’s bank accounts. Billions of dollars that could have been used to provide better health outcomes for the residents, men, women, and children of our United States.

This old man is assembling some supporting documentation from respected sources and over the coming editions of this blog series will submit this data for the evaluation of American Residents and families of our broken and corrupt health care industry. We are also exploring the construction of a web site dedicated to this UHC need.

Stay Tuned?

One of the most intelligent and competent people I have ever had the privilege of knowing was a woman who didn’t present herself as anything but a good worker and team player during our initial interview conversation. Her resume included some outstanding previous engagements, but she didn’t act like the brilliant aerospace engineer that she truly was as evidenced by her past work experiences.

After a few weeks on our project team she began to display capabilities and insight indicating that she had more knowledge and intelligence regarding the work we were doing than any of the others on our small design team. Over a period of almost a year, I was increasingly impressed by her statements in response to questions during our project technical meetings. However, it was only when she was directly referenced or queried, did she speak up and display her intelligence about our project and demonstrate her professional capability.

During the early weeks with this woman on this project, my major focus was on trying to determine why she was not more forthcoming. We had several conferences regarding her work and her personal attitudes. I wanted to move her into a position of more responsibility, as a project lead or project manager, but was hesitant to put her into a position where she might be more pressured. It finally came to light that she had experienced a considerable amount of covert and overt discrimination and denigrating comments (mansplaining and others) during her college years and in her early work place assignments. So we focused on improving her confidence and interaction familiarity with the other members of our group. That began to show significant promise as she began to see how the other engineering folks accepted and encouraged her in both her work activity as well as inviting her into their off work pastimes.

Once she was more comfortable within our crew, and many counseling sessions between the two of us, she began to show more, do more and impress the entire team with her outstanding capabilities. Gradually she shed her protective walls and became more interactive and outgoing. Her forced introvert personality was overcome and replaced by the truly excellent personality that she had kept hidden.

When our project hit snags, she was the first person to start the processes to determine potential solutions and to worked with the team to implement those solutions. She was always ready to share and support the other team members when situations arose. And the other engineers responded positively.

She was finally displaying a more confident demeanor, was recognized by the executives in our company with excellence awards, and financial awards for her suggestions of effective/efficient process modifications. It became obvious to me that she had moved on forward from her reticence earlier and was a strong candidate for upward promotion. We moved her into a team lead position and by the time our multi year program was completed, she had moved into a Project Manager and then a Program Manager position, my old position since I had been promoted to Division level just before my retirement.

Now in my retirement years, I recall the people who I had the honor of working with and managing. I will often take to my computer and access those special forums for our professional environment to follow along with some of my former team mates. It gives me great pleasure to see examples that this woman has continued to grow in her own way to enhance and expand her ability and her self confidence. Considering that she was now in an executive position and a presenter of technological interests for large audiences she had definitely come a long way from when she first interviewed for an aerospace engineering position with our company. And it was obvious that she had learned to:

Know Her Worth

How does one truly judge the answer to that question. One way is to ask yourself are you content in your life so far? Have you contributed in a positive way to our society? Is your family happy with you?

Well, I think everyone would think that there might be some instance in their life that they would like to have done differently. I know I had times in my younger days when I may not have been as compassionate with some of my acquaintances as I should have. Surely most of us have had a time in their past life where they did or did not do something that now they would love to change that instance? Frankly the determination of a well lived life is both personal and external. From your own image of yourself and that of those close to you and over your life. Are you respected, loved, and admired? Surely most of us would aspire to those attributes in our life. We all should strive to have the respect of our peers and family, and hope that at the end of our time on this old planet, we will be missed.

Overall, throughout my long life, I believe and do hope, that I have been a reasonably decent member of our human society. I served my country in our military (US Air Force) and wore that uniform proudly. I have been a reasonably successful worker/employee, senior manager, business person, husband and father.

I am father to three wonderful persons who as kids were responsible, were active in their schools, academically as well as sports activities. They did not indulge in activities that would cause a trip to the police station for their dad or mom. All in all, my three children were very good kids growing up and became solid compassionate and responsible adults with strong situation awareness.

My daughter was my first born child, she is a strong and competent person who attended college and university while holding down a full time position. She attained her Associates, Bachelors and Masters degrees all while fully employed. She now is a senior manager for a major corporation, owns her home and makes her old father so very proud of the strong woman she has become.

My middle child, my eldest son, died at the age of 44 from Meningococcal Disease (Bacterial Meningitis). He was a person who made friends quickly, was a good judge of character and person, made friends of many and those friends were lifelong. At his celebration of life, following his passing, over 250 of his friends and his family attended. He was an amazing athlete, attending university on a football scholarship, he excelled in golf and loved that game with a passion. So when he died, we held an annual golf classic for several years in his memory, with the funds being collected to the benefit a national association for Meningitis awareness. He was truly loved by many people and we mourn his loss every day, even now.

My youngest son is the father of four daughters, my angelic grand daughters. Two daughters are from his first marriage and the two younger daughters from his second, current marriage. They are all thoughtful, compassionate and caring women, strong in their bearing, and respectful of their parents, grand parents and other people in their circle of life. This son was injured in a work related accident over 25 years ago and his injury was such that he was determined to be fully disabled, but he is a strong personality, takes his disability and constant pain as a fact of life and soldiers on. He is strong in his faith and active in his church community. He loves his four daughters with a true father’s pride and awe, they are his shinning lights and his reason for being, in his mind. He loves and adores his wonderful wife and they evidence a wonderful caring relationship.

My wife is also a strong woman and of whom I love and am extremely proud. She is not only my wife, but my life partner and best friend. She has grown in her person from a relatively shy, retiring sort of person, to a nationally recognized expert in her profession. She conducts seminars and subject matter presentations to large audiences in various locations around the nation, she conducts regular educational instructive classes to assist others in their efforts to attain their professional certification. She has many papers and essays published in the trade journals of her professional field. And she is a constant helpmate for me as I age and grow less mobile.

So, now it comes down to me personally, and yes I am pretty satisfied with how my life has progressed. Of course there were some hiccups and bumps in the road. Some wrong decisions about my career path, an oversight in ignoring a financial investment opportunity that in looking back would have caused me to become a very wealthy person, but alas such is life. Still in all, a good life with some significant successes to look back on, When I contemplate where I came from in life, my beautiful family, how I lived and worked, and where I am today, I can feel that yes, it has certainly been a live well lived.

So, what about you? A life well lived at this point?

I hear from a lot of folks who claim various people, events, or groups are responsible for the high gas prices. Well, I have been around for a few decades, have driven thousands upon thousands of miles and buying gasoline from every single company putting the gas pumps out there. Those gas purchases include in the Middle East, Europe, and the Far East nations in addition to the majority of our United States of America. So, this essay/commentary is based on true experiences of my more than 8 decades of life.

Who bears actual responsibility?

I can tell you for a fact, that the president of the United States (every one of them since the invention of the internal combustion engine) IS NOT responsible for the high prices of gasoline in this country. The market has a small impact on price. The congress is partially responsible, mainly through their corrupt inactions that enable/assist the actual responsible parties. But even Congress is not totally at fault, they are simply the enablers of those who are truly the evildoers behind the gas price gouging. One needs to look no further than the corporate offices of companies like Exxon, Shell, Conoco, BP, Valero, etc. These people have been manipulating the price of gasoline and diesel at the pump for decades and they are not going to stop until or unless Congress passes some sort of law regulating price gouging. Which, so far, the Republicans in Congress have blocked every legislative bill that has been put forth in this regard. Not manipulating, because law reflecting some activity like that has been around for years and no one enforces it at all, period. More corrupt practices from our political class and the corporate class of super wealthy corporations that focuses on the rape and pillage of the working people in this nation will continue unabated and it will continue to do so as long as we have corrupted political hacks and immoral corporate executives.

Other income through theft

And consider that these selfsame oil and gas barons working with their wholly owned politicians have been stealing taxpayer dollars through congressionally allowed, supposed Research and Development GRANTS and tax abatements to the tune of billions of tax dollars each year. Then they increase the level of theft by not paying the royalties to both the government and the native American tribes for the oil and gas they drill and extract from lands belonging to the public and to the Native American tribes for drilling wells on the Reservation lands. Over the decades, these companies have been guilty of avoiding these royalty payments and as a result their profits and stockholder payments have been obscenely large, much more so than if they had used integrity in their business dealings. However, as one who has actually worked in that industry and for those executives, as an outside technology consultant, I can say pretty darn firmly, that integrity, honor, and honest dealings are not part of their make-up.

Gasoline versus Diesel

This manipulation of fuel prices spans decades and across various types of fuel. For instance, they charge an exorbitant price for a gallon of diesel fuel when the cost for refining a gallon of diesel fuel is far less than gasoline. This quote from a question to the various resources shows this difference.

“Diesel fuel is heavier and less volatile than gasoline, which makes it simpler to refine from crude oil. As a result, diesel tends to be cheaper than gasoline in most countries around the world ” But not in the USA.

“Both gasoline and diesel fuel are produced from crude oil and therefore the cost of crude oil is the main factor influencing gasoline and diesel prices. However, fuel prices also reflect refining costs, taxes, and distribution and marketing costs. Additionally, retail prices are affected by market demand. These factors lead to a price spread between gasoline and diesel. Refining costs: During the process of refining, crude oil is separated into different components and these components are converted through further treatments into gasoline, diesel fuel, and other petroleum products. Diesel fuel is heavier and less volatile than gasoline, which makes it simpler to refine from crude oil. As a result, diesel tends to be cheaper than gasoline in most countries around the world. However, the introduction of Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) between 2006 and 2010 increased diesel production costs since ULSD requires more refining. But not sufficient to justify the actual gap in prices between diesel and gasoline.” 

These comments were extracted from publications of various organizations who follow, monitor and report on the oil and gas industry. The facts are that in this country, diesel is well above the gasoline prices at the pump. These same price structures are prevalent at marina fuel pumps where the fuel pumped is for motors in boats of various sizes. Whether gasoline or diesel, marine fuel is a major rip-off, because it is the same price or higher as for cars and trucks on the highways, and I know that my old motor yacht never touched a highway. The idiocy is that the same highway taxes are applied to marine fuels as for fuels in automobiles driving on those highways. One thing I noted with almost every single report of this type is that the authors are hesitant to point to the executive manipulation of the cost/price relationship. I can understand their reluctance, since much of their work is highly dependent on these same executives allowing them access to many items of their research. However, the facts remain that in the oil and gas industry, the senior executive level are very powerful, they have exorbitant amounts of money for lobbyists, and their demands as a result, are treated as coming from the absolute mandate for operations.

Price Gouging, Jacking up the base prices

I have suffered through at least three instances in my driving life of the oil and gas companies manipulating the price of gas to move their desired base price point to a higher level. They dramatically increase the fuel prices blaming some “catastrophic happening” usually quite higher than their desired point price. Then they magically allow the price to float down slowly until their price point is reached. By then the driving public has been convinced the higher prices were necessary, but lordy, lordy, how nice and great these gas companies are for bringing the costs back down. A prime example is in the early 70’s when the fuel companies convinced us that the Saudi Arabians had put a boycott on selling oil to us. What they didn’t admit to is their negotiation with this oil nation to perform this fallacy and then they would reap the increased price for their barrel of crude oil when the “crisis” is resolved! I recall waiting in long lines to purchase gasoline for my car when the last number of my license plate was either odd or even. I got the honor of paying three times the price for a gallon of gasoline as I had before this “crisis”. Then after a few weeks, the cost at the pump started to slowly drop. When it reached the price point of 1.25, a miracle of miracles happened and the fuel crisis was over, no more odd and even buy days, and plenty of gasoline was available. Strange thing, some similar crises occurred a few years later when the price of gasoline soared to 5 dollars a gallon! That is when I sold my GM cars and bought two Toyota hybrid vehicles to save on fuel. Yep, even though I knew it was a made-up crisis, I still was trying to break free of total subjugation to the Oil Barons and their need to increase their salaries, their bonuses, and some increase for the stock prices. BTW, I went back to my GM vehicles after a couple of years. Well whoops, here we go again, in 2020 when they manipulated the price at the pump again!!! This time it was the Covid Pandemic AND the invasion of the Ukraine nation by the Russian hordes. Well, well, fuel prices soared again to the 5 dollar and even beyond in some areas. Price gouging anyone? Of course, and it was rampant. Then the master manipulators in Houston and elsewhere (oil and gas corporation HQs.), played a yoyo game, lowering the price, then jacking it back up, but not quite as far as before. Now lower, but rise again, not quite as high, lower again, raise again. Starting to get the picture now?

Driving Public needs to act

Hells Bells folks, time for the driving public to all grow a pair, hammer our congress critters over their delicate spot (their congressional seat, their access to bribe money, and their POWER). They need to understand that the driving public has gained some knowledge of the cons that the oil and gas companies are pulling, that they know about the price gouging, and that the members of congress are doing not a single damn thing to put a stop to the rape and pillage of our nation’s citizens. Will we do it? See the first instance of this price manipulation and price gouging that I remember was in the 70’s for gosh sake, that was well over 50 years ago. And this time they are truly kicking our slats out, this fuel “crisis” is affecting most aspects of our daily lives. The supply chain depends on transportation of goods, fuel prices dictate the adverse pricing of goods and service. When the trucker fills up his transport vehicle paying an ungodly sum for that fuel fill up (150 gallons usually) you can bet that we will pay the price at the cash register when we buy things. So, I truly wonder if we will ever put fire to the feet of the politicians and the oil barons. Make congress stop their taxpayer money handing over in grants to these very wealthy companies. Make Congress pass enforceable laws/regulations that will stop or at least hinder the oil barons playing games with our lives and enriching themselves with billions of dollars. Or we can just sit back, let the propagandists make us believe that the high fuel prices are the presidential administration’s fault or because of the war and or the foreign oil countries, or a plethora of other external things. Sure, and Santa Clause will ride again on Christmas.