For several months I had been hearing about something called the Project 2025. But I was unable to gain any clarity or information at all, about what this was, where it was coming from, and who the originators/developers were. Then a few weeks ago, I was attending an online meeting with some of my old military buddies from our Vietnam days and that subject came up in those conversations. When the topic was brought into more focus, it was said that the Project 2025 was a collaborative effort hosted and published by the Heritage Foundation. The information shared at that meetup was that the Project 2025 was essentially a manifesto developed by many folks on the right ideologically, and hosted/authored/directed by the Heritage Foundation. It was described as a set of actions that were to be taken when a Republican Administration gained the White House and there was sufficient support in the Congress for the topics identified in the documentation.

Well, naturally this old curmudgeon was then very highly interested in this Project 2025 and what the members of the Trump Republican Fascist Party had in mind. Understand if you will, the attitude of the Old Virginian, curmudgeon that he is, about further exploring this latest information of the intentions of the ChristoFascist block of our nation. I have made it a horrible, but necessary, task of reading or watching as the case may be, of right wing publications, media venues, and speeches, as much as possible.

Having been a reader of such publications as NewsMax, Townhall, Epoch, the NYPost and other blogs, newsletters, radio broadcasts and as often as I can stand it, episodes of Fox News Entertainment channels. And let me say upfront, that calling up those right wing propaganda venues is tough for this old man. The putrid lies and comments/articles published in them, especially venues like that TownHall rag, are simply generated whole cloth out of the most egregious lies and misrepresentations that has not been seen since the early days of the Third Reich in 1930’s Germany. However, it is must be said emphatically, these publications and media broadcasts are the source of our rabid right winger’s philosophies truly the source of their so called “facts” In just one issue of the Townhall rag this week, there were four minimum assaults on the “liberals” and the “destructors of our America” directed at the Democratic Party and every liberal individual who does not kneel and worship at the altar of their ChristoFascist Fuhrer Donald J Trump.

And it retrospect, it began to dawn on me that I had heard about this Project 2025 in one or more of those putrid purveyors of lies and propaganda.

Eventually, after much searching, Googling, and other search engines, I came across a source for the Project 2025, at the Heritage Foundation website. Turned out this organization brought together some 400 participants to design this ode to theocratic/fascist change to our United States. I eventually found a source for the original soft copy of the entire document entitled as the Project 2025. After reading some of the documentation and of the Heritage Foundation commentary surrounding this document, I then discovered a list of those individuals and groups that were active participants in the construct of this far right manifesto. Among those multi-hundreds of authors/collaborators, were far right propagandists and anti-democracy groups such as Hillsboro Collage (or perhaps it calls itself a Uni now), Patrick Henry University, and a plethora of some of the most egregious rabid agitator-bullshit promoter groups and propagandists fomenting a fracturing of our country and its people. These were the creators along with the head creator, the Heritage Foundation. And frankly, what I read over these online files, scared the crap out of this old man.

A lot of the rumblings I had encountered in my perusals of online media alluded to actions similar to what I found at the site and within the first couple of chapters of the document itself.

I do have a soft copy of this Project 2025, not sure what reaction the right wingers, the RNC or the publisher/author Heritage Foundation might be though, if I were to offer this soft copy via another issue of the Old Virginian’s blog or perhaps on one of my web sites that address various topics of interest.

One will simply have to wait and see if there are any responses, requests for copies, or supportive commentary from any readers (if there are any readers ;-)) who would be interested in obtaining one of these copies.

So, for now, I will go back to my research readings (a sickening chore, but it must be done), to ensure that I follow the advice of men and women much smarter than I, “research your enemies, to know what dangers may lie ahead”. That is why I continue to delve into areas such as Townhall, Epoch, NewsMax, Newsweek, etc. Simply to keep informed of those areas where people are being brainwashed with rabid right wing ChristoFascist propaganda.

As a good friend of our prints at the close of her published commentary: “ONWARD”

On March 27, Char and I made another change in our living arrangements. This all started back in January of this year (2024) when we began to think more seriously about the aspect of retirement for the both of us. See, I had been retired since 2012 but Char had to continue being gainfully employed until she actually reached retirement age. She isn’t there quite yet, but that day is just over the horizon and we determined that we needed to make some real moves toward establishing our retirement environment and so we began to plan for the eventual day that she would give notice to her firm of the intent to retire.

It was painfully obvious to both of us that there would come a time when my being much older and not in the greatest of health, I would no longer be in the picture and she would have to go on alone. We decided that Alexandria was not where we needed to retire, firstly because of this cost of living in that metro area and the need for a more enjoyable locale. Alexandria is part of the Washington, DC Metro Area and as a result is rather crowded and rather isolated for human interaction. For example, we had been in our condo for over a year and had not met or communicated with any of the other residents. Oh we knew the concierge folks on the front desk and the two maintenance technicians. But none of the owners/residents were actually known to us, other than a nod on the elevator.

And so, with our decision made about retirement preparations, we began to search localities that we felt would be a location where we would be near the water, and in an area where the residents overall were more in line with our age and focus. We also wanted to be in an area where we would take day trips to interesting venues, focused on historical or quaint perspectives. This set of ideas causes us to return our attention to the Hampton Roads/Tidewater area of Southeast Virginia. We had no desire to relocate into any of the locations below Virginia and the western areas of Virginia were not of interest either. So we began our focused search for a new, retirement home.

This focus area was primarily on the Hampton/Newport News/Yorktown/Williamsburg area. We initially began our preliminary research in our former neighborhood of Kiln Creek, Newport News. But then a new discussion brought another requirement for our retirement home. We decided to look at 55+ communities, primarily in the Williamsburg area. A request to our Navy Federal Credit Union bought us a local real estate agent who was a participating agent in the NFCU real estate program. Our northern Virginia real estate agent (with whom we had done several housing deals) then vetted the agents from the NFCU program recommendation. Turned out this agent was terrific and within a short time we had decided on the Colonial Heritage community. We visited the community, looked over the facilities available to the residents of this development and toured two of the main home offerings.

On March 27, 2024 we closed on this new 55+ community home, and made arrangements for our moving company to deliver our household goods. We were home again!! Only problem is that we still owned the Alexandria Condominium and therefore now had two mortgage obligations!!

Our hope, and that of our super real estate agent (whom we consider part of our family), was that we would be able to find a buyer for the condo within a relatively short time. Oops, that didn’t happen. Seems the folks who actually were interested in the condo and were not turned off by the asking price, were then turned off by the very high condo fee! Seems that they were not excited about having a mortgage in today’s market coupled with a condo fee of just under a thousand dollars.

So, we paid two mortgage payments until July when a buyer actually placed an offer in our hands. Thank the Lord, we finally had a real buyer and our August outlay would only be for ONE mortgage. Yea US.

Now we are preparing to implement a set of final purchases/installations for our new home in Williamsburg, Virginia, a very historic area and part of the History Triangle, including Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. We are also right next to Hampton Virginia, the oldest continuous English speaking settlement in the North American continent and where my ancestors first came to this continent back in the mid-1600’s. So, lots to see and do,especially for us old history buffs and for the most part, these areas were very accommodating for folks like me who have mobility problems (mobile carts for rent). We are hoping that the family will come down to visit, now that we have a house large enough to accommodate visitors.

Sometime in the mid to late August we will restart our DayTrip activity, with several small historical areas to visit and write about. This activity is where we locate and then travel to the interesting and historic areas to visit, film and write about. So, keep a eye out. We will post in this blog as well as linking into and posting for Facebook. Not sure about the others, we are not familiar with how they operate yet.

So, a new evolving lifestyle change for the Bride and I. New house, new town, and new neighbors. What’s not to like?

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?