Remember our history so that we don’t keep repeating it as Marcus Tullius Cicero taught us over 2-millenia ago.
Every September 11th of every year brings back to me, and so many Americans, the grim painful horror of the terrorist attacks upon both World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon and what would’ve been later upon our federal Capitol Building if United Airlines 93 had not been overtaken by five of its brave passengers late that Tuesday morning.
I don’t like, I even dread September 11th in this country because it makes me very emotional and very sad what happened to nearly 2,100 innocent Americans both on the ground and on those four jet airliners. Why? Because of two primary, unhuman, most courageous and honorable things so many EMT’s, fire-fighters, and Flight 93 passengers did that day for the sake of other American lives. What are the two sacrifices that make me bawl and hurt every 9/11?
All the New York Firefighters — and officers, guards, the ones down in the ground floor lobby of the North and South Towers organizing and planning how they’d go UP into the jaws of death, rescue those possibly alive, as human bodies that had jumped from 80, 90, 110 stories up, were hitting the ceiling above them… every minute or two as they stood there listening to their commander while BAAM, BAAM, BAAM, BAAM, in a never-ending concussion above them of one, and another, and then another and another person impacting just above them before they climbed up, and climbed up, and climbed up those never-ending exhausting flights of stairs as people flooded down the stairwells in front of them. I choke up bad every time I watch this live footage watching those firefighters climb and climb and climb. 😢
And the other part of 9/11 that puts me literally into tears are the five main men on United Flight 93, that was headed for the Capitol Building, quickly grasped the bigger picture they were thrust into, their destiny. They broke through the cockpit door over Pennsylvania, overtook the terrorists so that MORE American lives could be saved by sacrificing themselves and all those other 44 passengers and crew. They stopped the terrorist from reaching their target.
These are those five men, the very FIRST heroic, combatant, civilian responders against terrorist attacks on the U.S.:
Even though I do not like annual 9/11 remembrances, I know that because of what Cicero taught us over 2,000 years ago, I must endure its pain, its hurt, its deep sadness for so many Americans so that we avoid it in the future as best we can.
Here’s to those many, many heroes of firefighters that went up when everyone was running down and away… and to those men on United Flight 93 who stopped more carnage of innocent lives.
…Biden-Harris or their Administration. It’s certainly not persistent “inflation” driven by Democrats as the GOP keep falsely whining about. No, plain and simple, it is Corporate America that is to blame. And here is just one prime example that corporate executives are in so many ways behind the U.S.’s painful price-gouging schemes upon ordinary, struggling Americans.
On a summer day back in 2021, some real estate tech gurus and executives gathered at a Nashville, TN conference hall to gloat and boast about their #1 selling product: software that utilizes a specialized algorithm to assist any and all U.S. landlords to acquire the highest possible rents on tenants. Their meeting in Nashville was by no accident during one of our country’s worst pandemics, and American deaths by it, than ever recorded in our nation’s 248-year history. The vast ripple-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic threw not only the U.S. economy into a nose dive, but also the rest of the world. The affects of the pandemic cannot be overstated.
It isn’t the federal government that fully controls the U.S. economy! Never has; in hyper-capitalism it is impossible for the feds to do anything other than fairly regulate Corporate greed and price gouging
Yet, during our country’s ongoing devastation by an invisible COVID enemy, the top brass of RealPage, Inc., flaunted their massive wealth and orbital profits and revenues by its YieldStar software, as well as the near mercurial profit successes by their 32,000+ landlord clients in the middle of a severe economic recession.
“Never before have we seen these numbers,” said Jay Parsons, a vice president of RealPage, as conventiongoers wandered by. Apartment rents had recently shot up by as much as 14.5%, he said in a video touting the company’s services. Turning to his colleague, Parsons asked: What role had the software played?
“I think it’s driving it, quite honestly,” answered Andrew Bowen, another RealPage executive. “As a property manager, very few of us would be willing to actually raise rents double digits within a single month by doing it manually.”
— RealPage, Inc., Jay Parsons & Andrew Bowen, ProPublica.org, accessed online 9/3/2024
Across the nation rent was up 9% in September 2022. But before you get excited, it didn’t take long for rent increases to go back to double digits, especially during the latter stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, double digits as we were finally coming out of the worst parts of COVID landlord real estate groups raised and raised their rents. And yes, there are several factors that honestly cause rising rent like an economy heading for recession, supply and demand, and/or high mortgage interest rates. However, an investigation by ProPublica.org found another big player:the rental pricing software YieldStar owned and sold by RealPage, Inc.
How RealPage’s Rent-Gouging Algorithm Works
Gathering enormous amounts of data from their clients, many whom are the largest real estate conglomerates in the nation with over tens of thousands of rental units, RealPage states its algorithm stores “lease transaction data” for almost 14-million units across the U.S. Every single day the software encourages a new rent price for every unleased unit. The following day the rate-cycle repeats rarely going down.
To determine the new rate, it draws from competitor data on the actual rent tenants paid, as opposed to the publicly advertised rent.
The use of private competitor data — though it is aggregated and anonymized — to set prices is one of the concerns experts raised. The practice could allow RealPage to stifle rental competition, they said, driving up rents across the country and, potentially, even violating antitrust laws. Experts said that RealPage also sponsors meetings that gather competitors together to talk about pricing, which could also be a warning sign of collusion.
Kovatch lists five things about RealPage’s YieldStar software that significantly affects renters across the United States. I will only list the bullet-points here, but if you are interested in the details of the rent-gouging software I strongly recommend you read the above article(s) at ProPublica.org. The five key points:
Landlords use RealPage to make a lot more money/profits.
RealPage believes it is driving rents higher across the country.
RealPage discourages landlords from bargaining with tenants over rents.
Critics say RealPage may encourage pricing collusion among landlords.
RealPage says it uses data in a “legally compliant” way.
At the 2021 real estate convention in Nashville, TN, during COVID-19 the gloating and celebrating was more than just common swagger. Over several years RealPage has received feedback from property managers everywhere in the U.S. overly elated with how the YieldStar software has put their profits on steroids and through the roof.
Therefore American voters, this November remember the actual facts regarding the real causes for millions upon millions of struggling middle-class (and below) American citizens who are still barely making ends meet since January 2020. The previous administration in the White House and Congress more than cozied up to Corporate America. Remember the actual factual track-record that shows the Biden-Harris administration has in reality saved America from the downward spiraling trajectory the Orange Orangutan Baby and his MAGA radicals in Congress were leading us down. Also remember what political party is always in bed with corporate interests and always makes Corporate America’s revenues/profits top priority at the expense, the sacrifice of middle- and lower-class Americans barely getting by… paycheck to paycheck.
As I read many sources of opposing views about the condition of the American economy between January 2020 (the start of COVID-19) to the present day, one theme stood out: political finger pointing. The tactics (GOP especially) really do no middle-class or lower-class Americans any good. What “good” might come from the distorting, polarizing rhetoric is the lack of empathy and the recognition of the lack of congressional hard work in favor of ordinary Americans and their benefit through very hard times.
Question: When is it ever good, in this Land of Liberty, Freedom, and Equality, for some Americans to suffer worse than others at the hands of corporate price-gouging in groceries, fuel costs, utility costs, stagnate or slipping wages, and housing? Why does one sector of Americans get to exploit the misfortunes and disadvantages of other Americans… for their own self-interests and corporate riches? I know that answer, do you?
While searching strenuously in Mom’s chaotic (Alzheimer’s) bedroom and study-desk and boxes of files everywhere for the 2007 Toyota Avalon maintenance file/history of receipts, etc., I came across nine pages of a correctional driver’s test for motor vehicle offenders. Who was the offender? None other than my own Mom. Yes, “Say it isn’t so Nellie!” 😧
My Mom apparently was a modern, yet tamer, Bonnie without—or maybe with—some unknown “Clyde.” My draw dropped as I read this traffic offender’s 9-page test for my own flesh and blood: Mom. Should I read on? Should I not? What to do.
I browsed. I read page one, then two, and three and so on until I reached the end of the Offender’s Reprogramming Test. Mom!? She needed reprogramming for the safety of the general public!? “Say it isn’t so Nellie!” Not my own Mom! No way!
Now I knew of two different traffic citations issued to her between 2015 and 2019 when she was still driving with a license. But I am quite unsure if there were more than two pullover citations during those two or five years when she drove a lot. Reading this Traffic Offender’s Reprogramming Test after a 1 or 2 week classroom course, I was perplexed by many of the multiple-choice questions. Of the two, maybe three, traffic courses I ever took in my 43+ year driving lifetime, never was I tested with THESE sort of questions! I was stunned, flabbergasted by the direct questions and what they implied about the traffic offender… my own Mom! “Say it isn’t so Nellie!” Or rather Bonnie Parker!
For instance, Section II, question #2: What are the five leading causes of motor vehicle CRASHES in Texas as identified by the Dept. of Traffic Safety?:
Excessive alcohol and/or drug use
Unsafe high speeds (or well under the speed limit)
Flagrant disregard for stop signs or go signals
Failure to yield the right of way to other motorists
Following too close (tailgating) or up their arse
Or Section II, question #3: What are the two leading causes of traffic FATALITIES in Texas?:
Excessive alcohol and drugs
Attitudes, emotions, aggressiveness, drowsy driver, and bad driver habits
Or Section III, question #4: What factors demonstrate the lack of knowledge and understanding of traffic laws and proper procedures?
License plates on both the front and rear of vehicle
No one under the age of 18-yrs in Texas can ride in the rear bed of a pickup truck, except for unsecured house pets.
The proper or improper speed limit inside a flashing school zone
At night with oncoming traffic on a two-lane or four-lane remote highway or inside city limits, high-beam headlights are recommended or not recommended?
All of the above
Or Section IV, question #1: Describe proper passing procedures on Texas highways when…
Passing in the left lane
Passing on the right on a multi-lane road or highway if the car in front is slowed or stopped to turn left
Passing a slower vehicle (below speed limit) in the left lane when signs everywhere indicate “Slower Traffic Keep Right”
Giving courteous signals to other drivers so they know your intentions
And then Section X, questions #1–#5, but specifically #4:
Psychological factors of unsafe driving:
Attention span
Short-term memory
Unstable emotions
Overly aggressive behavior
Intolerance and impatience
And finally, Section XI, questions 1 thru 4: Proper legal carrying of firearms inside a moving vehicle
When stopped by law-enforcement on roads or highways, if you carry a concealed weapon or weapons, show the legal permit(s) first, not the weapon(s)… Bonnie Parker. 😉
∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼
What was more shocking for me was that today Mom confessed two more things to me about her two (maybe 3-4?) Texas Traffic Offender’s Reprogramming Courses.
One, her parents named their very first child Bonnie. She died 2-4 months old as Bonnie Bonnet (or Bonet in French). Mom explained to me that her father Felix Bonnet was “fascinated” with Bonnie and Clyde. Riiiiiight. 🤔
Two, my maternal grandparents were also (apparently, at least in public) very Pentecostal faith-goers from a very long line of Waldensians! WHAT!? Hang on a minute! I had to completely readjust my initial maternal parent and grandparents. Was my world based upon falsehoods? Based on lots of little “white lies”? Oh the locked up family secrets in buried locations and inside sealed, boarded “closets.” What’s a man like me supposed to think about my family heritage? 😕😄
P.S. A smidge of slight embellishment may or may not have been utilized in this family story.
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
Running a few errands out and about yesterday in our small rural town of high winds, dust and dirt, arid temps, and persistent drought. I was waiting for my car to be vacuumed, washed, and waxed in the lobby’s waiting area. I soon noticed how many other customers were uninterested in human engagement, not even a quick 30-second courteous or comical exchange. Why? They were all engrossed in their cell phones and a few with ear-buds plugging their ears. Yes, even the elderly there were consumed with their phones. That was a surprise to me.
Heard a song this morning. I hadn’t heard it in a long time. It reminded me of this poem about connection, of authenticity, of vulnerability, of personal growth by acute introspection and extrospection. It goes something like this:
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, and remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes!’
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
— The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It is fine and good sometimes to remind myself of these poetic words and musical lyrics to find tranquility and peace.
Oh, the song I heard this morning?
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
It has been quite some time since I’ve had a bit of free time to draft and publish a blog-post. Why is that you ask? Well, several reasons to be honest. One right now, this morning, I’m somewhat free because Mom, who is now into Early Alzheimer’s Disease stayed up until at least 4:30am last night. This typically means she sleeps until 1pm–3pm. Hence, I am currently semi-uninterrupted by her and her frequent needs. As such I can operate around the house and free from her same questions of me several times throughout the day and night. 🙂 Reason #1.
I’ve had to put Mom on a “12 Questions Only” limitation per day/night! Otherwise, the Brainiac Answers Store would be technically open 18-hours a day. Ugh.
A second reason is due to Mom’s gradual decline over the last 3-years and noticeably so the last 4-6 months and my tasks, chores, and managing ALL of her financial and business affairs, her daily-nightly meds, her two meals a day/evening, including healthy gourmet dishes and recipes I prepare each day and have been over the last 1,316 days, usually takes up most 12–14 hours of my days and nights. Yes, I am a one man Dog & Pony Show day in and day out. Not much free time to blog.
The sign that goes up on my bedroom door or in the living room when Mom has used up her quota limitation of 12 Q’s 😉
The most critical reason I have not been able to blog for awhile is twofold:
1) Since February 2024 my sister (well, not so much my sister) and I were trying to transition my Mom into an Assisted Living Memory Care facility in Kerrville by the end of July this year. The months of April, May, June, and early July were a literal high-stress, high-anxiety 3 1/2 months for me beyond anything I’ve had to handle all my life.
I was having to handle Mom’s second laborious Texas Medicaid application to assist her with the high exuberant costs of modern elderly dementia healthcare. Anyone who’s familiar with Medicaid apps knows what a prolonged nightmare the process becomes. To say too much detailed personal information is a gross understatement.
I was having to handle the transfer of vehicle titles (three in Mom’s name) over to myself—two Toyotas to me—and one Dodge to my sister which Mom years earlier had bought for her. Why was this a must? Texas Medicaid considers all property as a wealth asset to eventually deny applicants if the assets are too much, like $1,500 total. Ridiculous! This was a lengthy process, especially when the state’s Tax Assessor computer network frequently went down. 😡 Naturally, she “gifted” for free these two Toyotas to me because she absolutely cannot make any profits on the sales; it would disqualify herMedicaid app immediately.
I was handling the search for an above-average to great ALMC facility that wasn’t above $4,700/mon and would accept Medicare and Medicaid. A very tough ask here in rural Texas. Most good-to-great nursing facilities are $5,200–$7,000 per month and rising every year in the Texas Hill Country, and sadly we live in a very wealthy Kerr County. Many wealthy retirees here and thus it is a HUGE revenue market for private geriatric retirement homes, apartments, and nursing-rehab facilities. None of which accept Medicare or Medicaid. Incredibly frustrating.
I was still handling all the daily house chores, particularly non-stop kitchen cleaning—Mom won’t clean up after herself—healthy gourmet meal preparations, her doctor appointments and prescription refills, her morning and evening meds consumption at correct times of the day/evening, as mentioned her entire finances, bill payments, etc., including monthly fights with her retirement health coverage through ExxonMobil Service Benefits who royally fucked up her payments account while transitioning onto a newer, “improved” website platform. They informed us after their massive screw-up that we owed them $787+ in missed payments from the previous two years 2022–2023 due immediately! 🤬 Needless to say, there was no way in hell we could come up with $787+ to keep her ExxonMobil Health Benefits with Aetna. We were already struggling bad to make ends meet after the previous 2-3 years of hyper-inflation and corporate America gouging us at every opportunity! I also had to manage Mom’s Long-Term Care Insurance policy premiums—$471 quarterly—that she would absolutely NEED at a ALMC facility. To make matters worse, Mom’s Social Security Benefits only barely kept us afloat! Then to make that worse, she received too much SSI benefits to qualify for Medicaid! Incredibly infuriating. 😡
2) All this heavy stress, anxiety, and overwhelming busy days for 1,316 days, the last 3 1/2 months the absolute worst, fighting constantly corporate America… has all taken a major toll on my own health as a one-man show Caretaker. On June 23rd, 2024, at 11:35pm I was taken by ambulance to the ER and hospitalized for four nights as I was having troubled labored breathing, zero strength, and becoming incoherent. My long-time nurse friend up in Dallas, TX told me I was on my way to having a stroke. See image below.
At first, this above bill was over $15,000+. I have seven other bills from doctors, laboratories, and the EMT ambulance bill all totaling over $21,500 on top of my more frequent PCP follow-up doctor visits, and now my new cardiologist bill because I now have tachycardia and AFib of the heart. 😔
One thing that is not obvious above, my last 4-years, particularly in April, May, June and early July, of being Mom’s full-time, overtime Caretaker for 14-18 hours per day/night is my increased alcohol consumption to keep my sanity. It has been my self-medication to stay relaxed. Also, due to my inability to stay in Dallas long-term—always having to move back down to help my mother and 48+ year addict/psych sister—has pushed me into chronic depression, now major depression. Enter escitalopram, in addition to my other prescription meds over the years: amlodipine, lisinopril, atorvastatin, and now blood-thinner med.
So there you have it, my last 4-months and 3-years here in small rural, redneck Kerrville, Texas, not having or able to have (yet) my own fun happy life in Dallas. By the way, due to Mom and I selling her large ranchita home here in December 2019 for over $535,700, she was quickly disqualified for Medicaid assistance for 2024 in August. Utterly exhausting and disheartening after several months of work toward Mom’s transition into a good ALMC facility. My plans to return to Dallas, Texas have been postponed until August 2025. 🤦♂️
There is much more I have left out here, not the least of which has been my sister’s 4-5 drug relapses since I moved back down here in August 2021. I’m not going into how badly that effects Mom, and frustrates the living fire out of me. Since I’ve returned home from hospital, she rarely comes around anymore to see Mom or help me out, which she asked me this question back at the end of June, “Dwain, what can we do to keep you from being hospitalized again?” My answer was fast: I need more of your help here with Mom and the constant chores. It is all way too much for me without any help from Mom.
She has done the exact opposite of what I asked from her. Hardly ever around.
Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always
I have zero expectation that anything I ever say will end someone’s belief in their God. Not my goal or purpose. That alone belongs to the individual. ~ Zoe
'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it' - Terry Pratchett
The Professor's Convatorium 