Disintegration
January 25, 2023
“Ammon did you see President Hardin-Thompson’s State of the Union address last night?” asked Echo Bob.
Robert Pugh, aka Echo Bob, was Ammon Mitchel’s favorite cousin. At six feet and two hundred forty pounds, blue eyes and blond hair, he appeared stocky and slow. He wasn’t. He was light on his feet, had a quick mind, and loved the outdoors.
Ammon was dark skinned, with dark, tightly curled hair, and near black eyes. He stood five feet ten inches and weighed one hundred eighty-five pounds.
“Yes, she does has a way with words,” replied Ammon. “Most of the people love her ideas, but her announcement that she is continuing the price freeze on goods and services is going to make this year worse than last year.”
“How can it be worse than last year? With the sky high cost of fuel and fertilizer farmers couldn’t afford to fertilize or spray their crops. Wheat and corn production fell by over seventy percent. Cows and hogs had to be slaughtered because they were going to die from lack of winter feed. Now there isn’t enough stock for breeding. She confirmed that nearly twenty million people died last year and nearly another five million have starved to death this year.”
Ammon answered, “The price freeze will keep the farmers and ranchers from buying fertilizer again this year and they won’t get enough from the sale of their produce to cover their costs. That is why she is proposing a policy that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few last night. This really means slavery for the farmers and ranchers. People in the cities are calling them Rurals. She is forcing Rurals to stay on their farms when it is her policies that are driving them to leave. It is worse than her universal healthcare policies.”
“What do you mean? Her push for universal healthcare has ensured that everyone has access to a doctor and medicine they need. Without it, Aunt Jenny and couldn’t have afforded the treatment she got to save her life from breast cancer.”
“Maybe,” agreed Ammon, “but the costs have been catastrophic for the country. Uncle Steve already had insurance prior to Obamacare, but under Obamacare, it was too expensive to pay the premiums.”
“So how has President Thompson’s health care policies hurt us so much?”
“Remember when the Republican’s couldn’t fix Obamacare?”
“What has that to do with this?”
“The costs of Obamacare and its mandates, drove most of the major healthcare companies out of the individual healthcare insurance markets. When Ms. Thompson won the Presidency and her party won both houses, they decided that the only way to fix the insurance mess, was to nationalize it. The idea was that the government could better administer healthcare if there was one universal policy. The problem was it bankrupted all of the health insurance companies. They laid off nearly half a million employees. Many of them got jobs with the federal government which increased government spending.”
“But that should have been offset by cost of healthcare premiums.”
“In a perfect world, yes. However, because there was no universal set of policies and how to code the different medical procedures, there was no single system to submit charges. Doctors had to add more billing specialists to work with the government agency to get reimbursed. Each agency office had different practices and policies depending upon who was running that office and what insurance company they had previously worked for. The time needed to reimburse the doctor took longer. All of this raised the costs even higher. Now our medical costs are nearly forty percent higher than under Obamacare.”
“That makes sense,” replied Echo. “No wonder our national debt is doubling every year.”
“Under President Trump and Pence and previously with Obama and Clinton, the political infighting in the parties and between the parties go so bad that anyone with a decent idea or solution was effectively blocked by their political opponents. No one was willing to accept another’s idea. I think they were afraid that the other group would get too much positive publicity and make them look bad. President Thompson’s ability to speak galvanized her new party and offered hope to this country. The remaining Democrats and Republicans just couldn’t stop their infighting and her new Progressive party swept elections. The healthcare portion is only part of it. Do you remember last year summer what she did to try and reduce the National Debt?”
“Yes, she closed all of the overseas military bases, slashed military spending by seventy-five percent, and shut off nearly all aid to foreign countries. She also implemented a price freeze on all goods and services. The only thing that did was get our allies mad. Israel is now fighting for its life in the Middle East, oil production in the Middle East has been cut by almost sixty percent and the price of crude has risen to over two hundred dollars a barrel. At least we have shale oil and a refinery up north, or we wouldn’t have any fuel around here.”
“That is only part of it. All of those men and women in the armed services, are now unemployed. The defense contractors have laid off almost seventy percent of their employees as well. When she proposed and congress approved her policy that businesses had to consolidate their part time work into full time positions, it also caused an increase in unemployment.”
“How? They raised the minimum wage to equal poverty level. It should have helped not hurt.”
“It sounded good, but with the minimum wage between fourteen and eighteen dollars an hour, the costs of goods has gone up. Inflation jumped to twenty percent. People no longer bought goods that they absolutely didn’t need. Businesses have laid off millions. Last night she said unemployment is now over 25 percent.”
“Last night I was talking with Mary Black. Her father-in-law said that the state legislature is talking with some of the other states to declare that they will not accept these policies. If necessary, they will defy the federal government,” stated Echo. “They also want to entice companies to move from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains and lower plains states because of the lower costs of doing business.”
February 5, 2023
Entering the unusually nearly empty Blanding Clinic. Ammon walked up to the receptionist and show her his bandaged left hand. “I need a tetanus shot. I lost a fight with some rusty barbwire this morning.”
“Dr. Lyman should be able to take care of you in a few minutes,” replied the receptionist. “Mary should be calling you back next, she’s your cousin, right?”
“Yes, she is,”
A few minutes Mary opened the door to the waiting area and called, “Ammon Mitchel.”
Ammon stood and as they went to the back room, he joked, “You don’t have to be so formal.”
“So Ammon, what’s the problem this time?”
“Rusty barbwire bit me. I realized it has been six or seven years since my last tetanus shot.”
“Is that all you need?”
“Yes”
“Then doctor Lyman doesn’t need to see you. I can just give you the booster and you can be on your way. By the way, my father-in-law said the legislature has approved the state being exempt from most of President Thompson’s new policies. Colorado, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, and few other states are expected to do the same.”
“That explains the news on the radio this morning. President Thompson is asking congress to prohibit companies from moving to another state in order to save money. She also asked for legislation to prevent foreign companies from exporting goods from their US plants priced below the total costs to produce those goods. The commentator indicated that congress will probably approve these requests.”
“Why would a company sell goods below costs?” asked Mary.
“Many times a company will sell below total costs which includes overhead and corporate allocations to keep a plant open in the short run if they expect the market to improve. Some companies will also increase allocation costs from other areas or countries to a plant producing goods in an area of high taxation to reduce profitability at that plant. This allows them to reduce a company’s income taxes. I think President Thompson is trying to keep businesses from not paying taxes, but this could backfire. Her policies could also force a company to close the plant.”
“That would be bad if more plants close. Unemployment is high already.”
“One good piece of news, the Supreme Court ruled against her on gun control, saying the 2nd Amendment allows private citizens to own firearms.”
February 22, 2023
Ammon opened the door and came into the living room announcing, “The snow is still coming down hard. By tomorrow I suspect we will have another eight inches outside.”
His mother, Alyn replied. “Take off those boots before you track snow all over my floor. Did you hear the news?”
Seeing the television with President Thompson speaking, “No, what did President Thompson do now?”
“It isn’t what she did, but what a bunch of gamers did. Listen.”
On the television, President Thompson announced, “The death count is over seven thousand and we are still waiting for all the federal offices to report in. What we do know is over two thousand gamers, most of which are unemployed, imitated a popular fantasy game called Robin the Anarchist. They have attacked Federal Office buildings around the country with semi-automatic weapons. They believe the lack of food is because the Federal Government is hoarding food and allowing the poor and unemployed to die. These are trying times, but I want to assure all Americans the Federal Government is not hoarding food. To protect our country from such lawlessness and in light of the recent Supreme Court rulings, I am using my executive authority to outlaw the sale of all ammunition to private individuals. Only police, military, and vetted security companies will be allowed to purchase ammunition.”
She continued, “In addition, I am also eliminating the border patrols. With our current economic situation, the number of illegal immigrants crossing our borders from Mexico has fallen by ninety-five percent. We can’t afford to pay for an agency that is no longer needed. I am also implementing another executive order. The federal government will now supply farmers and ranchers with gasoline, fertilizer, and a guaranteed wage. With these resources, we will require that the Rurals increase the amount of land they put under cultivation this spring to ensure we all have enough food next fall.”
“Did she just call farmers and ranchers, Rurals?” asked Joe, Ammon’s father. “She is really slipping. She must think the agricultural states will accept that they are defacto slaves. There will be a revolt. I bet that CCI, Winchester, and Remington will now close their ammunition plants and more people will be out of a job. She really doesn’t think. She just reacts.”
“Just the same as what President Trump used to do,” remarked Ammon drolly.
Joe was right, three days later, the Rocky Mountain States, Western Plain States, Southern States, and West Coast states announced they would not accept President Thompson’s policies. Unfortunately, they couldn’t agree among themselves how to deal with the crisis and so they splintered into regional groups, some closer aligned than others. California, Arizona, and New Mexico continued the ban on the sale of ammunition to private individuals, not that it mattered, the ammunition companies no longer were in business.
July 4th, 2023
Jon Shumway called, “Ammon, can I talk with you for a few minutes?”
“Sure Jon, enjoying the 4th’s festivities.”
“Yes, but unfortunately I have some important issues I need to discuss with you. A cousin down in Silver City, New Mexico informed me his town was attacked last night by a drug cartel. He don’t know which cartel, but throughout southern New Mexico and Arizona, small towns and ranchers and being forced to either leave or provide support to these cartels. Even then if they support one cartel, another cartel will attack them for supporting their rivals. They are moving their growing and distribute operations northward. Anyone opposed to them must leave or be killed. Before they can do the same here, I have been working with the Navajo Council in Window Rock and the San Juan County commissioners to form a militia. We will be the San Juan Militia and Navajo’s will have their own warrior group. You have had some experience with cartels in Mexico a few years ago and you know how they operate. I would like for you to work with Edmond Begay who is going to lead the Navajo scouts to create a group of scouts from San Juan make sure we have knowledge of any cartels operating near us.”
“That sounds like a good plan. We can cache fuel and food in remote areas of New Mexico and the reservation. Almost everyone here has either a dirt bike or ATV which would be good scout vehicles.”
“Not a bad idea. Can you create a master scout plan? I would like to present it to the county commissioners and the Navajo council in two weeks.”
“I should be able to do that.”
