In the Wind

Just writing to say thanks for the phone, hint, could you make the next one blue, silver is so last year.

Oh, and could you put a liquor allowance on my EBT, it's not fair when I have to watch others enjoy a drink, and besides, how am I supposed to enjoy my lobster tails, sorry, but red bull doesn't go with lobster.

Thanks for the heat, get so hot in here we have to open the window, which reminds me, could you send someone over to clean the filter on my furnace and maybe dust the cobwebs.

I don't want to sound ungrateful, I really do enjoy this beautiful home your paying for, but we got dandylions, if you sent over a gardener that would be great, and just think, you'd be creating some jobs, bragging rights, can go a long way, just putting it out there.

I was really hoping you put dog food on EBT, We got 6 dogs, they need to eat to!

Thanks for freeing up some of my time, that looking for work crap was getting old, when you go to 3 interviews in one week, thats a lot of time spent getting ready, driving there, finding a way to make sure they don't want to hire you, sure can stress me out sometimes.

Now you know why I need a drink, glad that non-sense is done with.

Oh and thanks for the cash for clunkers, my Navigator needs a oil change, fair is fair, it's almost like you insisted I enjoy that big ole car to haul my groceries.

Oh, almost forgot, did you put dental care in your healthcare tax, all that soda is taking it's toll.

Theres just a few more things I want, oops I mean I need,

New flooring,dishes,furniture, trip to disney, Hot tub, jet ski, flat screen, blue ray disc player, x-box, wii, season tickets etc

Thanks , Have your people call my people. chow.

Danny watched as the soldiers made their way up the driveway, then came the knock, May I help you ? Danny said.

Are you Daniel and Katie Hanlon ? asked the soldier.

Yes we are Danny replied.

The President has declared Martial Law and under executive order 11000 we are here to clear you and your wife for security, he said.

Clear us for security? what does that mean? Danny asked.

Your wife is a nurse and under this executive order the government can form work brigades, her services are needed.

Danny stared at him for a moment and asked, what if we refuse ?

Then Sir, Under the National Defense Authorization Act, we can detain you indefinitely, Sir we don't want to do that, said the soldier.

Dannys knees were like jelly, Where are the American soldiers ? he asked.

Sir they are dealing with the riots, we are here to assist in the peacekeeping and caring for the wounded.

What happened to my neighbor Ben?

Sir we found him in the back, he must have had a heartattack from shoveling, said the sildier.

Slowly Danny allowed the soldiers to enter,

Sir, is there anyone else in this house? asked the soldier

NO, JUST ME AND MY WIFE!

The three soldiers entered, two of them gave a cursory glance around the house, as the first soldier produced a lap top, Danny sat down hard, his thoughts were clear in spite of his fever.

The National Defense Authorization Act,  A direct violation of the Constitution, a law that says you can be detained forever, no miranda, no phone call, no lawyer, no jury and no judge.

It was barely a blip on the news, the liberal media, bought and paid for with grants, stimulas, tax breaks and favors kept it quiet, and when middle America stood up and said this is wrong, the liberal media said, don't listen to them, they are racists, the hate blacks, jews, latinos, gays, women, children, eduacation ,clean air, they are rich and greedy, they are keeping you down..and the ignorant and uniformed listened.

The Constitution of the United States of America has been spit on , stomped on , ripped to shreds and flushed down the toilet, and as our rights , liberties and freedoms were being taken away, the ignorant refused to listen, they too were bought and paid for with entitlements, they didn't stop to think, they didn't care, they had their hand out, and it was being filled.

Danny stared out the window, it was starting to snow, all he could think of was the snow was like frozen teardrops falling on America.

to be cont

Danny had finally made it to the bottom of the stairs, he was physically and mentally exhausted, thinking about the events of 7 years ago, he glared at every camera on the way down, hoping the building czar Eloise was watching, he had asked several times to be relocated to a lower floor, sure enough she had been watching, she came out of her apartment, I have good news she said, I got you a room right here at ground level.

Stunned, Danny in his most sincere and humble voice thanked her,She told him, he could move in today, and that if he stopped by later, she maybe had a few things he could use.

He continued to smile at her all the while wondering if she would set a trap for his arrogant and dis-obedient behavior on the stairwell, she was like that, evil to the core, or maybe he was the only person who treated her with any respect and she seen she was losing it. He would trifle with her later, he was hungry and wanted to eat.

He made his way to his eating station, it didn't take long to get his food, everything was the same for everyone, and that kept the line moving, there was no picking and choosing and there were no seconds.

After a few hardy bites, he went right back to thinking about that day, His neighbor Ben had just been brought out in a body bag,

He remembered being frozen like a statue, to afraid to look, to afraid not to look, he watched as they loaded Bens body and his weapons in the jeep, with clarity he realized, WE ARE BEING DISARMED, He shot out of the chair and went to the gunsafe, as he spun the combination in, he thought, I have watched, read and learned everything about survival, how to find food, how to filter water, how to survive, the jungle, the desert, the forest, my in-laws, nothing but nothing he learned or watched could prepare him for surviving a police state, Today he would have to write the book.

He wouldn't do anything stupid, this was not the OK corral, and risking His or Katies life was not on todays menu, He would give the illusion, first he loaded his favorite, the Colt Python, they would probably search the house, where could he hide it, he looked at Katie, she was a clever girl, in the early days of their marriage, Danny, being a rowdy iron worker could sometimes go over budget with partying,she would would hide the house money in the last place Danny would look, her box of tampons, he took the python and hid it in the bathroom under the sink behind the unmentionables.

Next was the 30.06, dammit, he never got more shells, he loaded the 2 he had and took the rifle to the attic and hid it under the insulation, it was lame, but it was all he had, they could have the .22 and .410, after closing the safe, he had to think of a way to talk to Mark, He grabbed one of Katies porcelain bells and told her to stand watch if anyone came near theirs or Marks house.

He went to the window and opened it and lifted the screen, he looked around for something to throw at Marks window, hmmmm, lemons, Katie had a bowl of lemons, he started chucking them at Marks window, it didn't take but a minute for Mark to respond, he pointed up meaning they should go upstairs and talk through those windows, he quickly explained what he had seen and what he had done, he pleaded with him not to do anything dumb, Mark reassured him.

And finally, he asked about Lee, Mark told him that he talked to him last night around 11, he said the wind damaged the door to the store and he would have to stay the night until a repair crew or the day manager arrived, as far as he knew Lee was stuck at work, just then Danny heard the porcelain bell go off, quietly he closed the window and went back down stairs, he wrapped up in his blanket and sat watching, the jeep was now at his house, 3 soldiers were coming to the door.

to be cont.

Dannys head was spinning, he could not comprehend what just happened. He was just ordered back into his home by Russian Soldiers.

He could not bring a thought to his mind, everything was in fast motion, and the fever was making him weak and dizzy.

Katie stepped up to the plate and took control., She guided Danny to the chair and covered him with a afghan, wait while I get you some juice and some fever reducer, she said.

After a few minutes, they were both more collected, okay! we are not in immediate danger, something really bad has happened and they want to keep the order, agree? Yes, she said.

They were probably assisting our military, there's no way we were invaded, they couldn't just sneak in, then they both actually laughed, because yes, many people had snuck into the country.

Katie stood up, I need to fix you something to eat, you need to keep your strength up !

Dannys thoughts returned to the soldiers, he got up and went to the chair by the bay window so he could see what was going on, they were just milling around on the corner, this was something more serious then kids fighting over tennis shoes, was it a terrorist attack? Was it just Michigan ?, or the whole country?

The not knowing was the scariest part, not being able to get news or communicate, dead of winter and he had the flu.

He thought of his youngest son Lee. How in the world was he going to find out how he was doing?

He had more questions then answers.

He watched as a snow plow made it's way down the street, that seemed to lift his spirits, maybe this whole thing was about the weather, some idiot bureaucrat shut the country down for 6 inches of snow.

His hope faded when military jeeps started to pull up, each jeep had 4 to 5 soldiers, the first group went to the house on the corner across the street, the second group went to the house next door,  What the h*ll is going on.

They watched for what seemed like hours, and finally the soldiers started coming out of the house across the street, He watched as his neighbor came out of the house and motioned to his car, the soldier gave him a nod, that gave Danny hope again, He watched as his neighbor Jim retrieved something from the car, under careful supervision.

It was when they came out of his neighbor Bens house that chills and fear left him paralyzed, they not only had all of Ben's Rifle cases, But it looked like they had Ben...in a body bag!

to be cont.

As Danny hit the 4oth floor, he stopped to rest, he could feel the hunger pains and decided to go to his eating station before picking up his supplies, he couldn't stop thinking about that morning 7 years ago.

 He had awoke to the sound of shovels scrapping cement, he knew right away, Mark, Lisa and the kids were all over the snow, his body was racked with fever and he had the chills, He wondered if his youngest son Lee and his wife Terry were shoveling away.

He slowly got up and headed towards the kitchen, Katie was standing in the living room in front of the tv, Slowly she turned and with knowing accusation, she said,

The President has declared Martial law!

What?

Martial Law, Katie said, There's been rioting all over the country over tennis shoes.

Danny went straight to the window, He didn't see Mark or the kids and went to the phone,

Great! Danny exclaimed, the phones dead, he went and grabbed his cell phone, no signal there either,

Katie, go e-mail Lee, I'll go next door to Marks and see if they know anything.

She looked at Danny with fear in her eyes, we don't have internet either, Thats why I turned the tv on! The computor is working, but no news, no mail, no going on line.

Danny grabbed the remote and starting flipping through the channels, The same Anchorwoman was on every channel saying the same thing over and over,

" The President has declared Martial Law, Stay in your home"!

Danny and Katies house was the official meeting place for emergencies, they had a wood stove for heat, plenty of food in the pantry and a well stocked arsenal. He could only hope Lee and Terry were making their way here.

He threw on some clothes and headed out the door, He wasn't more then a few steps out the door, when Mark met him , Dad, the President has declared Martial law!  Just then, a VOICE IN BROKEN ENGLISH TOLD THEM BOTH TO GO BACK INSIDE, They turned and 4 well armed soldiers made it clear they were to do as they were told,

Danny looked over to the football field and realized , this was a camp for soldiers, slowly with hands raised, they both went into their homes.

Katie, was watching from the window in horror, Oh My God Dan, whats going on?

I don't know Honey, but, I do know, they were building that camp long before Martial law was declared, that soldier, he had a Russian accent and those uniforms they are wearing are not American.

to be cont.

With food ticket in hand, Danny thought about the long walk down the flights of stairs, maybe if he did some extra handyman work for the building czar, he could curry favor and get a room closer to the bottom, she was lazy and was always looking for someone to do work for her, best of all she was wasteful and maybe he could get some fresh fruit from her, she would not eat bananas with brown spots, and almost always gave them to Danny in exchange for housework.

 As he started his descent, he thought about that day 7 years ago, It was 2013 late January, He had been out back chopping wood, it was going to be a very cold winter, heating bills had tripled, he was 56 and in pretty good shape, but he felt the tickle in his throat and new he was catching cold, the weatherman was predicting 6-8 inches of new snow.

As Danny Stacked the wood, he thought happily to himself, that he would get his grandkids to shovel the snow, with gas at $7.55 a gallon, the snowblower would sit unused, He would rather throw some piggyback money their way, with a promise to their favorite sledding hill.

Dannys oldest son Mark, his wife and 3 kids, the twins Nikki and Ashley both 10 and Mark jr. 12, lived right next door.

He went out front to see if Mark was home yet, he was not, he looked over to the local High school and noticed the hub of activity in the football field, tents and shacks going up everywhere, first thing he thought of, was funnel cakes, must be a winter carnival.

As Danny entered the house, he could hear his wife Katie singing along to the oldies station, he could smell the grilled Cheese and new he was in for some good old fashioned Michigan comfort food.

Life was good, tomato soup, grilled cheese, hot apple pie and a big glass of cold milk.

Katie was an ER nurse, she knew right away Danny was catching cold, she insisted on some name brand cold remedy, Danny smiled and told her a couple of fingers of Jack before bed would do the trick.

They sat and watched the evening news, another riot over tennis shoes broke out at the local mall, Yep, gas was going up again and the stockmarket was crashing for the 4th straight day, Time for bed.

He was almost to the 40th floor when he thought about the events, the disbelief at what happened next when he awoke the next morning.

To be cont.

As Danny Hanlon stared at his weekly ration list, he seen the usual list of suspects

12 oz bag of unsalted peanuts ( unless you were a government elite, salt , sugar, fat were not allowed in your diet)

12 oz bag roasted soy nuts

8 oz bag of dried fruit

and his beloved coffee ration

A voucher for the government publication ( a propaganda magazine called Rainbow living) A bunch of made up stories that were designed to make people feel good about living in an enslaved nation.)

In the governments lopsided feeble attempt at making everyone equal, they did everything but make everyone equal.

The top elites were Platinum, gold , silver, the next level were copper, nickel, brass, everything below that were just different shades of grey. ( Dannys age pretty much left him at the bottom)

Only the building czar had cooking privileges.( since everything was solar, there just wasn't enough power, because the cameras and listening devices used most of that, those didn't work half the time because the building czar really didn't do her job making sure the solar panels were maintained.

There were no more fast food restaurants, they were eating stations, Danny eating station was an old burger joint, thats were he had all three of his meals, if you missed your alloted hour, you went without.

Every meal was carefully planned and portioned, tastless and boring, How Danny missed his wifes blueberry pancakes.

It has been 7 years since the fundamental change and re-education of America, 2013 when Dannys life changed forever.

Families were torn apart, new rules , regulations, re-locations and everything banned.

No smoking, no drinking, no driving, no lottery, no sugar , no salt, no unathorized family visits.

To be cont.

Danny Hanlon felt like he was the luckiest man on Earth that day, he just drew a coffee ration from his weekly government food ration, been a long time since he seen coffee.

Danny Hanlon was born September 3 1957 and today was his 63 birthday, most of his friends and family his age were gone, they didn't survive government healthcare, he was blessed with good health.

He lives on the 50th floor in a 10 x 12 room, a small window to help charge his solar light, government buildings were not allowed to have big windows, and since only, government employess were allowed electricy, he knew he would have to be careful to keep his solar powered coffee pot charged, he might have to go without light, He was very careful with his water ration, so he knew he would enjoy that coffee.

Thats all that needs to be said.

Hello Michigan, I am going to make it my mission to tell the whole world about the welfare fraud in our state.

I am going to give hard working people, who are in fact struggling a reason to vote you all out!

I work in a grocery store, so I see the fraud up close and personal, you have made it almost impossible to report the fraud, and when we try, the people in the DHS, COULD CARE LESS, YOU NEED TO FIRE THEM ALL!

Lets start with back to school stories.

1. Had a woman come in, shopping for back to school snacks, Oh, they weren't for her child to consume, No, her child gets free lunch, because she's so poor, No, she was buying massive amounts of Grandmas variety cookie packs for her daughter to sell.

She bought 9 -36 count boxes, of course, she used her ebt card, thats $324.00 pure profit for her, I thought she was so hungry she needed us to feed her?  I thought she was sending her daughter to school to get an education?

Is she violating any fraud laws?

2. Had another woman come in for her back to school business, she was smarter, she used her ebt card to buy fund raising candy bars, better profit, her 8 year old son will be hustling candy bars, what will he be hustling in High school ?

3.Had a mother daughter team come in, they are getting involved this year, they are going to help run the football concession, they too are well organized, they bought all the paper and plastic ware, with the cash raised by the PTA, Envelope was clearly marked, their second order was for all the food, yep, they used both of their ebt cards, so I guess the cash raised by the PTA, will just go in their pockets, I just wonder how much they will pay themselves for all this great volunteer work?

4. Had another mom come in, she is so sad to see summer go, because she has been using her ebt card and her sponge bob ice shaver to sell snow cones, ice cream sandwiches, popsicles, and frozen treats out of the freezer in her garage.

what on Earth can she sell in the fall?

5. Illegal businesses being run on EBT, TAX PAYERS, Footing the bill for people to run businesses that are not licensed, and pay no tax, and some how you turn a blind eye. Let's talk about the illegal hot dog stands, we have tons of people using ebt, to sell hot dogs and pop, we also pay the 10 cent deposit on the cans. Thanks Michigan.

6. IllegaL CATERING BUSINESSES, People using ebt to fund this operation, one woman is running it out of her kitchen, she is proud that her overhead in almost non-existent, no license, no permit, no CFM, WHAT IF SOMEONE GETS SICK?

MOST ILLEGAL CATERING BUSINESSES USE THE CHURCH KITCHEN, THEY USE THE CHURCH DISCOUNT AND THEIR PAPER AND PLASTIC WARE IS TAX EXEMPT.

7. Although real businesses are hurt by these practices, some have managed to capitalize, by using a family members ebt to buy food and spices, hint, if anyone uses ebt for more than 30 dollars in spices, it's for a business.

8. If anyone buys more than 2 cases of Red bull, it's for a business.

9. We sell candy bars by the box, 35 count 40 count, etc, if anyone buys more than 1 box, it's for a gas staion or party store, to be sold under the table.

10. Allowing people to draw money from their ebt cash, at a gas station, wrong, am sick of paying for someones, gas, cigarettes and lottery.

11. Am also sick of watching people who spend 800 in ebt for food, drop another 200 cash for booze, I don't think the booze is very nutritious.

12. Attitude, the very least you can do , when you hand out our hard earned money, is explain to people who receive it, that we can't afford to buy the things they buy anymore, we can't afford shrimp and steak, so they can at least appear grateful, even though they don't seem to be. They need to understand, the people who you tax half to death are not eating as well as them.

13. Waste, you ebt elite are very wasteful, had a woman come in and wanted a ham sliced, mind you we don't sell a pound or two, no you have to buy the whole thing, so I sliced a 13 pound ham for her, asked her if she needed freezer paper, she said no, at $1.49 a pound, she didn't mind if she had to throw some of it away, she of course used ebt, not only did she buy a 13 pound ham, she got a 54 dollar corned beef round sliced, a 10 pound turkey , this is not lucnhmeat, this is top of the line food, and it's okay to throw is away.....hmmmmmm

14. Another wasteful woman, she comes in with her ebt to buy peanuts and sunflower seeds , yep, you guessed it, for the birds and squirrels. MY F****ING TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING FOR SOME NUT TO FEED THE ANIMALS???????

MIND YOU MICHIGAN, WE'VE HAD ENOUGH, AND YOUR JOBS ARE ON THE LINE.

If a woman can't afford birthcontrol, then she needs to keep her legs closed, it's not okay to expect the tax payers to provide birthcontrol, abortions, or to help raise an unwanted child. If you don't want kids, you don't take the risk, Hey idiot, how about having the fathers of these unwanted kids pay for their upbringing, day care, food, clothes.

But of course we know, many women get pregnant to get put into the system, they use having kids as a means of getting all the free stuff they can get their hands on, without having to get a job or stand on their own 2 feet, number one reason they don't go after the baby daddy, kinda takes away from all the free.

Human garbage, someone who has kids they can't feed and take care of, human garbage, someone who has a kid just to get a free ride through life.

The public school system, what a joke, the unions and pensions are killing education, hey idiot, why aren't you screaming about that?

Human garbage, someone who thinks the government should , through taxation take more money away from families with kids of their own, someone elses kid can go without food or clothes, is that it?

People who get up everyday and go to work, go without the things they want or need so they can support someone elses bad choices?

THATS NOT FREEDOM IDIOT! THATS SLAVERY!