"Democracy Has Gone to Your Head"

Mrs. Avram was my high school teacher, a smart and beautiful Jewish woman who did the best she could to impart lessons of history to the children of mostly proletarians, all made equally poor, miserable, and oppressed by the communist regime.

She tip-toed carefully in our class in selecting which topics to emphasize and which to leave unspoken because she knew, the fear of being ratted out to the party apparatchiks and being sent to a gulag was very real.

She never discussed democracy per se, as the definition would have not clearly explained what was going on in the socialist republic ruled by the tyrannical Communist Party which made rules, laws, and decrees as they saw fit, twisting the law to their needs and ends, by planting fear among the masses with the possibility of arrest and imprisonment for non-compliance to their agenda.

Our history lessons contained half or partial truths, manufactured events, and glorifications of the Communist Party and its most worshipped leaders. We were required to memorize dates and people lionized by the party as the revolutionaries who brought about change and helped install the communist dictatorship we were forced to endure.

History books never called the dear leader’s reign a dictatorship and our country was not a democracy; it was instead a socialist republic. The dictator was glorified in every medium as the father of the nation and his wife the mother of every child alive. The children belonged to her and to the state.

To impress whoever was listening, Mrs. Avram made sure that her star students in each class would read verbatim special paragraphs from the history books, textbooks written in language approved and supervised by the Communist Party activists and librarians working for and informing the Security Police.

Students were not encouraged to ask questions during class or any other time. We were to write down everything the teacher said ad litteram and we were to repeat her statements exactly if asked orally or if we had to write essays for “teza,” a semester exam.

I do not know why, but one day I decided to ask her a poignant question, and it took her by surprise. As she did not have a previously approved paragraph to recite back to me, she said the only thing that she could think of, that would not get her in trouble, Ileana, democracy has gone to your head.

Did she mean that I had gone too far with my question, it was too deep for an actual classroom discussion that had not been approved by the Ministry of Education, did she not want to get in trouble by straying from the exact pre-planned lesson, or was it a hot potato that she did not want to touch?

She never answered my question, leaving me to wonder to this day what she meant exactly or how she defined “democracy.” Did she mean demos, Greek for people, and kratos, Greek for power, power to the people? Did she mean the principles of social equality?

Surely, she knew that we were not socially equal by any stretch of imagination as we lived in a state of communist dictatorship and there were two classes, one of communists and their informers favored by the party, and the poor and subjugated proletariat. Intellectuals like her were skirting a narrow ledge of peaceful co-existence to be left alone by those terrorizing the rest of us.

I never got a chance to ask her personally or see her again on my visits to Romania after the Ceausescu tyrannical regime was no longer in power. As a Jewish person, her relatives from Israel had bought her freedom with a $5,000 fee Ceausescu’s government levied on each Jewish person whose relatives had the money to buy relatives’ departure to Israel.

After 1990, people had better lives, more food, more light, religious freedom, mobility, travel, voting, and could speak their minds freely. But the globalists in power no longer listen or care about what people have to say; politicians beholden to the highest bidder do whatever their handlers order them to do. Politicians have a price and do not listen to their voters.

 

The Invisible and Expendable Grey-Hairs

For a long time, I have colored my hair because I wanted to look professional every day. But that changed a year ago when MS knocked at my door and the fourth neurologist consulted said that it is better not to add any more chemicals to my skin. Was that good advice? If you consider all the toxic MS drugs that can cause so much more harm than a hair dye on the scalp, the hair coloring interdiction was a bit over the top.

It took about five months for my natural hair color to express itself, free from previous years of dyeing it, and, wouldn't you know, it is snow white in the front and salt and pepper in the back, my least favorite colors.

Suddenly, I became invisible and expendable everywhere. A lone gentleman would open a door for me instead of slamming it in my face or stepping on my toes. And on Mother’s Day a rose was offered “for grandma.” I happen to be a proud grandma, but there is no sign that I am one other than my grey hair.

I became the invisible and expendable white-haired senior on top of having to adjust to my new disabled state when walking short distances and balance are precious commodities. Was it easy to adjust to this unwanted category?

In America, unlike other cultures who respect, praise, and care for their elders, senectitude is considered bad and the old, in most families, are thrown into nursing homes, never to be seen or heard from as long as the hefty bills are paid up.

Living in northern Virginia (NOVA) with a physical handicap and being old and grey-haired adds another layer of problems.

There are classes of bureaucrats and of foreigners from various countries, here legally and illegally, who follow their traditions from the culture they left behind where well-paid employment and generous welfare were not available.

The foreign workers treat their own elders with respect, but they abuse American seniors because they are the people they dislike. I have watched them over eight years, several times a week, abuse sick and elderly American patients in nursing homes.

Shopping in northern Virginia brings more evidence of foreign employees ignoring elderly Americans who often dislike shopping online. The associates are mostly foreign and help their own in whatever language they speak and ignore Americans waiting patiently in line.

Restaurant service in NOVA also ignores seniors waiting to be seated and gives preference to groups who do not speak English and are chatting in their native tongue.

Grocery shopping in NOVA has been a better experience since I have used Wegmans exclusively for eighteen years. They pride themselves with their “impeccable” service. Wegman is a private company with 110 stores in the northeast and $3-4 billion in revenue. They own buildings and parking areas.

Crime has been low at Wegmans except for the occasional grocery thief arrested by police or the bumper scrapes in the parking lot. But all went awry yesterday with my simple mistake.

I went inside for a 30-minute shopping with my grocery list in hand. I paid for my two bags of groceries and my two gallons of tea and left; except my car was no longer where I left it, a black SUV without a handicap sticker was parked in the spot.

Thinking that I did not remember well where I parked, I scanned all the possible places; it donned on me that I forgot to hang the handicap sticker, I left it behind the visor. Surely, they did not tow my SUV, I thought.

I went inside and talked to the assistant manager and the asset protection guy who had a bank of computer screens attached to the numerous cameras in the store and in the parking lot and asked them if they had my SUV towed. The answer was no, they did not, the towing company just randomly drives around all day to catch people like me.

I did not believe that, when gas is $4.50/gallon, a towing company would waste gas driving around. The store had called the tow truck and because their location was only 1.8 miles from the store, he was able to tow my vehicle in record time.

It was 96 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest day so far, with a heat index, and here I was in the infernal heat and humidity, a grey-haired senior with MS, waiting for an Uber to arrive so I can retrieve my SUV.

After paying the towing company $210, and the Uber driver for the $13 ride (1.8 miles), I got my SUV and showed the tow truck driver my handicap placard behind the visor.

In my seventh decade on this earth, I got another lesson in being old and grey-haired. No matter how many times one shops weekly in the same store, the elderly are invisible and we get fully punished for being forgetful.

I asked the assistant manager at Wegmans why they did not make a PSA like, ‘the driver of such and such vehicle, your SUV is being towed.’  Crickets.

Wegmans made so many PSAs ad nauseam during Covid – ‘stand in line, wear your mask, enter and exit the right door, stay 3-6 feet apart, follow the designated yellow line on each row,’ etc.

I returned the groceries; the asset protection guy felt sorry for me and offered water, and then both employees disappeared to their office. I will never shop again at Wegmans because their touted service failed miserably to protect old and disabled people like me.

Iran War and the Energy Crisis

I pumped gas today for $4.49 a gallon at my local gas station. Before the war with Iran and the subsequent closing of the Strait of Hormuz, I bought gas for $2.67 per gallon, a dramatic difference in two months’ time. It is hard to imagine that nobody thought of the global energy crisis and the price escalation of everything that would ensue shortly after the attack on Iran on February 28, 2026.

The Strait of Hormuz is bordered by Iran and Oman who have international control over their territorial waters. Approximately 20 percent of the world’s oil and LNG passes through Hormuz.

The Strait of Hormuz is legally an international waterway, but Iran has taken control of it, regulating access, directing shipping routes, and imposing tolls to friendly nations who are allowed passage.

The rest of the ships experience shipping delays, the threat of explosions from anti-ship mines, missiles, and drones, and increased insurance, resulting in soaring global energy prices.

Iran restricted access in the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz for U.S., Israeli, and their allied ships. China, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, and Iraq have negotiated safe passage on routes near Larak Island.

It does not matter that the U.S. has a large navy, its large ships are vulnerable to more than 100,000 Iranian drones.

The burning of fossil fuels, petroleum (38%), natural gas (36%), and coal (9%) provided 83 percent of U.S. energy production in 2023. According to statistics, net electricity generation in 2025 amounted to around 4,430 terawatt hours. Natural gas was the most common fuel for electricity generation. Combined with coal burning, fossil fuels accounted for 76 percent of all power generation in the U.S. U.S. fossil fuel consumption 2025| Statista

Despite billions of dollars invested in and, at times wasted on various green enterprises that eventually went bankrupt, it was painfully evident that renewable energy never provided enough energy for the needs of such a large economy like the U.S.

In addition to the price of gasoline going up significantly, the price of electricity spiked, making everything produced or serviced much more expensive. “Cheap energy is the key to civilization.”

Calls for more fossil fuel energy production are coming from many of the former proponents of global warming who claimed previously that the “evil” fossil fuels were destroying the planet and thus had to be replaced at all costs with renewable energy, solar and wind.

Why the sudden change? Why the calls for massive expansion of exploration and burning fossil fuels, oil, gas, and coal? What changed? Isn’t CO2 destroying the planet anymore? What happened to the much-touted climate change industry? Did it die as quickly as it started? Is CO2 spewed from burning fossil fuels no longer a threat to the planet?

Enter AI and data centers that need a lot of water and electricity. Influencers, the media, and the moneyed class are trumpeting AI as the future of humanity. Nobody is quite clear about the thousands of jobs it will create. Could those jobs be like green jobs that never materialized with green energy?

The problem with AI is that, to perform well, it needs data centers, thousands of them and then some. It also needs water and land.

Which brings us to the latest fight against data centers in Utah where the proposed Stratos Project in Box Elder County, financed by Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, would cover 40,000 acres in Hansel valley, 2.5 times the size of Manhattan, using 9 gigawatts of power, more than double Utah’s current electricity use. The project is overseen by Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA). The project is framed as an economic and national security necessity. Tax revenue and thousands of jobs are being promised. Commissioners OK controversial data center proposal for Box Elder County in northern Utah - East Idaho News

Tucker Carlson interviewed O’Leary recently and asked him poignant questions about AI and its huge need for data centers, electricity, and water.

O’Leary’s argument for more data centers was that “if we don’t do it, the Chinese will,” and we will be vulnerable in an asymmetric future war.

Liberty Utilities, which served 49,000 Lake Tahoe residents on the California side, told customers that they must secure a new primary power source by May 2027 because “NV Energy will end its long-standing wholesale electricity supply agreement.” Why would that happen? Because electricity demand from large-scale data centers has skyrocketed. Liberty Utilities generates 25% of its power from its solar facilities in Nevada, and 75% from NV Energy. Nearly 50K Lake Tahoe Residents Have to Find New Power Source - Energy  News Beat

Political pundits opine that the sudden increase in data centers, which require a lot of electricity and water, is the race for AI. Nobody wants U.S. to be behind China. But China already has less data centers than U.S. and has total control over its population with the social score. The oft-repeated question is, what exactly is AI producing?

What would happen to humans and their work if they were suddenly replaced by AI robots? Would that be healthy? Would AI robots become sentient beings and become our judges, jailers, and executioners? Could AI trigger a war and other disasters by malfunctioning or on purpose?