After assuming the role of President, the staff briefed Veronica Simmons on various military projects, including a gain of function research involving mites.

The microscopic mites being used were a mutant strain of oak mites. These mites were discovered in Vermont after a cicada brood event some 60 years ago. The research was looking into the possibilities of military to medicine delivery applications.

During the same time, the UBI payments to those living in the Stacks were becoming an increasing financial burden to the nation, and a public nuisance on the social media net impacting President Simmons’ show numbers.

To the objections of her staff, she alone created and directed Operation Golden Salvation to deal with the UBI problem. At which point she fired them all and replaced them with people willing to execute her plan. This wouldn’t be the last time her administration would have staff turnover.

To curb any potential social media net backlash, she had any mention or hint of the operation scrubbed from the net.

Using the variant oak mites, she had them reproduced en masse and then air dropped into the Stacks. The microscopic mites attacked people and animals, resulting in itchy, puss filled rashes from the mites’ toxins. People complained about fatigue, headaches, fevers, and not feeling well.

As the mysterious plague was circulating on the Social Media Net, President Simmons announced emergency efforts to contain the spread; that a group of government scientists had already figured out the disease; and it was called "Veneatio Arenosum." She also sent specialized medical teams to the Stacks to provide treatment.

Some in the Stacks with weak immune systems died from Operation Golden Salvation, but overall, the operation was successful in lowering the UBI costs. The operation allowed the Federal government to bill the payments of treatments to an individual’s UBI payment.

​While her administration buried the actual costs of treatment through complex government accounting. The actual treatment costs would come out after her administration and were only a small fraction of what was being charged. Better still, her scientists had “determined” repeated treatments were necessary to keep the infections down. It was a successful win for her Administration on the social media net.

Off Interstate 94, west of Wibaux in Montana, grew the town of Virhead which served the genomic research group Yewsun. The population of Virhead was 426. 22% of Virhead’s population worked at Yewsun.

Yewsun was working on a man-made variant B.1.1.7 of SARS-CoV-2 virus known as B.1.1.7.j of SARS-CoV-2. The B.1.1.7.j variant was 2.25 times more contagious than SARS-CoV-2 and caused higher deaths among younger populations from micro-blood clots in the lungs. Yewsun based this on theoretical computer modeling from the alterations applied.

All this information was according to popular conspiracy theory channels of the social media net. Based on their information, a lab leak occurred from Yewsun infecting the town of Virhead. The town’s only medical clinic was overwhelmed in less than a week. Local police brought in state and federal forces to establish a large quarantine perimeter. They immediately put isolation protocols into place to restrict the residents from leaving. Any who attempted to leave was shot dead and their bodies incinerated.

The Operation Pixie Dust Documents

Years later came out redacted documents called Operation Pixie Dust. The state forces were withdrawn, and the Federal forces remained. The USAF brought two military-grade heavy lift planes in, each carrying a 6 kt ANFO bomb. They dropped one bomb on the Yewsun laboratory and the other on the town of Virhead without regards to the civilians present. The Federal forces performed a mob up exercise incinerating any human remains. They then placed the area on the Federal registry of contaminated and restricted zones. Any trespasser could be shot and killed on site.

From time to time, a conspiracy theory channel would air Retired Sargent Ralph Garner’s story of the events based on an online published transcript. But searches for this individual have proven fruitless. Even a House subcommittee review turned up nothing. Some believe the story was a plant to provide creditability for Operation Pixie Dust. In the Ret. Sargent’s story, he cites how potentially disloyal soldiers were shot by CIA operatives at the time to prevent leaks. The CIA denies such allegations. It claims that Operation Pixie Dust was an Airforce testing of non-nuclear weapons at White Sands, New Mexico. And as for the redacted document, the CIA notes a clerical error caused two unrelated incident files to be merged into one resulting in the confusion. The CIA’s story is Virhead suffered from a chemical containment leak from Yewsun’s chemical stores, and that’s why the town was evacuated and sealed off as a Federally restricted zone.

President Veronica Simmons

Rumors of how President Veronica Simmons had devised plans to deal with the overcrowding of the Stacks by releasing an even deadlier version of smallpox would eclipse the Operation Pixie Dust story. Her test ground was to be the camps that were established in the flooded remains of New York City. According to the conspiracy theory channels, this one action caused some of the military to take matters into their own hands and force her out of office. To this day, no government documentation has surfaced to support these claims. Most of these shows use supposed “insiders” claiming firsthand knowledge, but none of these people reveal their true identities. They go by handles like SwiftMule or AwesomeOyster. And yet no one has seen or heard from President Veronica Simmons since stepping down.

With the recent passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U.S. is at another intersection of uncertainty as much as it was when Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016. We will have to wait and see how history will unfold, but typically during these times last minute power grabs are not unheard of, and to be expected in our divided political world.

​Two Controversial Nominations by Simmons

Terrance McMahon

President Veronica Simmons faced a similar challenge right before her re-election after assuming the presidency from Rick Garrett. Known for her dramatic need to bolster her standing on the social media net, President Simmons took up the controversial cause known as “prisoner’s freedoms” as part of her campaign for President. This movement was an outgrowth of much earlier movements dealing with the incarceration of racial groups. It had morphed into an ideology that those criminals serving in jail were automatically entitled to freedoms and social benefits because of their criminal record.

In aligning herself with this ideology, she would nominate to the Supreme Court, Terrence McMahon, a former attorney from Los Angeles, who had murdered his entire family by stabbing them to death multiple times. At the time of the murders, he was high on drugs. He received as a punishment multiple life sentences.

While in prison McMahon wrote legal opinion articles using a pen name. He wrote on constitutional law concerning life imprisonment and various other commentaries dealing with gun rights, murder, and qualifying evidence in a trial.

President Simmons would pardon him and then put him forward as the nomination for the Supreme Court vacancy. The Senate Committee would not approve him. But the full Senate held a special vote, and approved McMahon to the bench by one vote. Senator Hobbs was the deciding vote, citing she felt his legal opinions outweighed any previous criminal wrongdoing since the President had pardoned him.

Hans Derbin

​During the McMahon nomination, as favor to a longtime fan and fellow influencer, President Simmons appointed Hans Derbin, a male supermodel, to be the U.S. Ambassador to the World. The United Nations was no more, and the U.S. government created this position as a substitute. The position was meaningless though but allowed Hans to jet around the world at taxpayers’ expense. He would show off his latest fashions for women on the social media net at exotic locations. Eventually a House committee investigation would be called, but it went nowhere once President Simmons got involved. She would end up scandalizing and shaming the committee members publicly on the social media net with the political dirt she had accumulated.

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Image- untitled image. By Claire Anderson, Source Unsplash, Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)

Gun Violence during the Second Age of Humanity

99.9% of what you are about to read only applies to the United States. This has to do with the unique nature of the U.S. Constitution and how the Second Amendment has been applied over the years. Unlike other nations who’ve restricted guns to be owned by their citizens, this has not been the case with the United States. Some have argued that this one fact has historically contributed to the high death rate associated with guns in America. But the other side has proposed arguments of needed protection and support of inherent constitutional rights.

This debate continues to rage on in Rosella’s dystopian America in the worst way possible.

Gun violence in America during the Great Melt and New Madrid volcanic traps was at an all-time high. The major shift in the environment caused people and resources in the nation to be strained. This brought out the worst out in Americans and resulted in violent riots and associated killings.

Ironically, the Second Amendment was never challenged, or rights curbed in any capacity. In fact, from time to time the federal government loosened them during the previous ages right through the time of the Great Melt.

It wouldn’t be until closer to the end of the Second Age of Humanity when things had stabilized and the sex ratios in the US had become more female that changes occurred concerning guns.

The History of Political Change in Gun Rights

At first, politically there were attempts to control guns through limitations on the number of guns owned, types, alterations, and even ammo quantity and types. This happened during the First Age of Humanity, but was challenged in the U.S. Courts every time.

By the start of the Second Age of Humanity, there were proposed changes to the Constitution’s Second Amendment, but these got nowhere.

Then, during the Presidency of Veronica Simmons, one of the craziest things happened. The case of the State of Texas vs. Hanson redefined for the nation the whole definition of gun rights. This case was a murder case in the State of Texas, but it turned into a gun rights case. Though the appeals ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court, but the court didn’t rule on it leaving the appeal to remain. The problem was the appeal went in favor of Hanson for killing the person in cold blood as part of his gun rights.

All three judges in the Fifth Court of Appeals had unanimously agreed stating, “The right to bear arms is a most sacred right, and should not be trampled upon even when the person has been accused or found guilty of a crime. Using that right is afforded to all, regardless of the legal status of the person or their condition and shall not be abridged by any authority. We should consider any deaths that result as self-defense of those rights.”

Even though this case was restricted to the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, this one case prompted the widespread use of guns as mass killing tool with no regard for human life. Now it was no longer murder in killing someone with a gun. These three judges became known as the Shooting Judges on the Social Media Net. President Veronica Simmons held a one-hour special on the decision to appeal to her base.

It wouldn’t be until the end of the Second Age of Humanity, when society was stable once more, that a new case filtered through the courts as attempts again were tried to limit gun rights.

Philip Hartman vs. Courtney Joseph was a Supreme Court case that involved a gun enthusiast challenging the California Attorney General for enforcing a recently passed federal law concerning limitations on gun ownership. The Court merged this case with several other federal court cases that involved the various gun control measures to help resolve the issues all at once.

With this case the Supreme Court saw the Second Amendment as historically arcane, and legally unenforceable as written. In its majority opinion, it struck down the individual right theory to guns. The Court based this on the re-discovery of the history in which the Second Amendment was written. It noted how the U.S. federal army was formed from state armies. This fact facilitated the need for individuals to carry weapons themselves. But by the time of the end of the Civil War, the creation of a permanent federal army had superseded the need for state armies, and thus the Second Amendment became obsolete and arcane.

The Court recognized the government’s interests in the Second Amendment in forming a national army, more so than individuals owning weapons. It ruled in favor of the government’s attempt to regulate weaponry amongst the civilian populace as a necessary police action. And not an individual freedom that one has unilaterally unabridged in the Constitution.

The Court saw this by citing the very first part of the amendment as the original intent of the forefathers. The Court noted these forefathers saw the amendment purpose as forming a national army which required people to own guns. But now, this right no longer required it. The government had the freedom to restrict those rights as desired to secure “a free State”.

This ruling overturned such rulings as District of Columbia v. Heller, and others like it.

The War on Drugs

Because of the Supreme Court decision legalizing the state implementation of drugs domestically but not the transportation between them changed the entire War on Drugs.

The international drug cartels, and both the CIA and DEA, suffered with these economic changes. No longer was there a flow of drugs from places like Afghanistan to the American users. Now poppies were being grown locally in the U.S.

The CIA had no more tools to use to fund operations or get the leverage it needs in international operations. This reduces the U.S. footprint in covert and other activities globally, making the CIA nothing more than just a spy ring for the federal government.

The DEA no longer was needed to globally deal with drug cartels because those international cartels have fallen apart economically. The DEA was reorganized and tasked with dealing with the trafficking of drugs and paraphernalia between U.S. states and entry into the U.S.

The Supreme Court’s decision on drugs impacted the use of forfeiting property laws without due process. This impacted local, state, and federal policing revenues through the reselling of that property.

Economies of countries which depended upon the drug trade collapsed. Many cartels, like that in Mexico, started moving into the business of logistically running drugs between the American states. Some cartels tried to grow raw materials on federal lands but met resistance from agencies like the Ranger Marshals.

Syndicated Crime

The future does not differ from today with syndicated crime networks operating globally and between the planets. The only difference are the crimes.

In the future, the international trafficking of drugs and women has become less profitable. The U.S. domestic trafficking of drugs became more profitable. For a time, in the U.S. the trafficking of military grade firearms becomes an extensive business with the decision of the Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals on the matter of gun use. The biggest gun manufacturers end up being communist nations and Mars.

Since the creation of sex-bots in android technology, female sex slave trafficking dropped. But in its place grew male sex slaves. This more so in parts of the world where the female-male sex ratio favored women. Most male sex slaves are young boys who are altered and feed hormones to develop them. Off-world male trafficking to Mars was also profitable.

Two other major criminal activities are A.I. ransomware and illegal cybernetic enhancements. The trafficking area of illegally immigrating people because of the melting polar caps was not as profitable for the crime syndicates, but a few groups still practice it.

​A sub-branch of syndicated crime networks still practices money laundering. These are crime groups specializing in the laundering of illegal cash and are big business since the growth of A.I. systems designed to detect such crimes. These groups are really at the heart and soul of the whole crime network and paid handsomely for their hacking skills.

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Image- Rotunda of the Capitol, By Joshua Sukoff, Source Unsplash, Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)

​This is Part 2 of the important legal changes that have occurred in the dystopian America of Rosella's World. Changes that have profoundly impacted society and culture.

The Supreme Court of the U.S.

The number of justices on the Supreme Court is determined by Congress, as per the Constitution. The issue known as presidential legacy created by retiring judges caused Congress to enact the FDR plan. The number of justices was raised from the 9 to 15 through retirement.

By the time President Veronica Simmons was elected to power by Congress, there was a mixture of 15 Supreme Court Justices serving of various ages, and legal dispositions.

As a result, majority opinions on many cases were nearly impossible. The resultant was lower court opinions were now stronger than ever before, but only impacted the region of that court.

The Decision Dealing with Marriage and Family Life

When the A-2 model androids came out, groups of men wanted to marry them. Object sexuality became a social reality. Some societies, like in Germany, reacted with social stigmas being attached to such behaviors. Others were more open.

In the U.S., this issue became a Federal case before the U.S. Supreme Court with the case, Montgomery v. Matsuta-Hawkins Leasing Company, et al. In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court took up the case despite the lack of other similar cases present in any of the 12 other Courts of Appeals.

Chief Justice Alicia Carver convinced her fellow justices that this case was too important to the nation to wait for any other cases to appear. She noted that it was time to decide android rights before it became a problem later, and this was the perfect case.

With this case, Randy Montgomery wanted to marry his A-2 leased android, Roxanne. The leasing agency bulked at the idea when he applied for the license in the state of Georgia. Georgia at the time had a law on the books requiring leasing agencies to be notified if someone tried to marry an android so the leasing agency could claim default. It was the state’s way of dealing with the morality of object sexuality.

With this case, the Supreme Court used the same legal tradition found in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Roe v. Wade (1973) that defined privacy to form it’s majority opinion.
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As the majority opinion said, “While we agree with the minority, and the state of Georgia, that androids are inherently machines and therefore not afforded any rights specified in the Constitution. We disagree with the assertion of Georgia’s right to regulate the institution of marriage. We, of the majority opinion, see the historical legal tradition of marriage as an institution that is a sacred trust of privacy between those of practicing faith or individuals privately to which no government may interfere or govern.”

Thus, marriage as an act was returned to the people to deal with.

With this decision came the fact that no longer could a state marry people or issue licenses. Nor could they or the Federal government recognize any social or tax benefits. This unraveled tons of tax code and other laws involving divorce and family law. Ironically untouched by this decision were issues involving childcare, child welfare, or laws dealing with underage sex.

By this point in time the U.S. society had become negatively reproductive, and less responsive to being socially together in family structures. Object sexuality grew mostly among men. But this new legal development just pushed society over the edge. Marriage was dead. Only those following religions would get married and have kids. Such legal ideas quickly spread to other parts of the developed world.

With the development of the A-4 android models and their reproductive abilities, the manufacturers and leasing agents pushed a new family concept centered on these androids. This idea took off, not only to deal with the Martian population growth issue, but also back on Earth.  It became trendy to have a large cloned family as a sign of wealth and status. Soon those who could afford it were building large cloned families from androids.

Krishna Shree

One of the defining persons who caused many women in the U.S. to be disenchanted with married life was Krishna Shree. She was an Arab Hindi immigrant to the US, and a young adult of the late #MeToo feminist movements that had taken root in parts of India. She and her young husband fled to America because of a wave of increased violence against the native Arab populations in India. To make matters worse, they were a mixed union between Arab and Hindu. Her in-laws saw her as an untouchable for her Muslim heritage even though India was in the early part of the Second Age of Humanity.

In the US, she raised a traditional family of four and was a stay-at-home mother. But later, when the Supreme Court decision concerning marriage happened, she declared her marriage over and left her husband. When she left her husband, her four children were adults. She then started her own career as a social media net personality. Her channel bashed the idea women should get married and depend on men on any capacity. She promoted the power of the single woman’s life. Eventually she wrote a book called, “Men can have Space, I’ll take Earth” where she rambles on about the male American culture. The book is very misandry and blames men for the climate change.

The book became a big seller and defined the women’s movement of that period. This propelled many women to shatter areas left in society where men still where a majority, except for space. It also resulted in lots of women either leaving their husbands or not marrying. Men also took the book’s advice and sought space as a career. Krishna Shree would eventually run for the US House of Representatives and serve one term there. She would then later die of breast cancer. She wrote other books, but they were not as popular as that first one. Ironically, it’s her eldest son that still manages her estate and the associated royalties to her remaining children.

The Net Result

All these changes would help foster the political desire to allow 501(c)3 churches to actively participate in political campaigns by those against object sexuality and the new views on marriage.

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​Image- Rotunda of the Capitol, By Joshua Sukoff, Source Unsplash, Unsplash License (Processed using Adobe Spark)