If you go to the emergency room, they have to take care of you, it's a federal law that was passed during the Reagan administration. If you can't afford to pay, they will help you sign up for whatever government program you are eligible for, if you're not already on one. This was true in 2008 when I went in for my bleeding ulcer which, I believe, was before Obamacare was passed. I have only heard of one case where somebody was turned away because they didn't have insurance, and that was in Florida before the federal law was passed. If you have a past due medical bill, they can't do anything about it as long as you make some kind of payment each month. If you don't get it paid off in your lifetime, they might try to get it out of your estate. If you don't have an estate, they just have to write it off and charge their other customers more to make up the difference. The Democrats had a majority in both houses of Congress when Obamacare was passed, so you can't blame the Republicans for preventing single payer legislation.
I'm not happy about Trump kissing up to North Korea, just like I wasn't happy about Nixon kissing up to Red China. I tried to boycott Red Chinese products when they first came on the market, but it eventually got so that practically everything was coming from Red China, and you can't boycott everything.
Our neighborhood junk yard is kind of a recycling facility. They used to process junk cars there, but they gave that up when a bunch of new regulations were passed that made it more trouble than it was worth. They still take in other kinds of scrap metal and store it until the price is right and they have enough to bring in a crusher or a dumpster bin. I believe that they sell most of it to East Jordan Iron Works, which is a couple counties away. If you look at some of the manhole covers and storm drain grates around Chicago, you will likely find some that are stamped with the East Jordan name. I don't know if my neighbor ever made a living off his junk yard. He has worked other jobs in the past, and I believe that his wife still works. He told me once that the only reason he keeps it going is that it's a non-conforming land use that is grandfathered because his father started it before the zoning codes were passed. That means, if he discontinued the operation, he would not be allowed to start it back up again. Likewise, if he sold it, the new owner would not be allowed to operate it as a junk yard. There hasn't been a lot of activity around there for several years now, and the forest is starting to reclaim the land.
Our house is set back off the road and is surrounded by trees, so we can't see the junkyard from here. The camera in that deer photo was pointed away from the junkyard. That open meadow is an intermittent marsh that usually dries up in July and August. I mow it once a year to prevent the brush from re-invading it, although it never did dry up enough to mow last summer. Beyond the marsh is a brushy swamp that soon gives way to some higher ground that supports real trees. If that vegetation wasn't there, you could probably see my deer blind, which is located on the edge of a 1/3 acre clearing that I made in the forest. It's about a quarter mile walk by the trail, shorter as the crow flies.
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