Absolutely no shade my friend. I am absolutely as pissed off as you are. I really wish it would make a difference. Many of us do. It just isn’t quite there yet. The stew is close, we just need the vegetables to get ready.
I love the discourse as well. We don’t get a feel for everyone’s feelings towards things when we don’t. Others may even bring up things we hadn’t thought about, or an angle we didn’t see.
Good luck to you as well!
I see where you’re at. I take no offense. I definitely could be doing more. I can’t work either, so it isn’t like I don’t have the time. Physical issues are my only real hold back. My enlistment was fear of being trapped in an abusive home, as well as feeling like high school didn’t offer enough of an education to prepare me. We both have the luxury of doing what we’re doing.
However, I offer a few counter points.
What does killing 1 ICE “officer” accomplish? How does that affect change in the right direction? Does this cause others to do the same and follow suit?
We need more that I don’t think we’re at the point of accomplishing yet. We need a full on civil war. One that I’m not sure how we get to kick off, all at the same time, all across the nation, without it fizzling out quickly.
The problem then comes in how to coordinate that. How do we communicate, nation wide, in a way that is not vulnerable to monitoring and disruption by the very place we’re trying to change? How do we coordinate arming and supplies? How do we coordinate movements and operations?
We can’t stop at just POtuS either. 99% of it needs to go. Dem leadership has been largely sitting on the bloody nubs that they try to “reach across the aisle” with. SCOTUS and most all other courts are compromised. Plus the billionaires, the behind the scenes assholes, and even state and local governments. It all needs a clean sweep.
We have too comfortable of a life. We’re too complacent. We were too far removed from the fascism that spilled over in Europe. We were too padded. It didn’t really hit us, in either world war, back here. Our troops came back home and went back to regular life as usual. We had a civil war, but we didn’t punish any of the perpetrators. That led us right back where we’re at. At the time though, you could survive on your own. Support a family off of the land. There wasn’t much of an infrastructure. There was no pain to be felt by the general populace (loss of life aside).
I do think we’ll get to full on armed conflict. I feel as though mid terms will be the kicker. I just don’t know if armed conflict is where we’re at yet. Not that I don’t think we should be. It’s that the general populace is too comfortable. We, apparently, need our lives to hurt more. To be affected more. Is it sad? Absolutely. Is it very much against everything that the founding fathers envisioned, especially when drafting up the 2nd? Absolutely. They would be completely disgusted with all of us. Myself included.
I’m a USAF vet. My ancestors literally fought in the revolutionary war, and signed The Declaration of Independence. I’m going through the motions this year, but I don’t feel it at all. I’m pissed that we’re multiple stages into a nazi regime. I’m profoundly flabbergasted at how anyone could be for this. How anyone that is for it, can’t see that they’re going to be the “out” party. Some already are seeing it.
I’m incredibly disappointed that the news has gotten so out of touch that they just rolled over and lapped up the rhetoric. Local news is all sunshine and rainbows while ICE kidnaps people, and a corrupt POtuS breaks the constitution left and right. While he deploys military against its own citizens. While rights are stripped, aided by a corrupt SCOTUS. While the rich get richer off of our backs. While the checks and balances are obliterated.
Don’t end up like George!
Am I the only one that drinks cold brew tea? Organic decaf loose leaf green tea in a tea bag. Put in a pitcher of water and put it in the fridge for 3 hours. Remove tea bag. Pitcher of tea.
My mom would sun brew tea. I grew up in Florida. She’d take one of those Mt. Olive giant pickle jars and set it out in the sun for a few hours on the porch.
I like Turkish apple tea hot, but I don’t really drink other tea hot generally. I use the tea to slow my system down (as I’m doing now.) I have a J pouch and when I get pouchitis (inflammation of the pouch that acts as my colon) I can’t keep food or liquids in my system. For some reason, the tea helps calm it down a bit, stop bleeding and reduce diarrhea. It did the same when I had my colon and was fighting UC. I almost exclusively drink water or tea.
God damnit I still remember this, and I’m in my late 40’s
Scruff, McGruff, Chicago Illinois, 60652
You can go on away from here with your personal attacks.
Spends youth doing duck and cover drills from fear of Russian nuke launches. Now, licks the boots of…checks notes…Russia.
We were not ready for the internet and 24 hour news.
This is what I was looking for. My last duty assignment in the USAF was working physical security at a NATO facility in Va. Part of the agreement with NATO was that no one was allowed to carry weapons. When we had off base functions with the higher ups, we had to hire local PD since they were armed. I got to talking with one and he said they make a shit ton of money on this type of stuff.
It’s going to be 2 and 3.
First 3. Then 2 because yokels will complain that “them walmarts is stealin my money!”
I do have a funny story about someone determined to get his .01 cent.
USAF. We were leaving after a month long TDY (not a deployment, but you do go to a different place, stands for Temporary Duty Assignment) to England. The crew and us maintenance guys all stayed at the same hotel off base. We spent this month meeting with them in the morning in front of the fire place, and usually finding out the mission got canceled for the day. We were all ready to go home.
The head maintenance guy was a penny pincher. He had like 8 kids, so he kind of had to. This is a guy that went around base picking fruit off the trees. He left Saudi with a large bag of free MREs. We all joked that that was the only way he could eat at home because no one else wanted to eat them.
Anyway, we’re leaving finally. We’re all on the bus. Air crew and maintenance. Maintenance usually has to show up about 45 mins prior so we can inspect and get everything ready. So this was going to be a quick turn and out. We stopped by the base gas station to pick up snacks for the flight home. Everyone but the head maintenance guy is back on the bus. 5 mins. 10 mins. 15 mins. The pilot finally had enough. “WTF is taking him so long?”
He goes in and comes back out almost right away with the guy in tow. Why was he in there so long? He was arguing with the cashier over his change…1 penny. The pilot went in, found out what the hold up was, and told him, “I’ll give you the damned penny. lets go!” while dragging his ass out.
I’m a disabled vet. I’m unemployable. SSDI is the only thing that makes things breathable for us. The only real way I have to make any money on the side is by painting DnD minis, dice towers, or maybe Gunpla commissions. It’s so difficult to do much in a day that it takes me quite some time to paint just a couple minis. Months on a gundam. I just don’t have the stamina to do much in a day. Fatigue is killing me. I’ve got a few painted, but I haven’t had the energy to put them up anywhere yet. I have just as many to paint still.
Body wide small fiber neuropathy, a central nervous system issue and colon removal really tanked me. Winter (Wa state) and fronts rolling through, even in summer, tank me even more. I think the change in air pressure is what does it.
A cut in medicare means that I also now have copays. I have tons of doc appointments still. No one can tell me what the root of the issue is, or at least prove it as it’s very likely chemical exposures. All funding that would have led to a “here it is” was shuttered. Regular blood tests due to colon removal. Regular tests due to the fucked up nervous system, which is still progressing 20 years after the last exposure and 18 after it started.
My wife is a PARA, but we’re in a low income area and PARAs don’t make shit. From my excel math, we can make it by with no SSDI. However, we’ll have absolutely no extra money. No money to replace clothes. No money for home repairs. No money for vehicle repairs. Before you say it, we do need them. Taking public transit is incredibly painful, and shitty at best. Plus I have no energy to do that. I can barely do the appointments I have, even driving myself the only 20 mins, avg, to the various doc appointments.
I feel like such a waste already. I love math. I love engineering. I love turning a wrench. I love cooking. I can barely do any of it. These assholes seem to think we’re all grifting and “welfare” queens. Sad thing is, there are many more vets in my position. Yet many don’t seem to realize that the GOP hates us. They’ll keep voting for it. Voting for that shotgun to the foot and pleading for more like a gimp gagging daddy for more.
I’ve watched all of them. I was a TF fan as a kid. I watched it every morning before school and on Saturday mornings. The movies just…I don’t know. The first one was the best of the live action. Bumblebee maybe. All of them felt more machine like, except the stupid peeing…wtf…
That said, they were not great. The story, on concept, seemed ok. The execution sucked. The acting was not great. The tropes were un needed, didn’t even really fit in, and just plain stupid at best. Mostly they were irritating. Like someone dragging their nails on a chalk board in the middle of a mediocre movie.
The last couple felt more like an attempt at hero porn. [que “heroic” music, lame Walberg lines where he wields some weapon that makes no sense, then lots of booms. Don’t forget the meaningless jumping, falling all over the place, and special forces that lean more on the special than forces.]
The only good thing that came out of them was the limited re release of the OG toys. I managed to finally snag an Optimus and a couple others.
I had a series of 3 stomach surgeries and I delved into some shows I wouldn’t watch. I stumbled on this one. I really loved the premise. It is one of those late night SyFy feeling movies. The end did get weird, but I like where they were going with it.
What a shitty grandpa.
I think it’s more that most people don’t want to see views that don’t align with their own or challenge their current ones. There are those of us who are naturally curious. Who want to know how things work, why things are, what the latest real information is. That does require that research and digging. It can get exhausting if you don’t enjoy that. If it isn’t for you, then you just don’t want things to clash with what you “know” now. Others will also not want to admit they were wrong. They’ll push back and look for places that agree with them.
This part is both mind blowing and hilarious. Not too long ago they were screeching that “they are trying to make everything sharia law!”
Then they do this, with absolutely no sense of irony. The dumb runs so deep that its turning to magma.
We’ll see what happens with the new yes men in place. However, there was a DoD wide email that went out when he first started snatching people (though some didn’t get it for some reason). It stated:
Think long and hard before assisting other agencies outside the DoD. If your actions are deemed to be against your oath, you could be investigated and actions taken against you. Remember, you serve the constitution of the United States. Not the president.
Wa state has just passed a law stating that other state’s national guard, cannot enter our borders to take any actions. I would bet that that would include military personnel stationed in state.
I’d bet abuse in his past. Not that it’s an excuse, but it’s so much easier to follow the path you know. I grew up in it and decided to break the cycle. I only learned much later that my step father was abused as well. My sister hasn’t dealt with it. She’s always angry. She’s always yelling. She’ll argue instead of deescalate. I did it at first, but I realized I was perpetuating exactly what I didn’t want to. I was making myself depressed and physically sick for days after an argument. Luckily, I realized it pretty quickly.
Abuse and trauma are a blanket in a war zone. The war zone (the world around you) is chaotic and unpredictable. Abuse and trauma is familiar. You know it. You know it isn’t safe, but you know what to expect. So you stick with it. Leaving that is hard. You have to leave the warm blanket behind. Trudge through the unknown chaos of that war zone, and find your way out. You want to go back to that blanket. To the predictable. The path out isn’t even totally for you, and you know it. It’s for the next generation.
I feel bad for his kids. They’re not going to get any type of mental health care until they’re adults. I’d bet that “therapy is for pussys” and “Only women cry” is his household motto.
My son’s girlfriend is in the same predicament. Her step father is military. Her mom is a detective. Her step is the abuser. Her mom lets it happen. She’s 18 and graduates this year. Yet they read every social media message. They track her on her phone through an app. They yelled at her to get a job, or she couldn’t play softball. They read all of her bank statements and grill her on what she spends of her own money. Then, he turned around a month later and said she needs to spend her time off filling out scholarships. She’s their full time babysitter to her sisters, who are treated well by step father because they’re his own legit kids.
My son is so frustrated because he doesn’t know how to help. I’ve been helping coach him on how best to help and be there for her. I do what I can to communicate that she’s a good person. They can’t read IG photos so I’m constantly sending funny faces back and forth with her. She’ll come here with him for lunch as well and I’ll give her a hug when I sense she needs it.
We’ve offered up our home if she wants to move out. She won’t, and I understand it, she’s stuck a bit, but it’s there. They’re moving after she graduates. She said she’s not going to visit them on holidays. She’s welcome here. I’d bet they’ll wonder why she doesn’t visit. People like that never understand why. She’s going to have to get her own car ASAP too. They’re using that as leverage over her. I told her we’d help as much as we can. Even if it means we co sign.
I see this behavior in the military a lot, and I think it’s because it attracts people that don’t see a way out. Even if they think it is for altruistic reasons as a kid, the root cause is just wanting out of the home. Out of that situation. It isn’t until years later that they truly, hopefully, realize why they went in. Many won’t though.
Then you get into the actual military. It’s a bunch of high school kids with responsibility. Good leaders? Rare. Those higher end crazy weird assignments, like SG would have been? Those breed the worst because they usually attract the worst.
“Here, Lippyballscacker will train you on this.”
Wait, Lippyballsacker? Wtf?
“Yeah, his supervisor was hanging in the building and remembered he had to pick him up at the last minute from the airport. One guy asked him what the new guy’s name was. “I don’t know, Lippyballsacker or something.” That name stuck.” - actual story from my time in aircraft maintenance
When they guy left, he was gloating the name wouldn’t follow him. One of the maintenance supervisors had contacts at the new base. The name followed him.
We also had a fuck up who was good at taking tests, so he made rank fast, but was an absolute moron. Didn’t realize he had to put his manual truck in gear or set the brake. Always had to repeat lefty loosey every time…out loud. Walked right through an antenna on the bottom of the plane. Didn’t skip a step.
They show the military way too organized and disciplined. No. Bunch of blind leading the blind.
She probably feels pulled in 2 directions. The weight of calling in her husband to charge in and help her must be great. I’m sure the tech is also crushed that they weren’t fast enough to oppose him entering the restricted area. It’s a tragic set of circumstances that will hopefully attract more awareness of the dangers of entering the MRI area if you haven’t properly prepared.
I had an MRI, many years ago, and had a very small sliver of metal in my finger tip. I didn’t know it was in there still. I felt the pain of it pulling as soon as I left the MRI tech’s control room.