“Where do I go from here?”
“Only you can answer that question. You have many choices and most of them are good. Just pick the one you like the most.”
“Good advice. What do you recommend?”
“That’s a hard question. It all boils down to: do you want to be back in the Army in some way or do something else?”
“I think something else. I want to make Alexandra happy. I’m sure she has ideas.”
“You should talk to her more about it. Married couples need to coordinate. To strategize.”
“For me, it’s like a different kind of war. I like war; that is, outsmarting people and winning.”
“Have you ever thought about going into politics or business?”
“It’s not my passion, but I’d probably be good at it. It pays well, and Alexandra would like it.”
“Besides Alexandra, what is your passion?”
“There’s a Bible verse I like a lot: blessed are those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail; they will be satisfied.”
“Based on that, you should go into politics, law, or law enforcement. Being a cop is like being a soldier.”
“The last bunch of cops I met didn’t impress me.”
“They never had the experiences you did, not even close. Don’t judge them too harshly.”
“Fair point. If I could get elected to some high office, maybe I could stop the sort of stupidity I saw in the Army.”
“That’s positive thinking. Excellent.”
“But what would be even better would be to help Alexandra succeed in politics. That’s her passion.”
“Another great idea. Our time is almost up. Any last thoughts?”
“Not now, no. But I’m looking forward to our next session.”
“Wonderful. Have a nice day.”
“And you as well.”
Alexandra was waiting outside to drive me home. To her place that is, but it felt like home to me. We talked a bit on the drive back.
“Some guys from the government came to my apartment today. They were looking for you. I don’t think you’re in trouble.”
“What did they say?”
“They asked about you and how you’re doing. And also some questions about your foreign language knowledge.”
“If I had to guess, they probably with the alphabet soup.”
“The what?”
“CIA, NSA, those guys.”
“I’ve heard of the CIA. They seem really shady. What does NSA do?”
“The CIA is kind of shady, if you ask me, but I don’t know them too well. They are a spy agency after all. NSA makes and breaks codes. They do a lot of translation.”
“Seems like a good fit for you, if you got your shit together, that is.”
“Yeah, I saw one of their gizmos in Vietnam. Interesting design, but unfortunately not very practical for soldiers.”
“Well, if you worked there, you could tell them how to make things practical for soldiers.”
“True. And I do need a job. I remember fellow soldiers not having much interest in my ideas.”
“Few people are soldiers. Why not give a chance to new people?”
“I am something of a risk taker…”
“That’s like saying Mt Everest is above sea level.”
“You should write down these zingers. They might come in handy later. Ever thought about running for office?”
“Yeah, but how could I win?”
“Asking questions like that is your first mistake. You should ask instead ‘how do I win’? That was my thinking in combat.”
“OK, how do I win?”
“The short answer is to get a lot of people to like you. You need a message that speaks to them powerfully.”
“And how do I do that?”
“Read newspapers, talk to people you wouldn’t associate with normally. Get a feel for what people care about.”
“And then?”
“You craft a message that explains how you can do something good about what they care about.”
“Can you give me an example?”
“Take the war. Many people strongly oppose it now. Nixon is exploiting that. That’s why he’ll get elected despite his flaws.”
“Tell me more.”
“Politics is just slow-motion, bloodless warfare. To win, you find weaknesses and exploit them in ways the enemy doesn’t expect.”
“The element of surprise.”
“Exactly. Don’t charge into the teeth of their defenses, unless that’s the last thing they expect.”
“You should have been a general.”
“In a way, I was. General Sherman famously said that war is hell and all the talk of glory in it is moonshine. I feel the same way about politics.”
“It leads to good results sometimes. FDR got Prohibition repealed.”
“Good point.”
When we got back home, I decided to use the typewriter for a while. I’ve never used one before, so I had to hunt and peck for keys. It was fun the way the ting! of the carriage return became more frequent as I typed. Plus the sound of the keys was like and M60 when I typed fast. Later, I would drink coffee before typing. The sound was like a squad of guys firing M1 Garands rapidly. I learned to love the sound of typewriters. And that’s a good thing because it led to the book you, dear reader, are now reading.
I won’t dwell too much on the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I didn’t like them very much except for meeting the veterans from Vietnam and other wars. There was meeting that was particularly interesting. I met a former soldier who served with Ernest Kouma during the Korean War. Kouma got the Medal of Honor for actions during the battle of the Naktong river. His citation reads:
M/Sgt. Kouma, a tank commander in Company A, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. His unit was engaged in supporting infantry elements on the Naktong River front. Near midnight on August 31, a hostile force estimated at 500 crossed the river and launched a fierce attack against the infantry positions, inflicting heavy casualties. A withdrawal was ordered and his armored unit was given the mission of covering the movement until a secondary position could be established. The enemy assault overran 2 tanks, destroyed 1 and forced another to withdraw. Suddenly M/Sgt. Kouma discovered that his tank was the only obstacle in the path of the hostile onslaught. Holding his ground, he gave fire orders to his crew and remained in position throughout the night, fighting off repeated enemy attacks. During 1 fierce assault, the enemy surrounded his tank and he leaped from the armored turret, exposing himself to a hail of hostile fire, manned the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on the rear deck, and delivered pointblank fire into the fanatical foe. His machine gun emptied, he fired his pistol and threw grenades to keep the enemy from his tank. After more than 9 hours of constant combat and close-in fighting, he withdrew his vehicle to friendly lines. During the withdrawal through 8 miles of hostile territory, M/Sgt. Kouma continued to inflict casualties upon the enemy and exhausted his ammunition in destroying 3 hostile machine gun positions. During this action, M/Sgt. Kouma killed an estimated 250 enemy soldiers. His magnificent stand allowed the infantry sufficient time to reestablish defensive positions. Rejoining his company, although suffering intensely from his wounds, he attempted to resupply his tank and return to the battle area. While being evacuated for medical treatment, his courage was again displayed when he requested to return to the front. M/Sgt. Kouma’s superb leadership, heroism, and intense devotion to duty reflect the highest credit on himself and uphold the esteemed traditions of the U.S. Army.
Must have become a tanker to have something to carry his brass balls around. Enlisted prior to WWII and retired in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_R._Kouma
Mammary Monday has a path to victory and will stay in the race.
https://archive.is/L8i2t/ecb6e30dbb7bc690ceb604cba1327c8974cc077c.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/XBz96/9fe0dc6079b70b0c096daba5b246b3e41f2cbcbc.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/MzvUs/c28bc0498d79af09043dd8f90996e6488b60a851.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/EX9Lf/7e350f23eae5ad7796e2eecbf65ee0fabdb224e1.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.is/DUNEQ/2d0e3ae849ce62bb7a4e5b644117d768470a899a.jpg
NSFW.
I’m not one to demand strict adherence to the source material, but Morrell got it right, Trautman blowing Johns head off is the best ending to this story.
Yeah, but not the most marketable one. He was willing to let Hollywood alter it for a hefty price. His criticism of the sequels was harsher.
In retrospect, my story is kind of mash-up with Forest Gump.
On the way home from my Peace Corps reunion. 15 years since we got back. We cooked Tanzanian food, drank heavily, and had a ball.
It was interesting to see all the different paths we’ve taken: single, married, divorced, kids, no kids, steady job, making a switch, retired, still exploring, settled down
At first, I was a bit jealous of the ones who seemed healthier, wealthier, and happier than me. As we shared more with each other, I felt more at peace with the choices I made.
Especially since I had the craziest stories there.
One helluva DAT (dumb ass tanker).
Good story Derp.
At my frequent jaunts/stays in medical settings, I’ve also frequently been asked frequently some of these. The “passion” question is a hard one for me. I have one I’ll leave out. But I’m certainly *best* at writing in the professional realm. I’d like to make that my profession again, though writing in general will (generally?) do. And…politics IS a passion of mine. It’s how I spend much of my free time. Here, or other FB haunts where we discuss such matters. (I’m planning on inviting folk to check it out over here. We met through the expat community in Korea. Just send ’em along, and until their first comment (or something) gets moderated, then cool? Hrm.
The other Big One is stand-up. I write bits and craft language to get jokes where I want ’em. I’ve been a professional performer my adult life. Expat teaching children in Korea (Elem-early HS); Singapore (3-5 mostly, elem, rare mid school) and Thailand, where I do remember they were 5-7yo. ALL of teaching kids, especially those, is an absolute performance. Ya gotta be entertaining *to watch.* My gesticulative, and comedic nature worked in my favor.
I really should stop typing. I had a long day at training. Just got done studying further. So stoned and free for first time. I could likely turn this into an article if I detail it. Not sure if it at all warrants it. Lotta pressure to make it funny, so fuck. I’m sure I could find pics to bring folk in for those. Not entirely sure what pics I can just include w/o it being distracting, worthy of more. (Also not a bad “problem.” Hrm.)
I’m also legit passionate about the Cubs. At all my time in hospitals, baseball has seriously been a therapeutic I constantly seek. Get a game and I know the next 3hrs are pure relax mode. Chill, focused, certainly keeping close apace, but a good snort of Positive Distraction Dust.
🥳
Clock is synched to my computer time via the RTC module.
We’ll see how long it stays that way.
My dad’s been a computer programmer for 40+ years. Here’s what he told me about the recent CrowdStrike bug:
***
I felt a disturbance in the force. It was like millions of servers were crying out “It looks like windows did not load correctly.” As it turns out, CrowdStrike runs in kernel mode. That’s below windows. When a program running in kernel mode encounters a fatal error, the processor stops. This happens before windows has a chance to load. I looked at the bad CrowdStrike file. It’s supposed to be executable binary code. What I found was a file with nothing except thousands of binary zeroes. That’s not right. I suppose it was some kind of a place holder. It takes at least 3 people to make a mistake like this. The first guy was supposed to write a script that would copy the file to the exact right place on the c drive with the right file protection attributes etc. This is an easy assignment. He probably finished before the other two guys. In order to test his work, he generated a dummy file with nothing but zeroes to be used for testing only. This kind of test is called a unit test. The second guy wrote the code. It probably failed many times before he got it to work correctly. His final product is the 2nd successful unit test. The third guy is in charge of integration testing. He was supposed to combine the two units together and test the whole process from beginning to end. In this case, that means replacing the dummy file with the real one and running a bunch of tests on the final version of the entire patch/update process. Obviously that never happened. On rare occasions, over-confident developers will skip the integration test and replace it with a quick “sanity check”. Just dump the file to the screen. Does this even look like it could be executable code? If not, abort. Summary: No integration testing. No sanity check. Result: worldwide catastrophe.
Ok. So the solution seems obvious. Just delete the bad CrowdStrike file. It sounds simple but it’s not. First you have to do a minimal boot which just gives you a good old fashioned command line interface. Instead of a C: prompt, you get an X: prompt because the C drive is probably not available yet. Why not? All the enterprise servers and even most laptops used for business have an encrypted hard drive. The automatic key exchange won’t work because all the servers are down. You have to type the key in manually and it’s very long. Only the end user can do all this complicated stuff. They need instructions. The email servers are down and the key servers are down because they have the CrowdStrike bug too. There is no way to get instructions out to the help desk which is now overwhelmed with calls.
What’s the solution? Setup a virtual machine which emulates an older version of windows with no provisions for CrowdStrike. The virtual machine runs on a Unix server so it’s good to go. Run the key server on the MS virtual machine. Get the keys you need for other important servers such as email. Use email to transmit instructions and keys to the end user. In my case there were 4 different keys. It’s organized as a query/response dialogue. When I supplied the proper key from the list I was given, the c drive was unlocked. I was able to delete the bad file and reboot into windows. I don’t know all the details, but it seems like all the data on the C drive gets deleted if you make a mistake in the recovery process. This has happened to some of my friends.
Aftermath
Those super-secret encryption keys were transmitted as plain text. They are currently being stored on e-mail servers which are probably not patched to current levels on un-encrypted drives. Was this just another random accident or was it part of larger plan? What will happen next?
***
My response:
***
I suspect a conspiracy. It seems unlikely that at least 3 experts would make the necessary mistakes, and the result is the exposure of keys which would be useful to a certain government agency. Also, I know that CrowdStrike is in cahoots with NSA.
Back in the 1970s I think, CIA bribed a Swiss code machine company to introduce a design flaw which would make the encryption just weak enough for NSA to break. The customers were all foreign governments. Here is an article about it:
***
Greg Miller of The Washington Post reveals the hidden history of Crypto AG, a Swiss firm that sold encryption technology to 120 countries — but was secretly owned by the CIA for decades.
***
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/05/812499752/uncovering-the-cias-audacious-operation-that-gave-them-access-to-state-secrets
***
Hitler is informed Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race
“White Women, help us!” after years of being told to stay in our lane. No.
I often see homeless people pan handling at intersections, and, invariably, they have a pit bull sitting next to them. Now, I have no fears of dogs, and pits are usually pretty calm animals, at least when around calm people.
Put a pit with a medically unsound person, and you have a recipe for disaster. One I am not going to go near, let alone give money/help too.
Calling yourself “AngryBlackWoman” is no different. You started off telling me that you are not a friendly person, and will take umbrage to anything that is thwarting you. No, I am not going to help you.
Hear about the dog pack attack in Portland earlier this week? Made me think of that.
Yeah… I steer clear of that scene. When I see that breed it’s almost always accompanied by a human I don’t want any interaction with.
That’s just hurtful, rhywun
Well…
JK. Adorbz.
So, speaking of canines, the coyotes are making themselves known tonight.
O.M.G. the HOWLING.
I saw a Bambi today, just chillaxing in some dude’s front yard. It stood up and wandered off as I passed. I am relieved those things don’t howl or squawk or whatever.
Let’s shout our abortions together.
Early word is he’s not dead, but pretty damned close.
May his death be as slow and painful as humanly possible.
I doubt he’s even conscious enough to notice pain.
Or he’s been dead for days and everything that has happened over the past few days is a power grab for Kamala.
Some weird crap the past few weeks. Our oligarchs must be nervous to show this kind of naked power.
He’s not dead or Democrats would be capitalizing on that shit with an even better narrative.
Laura Loomer is not a reliable source, but it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow as he is supposedly due back.
Good grief, I can’t even keep up any more.
Slow down, the news.
Eh, isn’t Jill over seas? That would be a bad look.
I’m not sure how I feel about this, but I’m leaning toward dick move. Needz moar info.
Total dick move.
Very much a dick move, even more so Tweeting about it.
OMWC shared Christopher Walken dancing a couple of days ago. Here’s better from a very underrated movie – https://youtu.be/TnX-W56xZnk
Sorry, that was cavalier.
That was excellent! I totally forgot that scene.
The OMWC link must have been Fatboy Slim? I remember when that came out.
You just know that the “women’s vote” will dominated by abortion. Many women are already emotional about Roe V Wade being overturned, and they are convinced that Handmaid’s Tale is the future if a Republican becomes president.
My take: a Republican congresscritter and a Republican senator need to introduce bills to make (at the Federal level) abortion on demand legal up unto and including time of birth (partial birth abortion).
Roe was always a shitty decision on legal / technical grounds. Overturning it doesn’t make it illegal. It just corrected a bad ruling.
Let’s bring it out in the open so that every damned politician in DC has to take a public position on it before Election Day. Are you for unrestricted abortion or not? Go on the record; don’t hide behind the courts and claim “safe, legal, and rare.”
That should neutralize the issue before election 2024.
Worst case is that some watered down version passes so that USA is in line with must European countries on a first trimester limit or similar.
Not gonna help. It’ll be treated the way DeSantis and Abbott sending illegal immigrants to New York was, as a stunt.
Who had “the continued existence of the republic is based on nationally-enforced, easy access to consequence-free sex” on their 2024 Bingo card.
Good morning Glibs!!
😏🌄☕
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F90Cw4l-8NY
🎶🎶
Catchy. Not bad for a band I never heard of.
Your mission seems to be filling in the missing indie pop hole in my library from circa 2010 when I wasn’t listening to any of that anymore. “Young Giant” and “Grouplove” are recents. I approve.
🙂
You’d appreciate my automotive playlists.
Good morning, Sean, rhy, Ted’S., and Stinky!
I just woke up. Has anyone come out yet and admitted that Gropey Joe is dead?
Mornin’.
Didn’t he do a call in to some Harris thing or was that just a (easily faked) recording?
I got sucked into X last night, and many were making much of Harris ALMOST saying “recording” before correcting herself to say “call.”
Could be but people overanalyze this kind of thing. Even among the nondemented which Harris arguably is misspeaks happen.
I know people talk about nobody watching the mainstream media news, but open a fresh, uncustomized install of a browser like Bing that puts “news” headlines on the default home page.
If you’re exposed to that and you don’t want to be it just breeds resentment and adds, probably in a minor way, to them being viewed negatively. The people who do like it as a feature would have seeked it out anyway.
Oof, eliminating that shit is one of the first things I do with a fresh intall.
Can’t do that on the work computer.
Home computer is Linux Mint and the home page is about:blank.
That sucks. I get controlling some aspects of your browser but the home page?! That’s heinous.
If the home page were something useful like our time management system, it wouldn’t be bad. But having nothing, and getting the setup dialog every morning, is obnoxious.
Just saw a clip of JD Vance linking ALL democrats to Joe’s failed policies. Sounds like smart messaging to me.
Good. I’ve argued for a while TEAM RED should be doing this.
Nice.
“”Someone’s Going To Die”: Windows Keep Randomly Falling Off New Philadelphia High Rise”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/someones-going-die-windows-keep-randomly-falling-new-philadelphia-high-rise
Ah the New Normal where windows randomly fall off of high rise buildings. Welcome to Philly!
In Russia, you die by falling out of the window.
In the US, you die because the window falls out on you.
“Hey, Ma! The building I designed is on Engineering Catastrophes!”
Philadelphia, the home of remote defenestrations!
Flashback to the 70s and the Hancock building in Boston and its falling glass.
New Yorkers have been fighting for decades to remove a law that requires inspecting the outside of every building like every few years.
The result is every block is lined for miles on end with tunnels of scaffolding where vagrants live.
Both seem to rely on “if it saves one life”. And will therefore never go away.
Oh, I was imagining such a law elsewhere for windows. Guess not!
Huh, looks like someone snuck into Bohemian Grove very recently and took HD video of the Creation of Care ceremony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vy8LTmmDvk
Looks like Nixon’s estimation, he called it the most faggy shit he’d ever been to, was right.
From wikipedia… “protesters against club members and their guests have held a ceremony called the “Resurrection of Care”, intended to symbolically reverse the effects of the Cremation of Care”
OFFS.
From what I know of this stuff via Armistead Maupin, it seems harmless.
These idiots would be better off protesting the orwellian shenanigans at, say, WEF – but of course they support all that.
The reverse ceremony is stupid no doubt but the idea of powerful people getting together to symbolically burn empathy and social and psychological mores is at least a bit concerning but it looks like a way to get together, get drunk, network, and I presume screw high dollar prostitutes more than anything else.
Morning.
Left the clock running overnight. It’s still keeping proper time within the maring of error (as in I can’t tell if it’s drifted)
😃👍
My old alarm clock/radio finally died, so i have to buy a new one today.
Of course, I got the old one back in high school, which was 35 years ago.
I got my current alarm clock when I left for college. I won’t say when that was, but it’s still going.
I’m the opposite. Always on the quest for the perfect alarm clock.
Still haven’t found it but getting closer.
Mornin’
Gym time.
The environment that the elites of the Democratic party have created is no different than the COVID years. Chaos, unknowns, fear…all designed to whip up their
slavesconstituents to go along with the plan.Mornin all.
I’m calling it now: Kamala’s gonna win.
buy lube futures cause it’s gonna hurt?
Very much so
I… can’t even.
I am afraid I agree with Q.
Fight!
Fight!
Fight!
MAGA, bitches.
Good morning!
Mornin’, reprobates!