In September of 2021, I went to a bar on a Saturday afternoon. I saw a young woman reading at the bar with an empty seat next to her, so I decided to go for it and sat there. I’ve spent a lot of time in bars, and I had never seen a young woman reading a book alone. It turned out she was an Army officer enrolled in some cyber course at Fort Gordon and the book she was reading (Ghost Fleet) was about a hypothetical cyberwar between the US and China. Perhaps I should have offered her my contact info or asked for hers. It seemed too early to do given we had just met. I went back a week later about the same time hoping to see her again but no luck.
Around this time, I got stung by fire ants at the metal shop. My best friend from NSA gave me her feminine itch cream as it was the only thing she had at the moment. It worked as the active ingredient is the same, although I was left with a strange urge to eat ice cream and watch ‘Titanic’.
In mid-October, a very strange series of events happened one Sunday. Around 5 AM, I was lying in bed when I suddenly heard a distant rumbling sound that lasted for a few seconds. At the same time, it seemed like my head was vibrating. When it stopped, I had a headache which lasted for the rest of the day. I know what acoustic weapons are and my symptoms are consistent with being struck by one. Interestingly enough, one of the more popular models is made by Bose, which is more famous for making stereo speakers. A few hours later when I tried to call my parents about it, I got the ‘we’re sorry, the number you have dialed cannot be reached’ recording. That’s the only time I’ve ever gotten that recording when calling my parents. Later, while watching YouTube, I got several ads for a drink called a Sonic Blast from the Sonic fast-food chain. It was hard to see that as mere coincidence. It was first time I had ever seen those ads.
Around 8 PM, I was eating at Chipotle when heard the melody of the country song Jolene on the sound system. The weird part was, the words were in some strange language and after listening carefully, I recognized it was Klingon, the fictional language from Star Trek. That seemed like a very weird thing to be playing in Chipotle. I never even heard a normal country song in all the times I’ve eaten there. When I got home, I got on YouTube again and the first two ads I saw seemed to be telling me something. The first was an ad for Chipotle, where had just been, and the second was an ad for flights from Augusta to Washington DC. I ran outside and saw that my car was missing. I thought it was some weird practical joke and I was supposed to go to Chipotle where I’d meet the soldier who came with me to the gun club and with whom I had fallen in love with. Then we’d both go to Fort Meade together where I’d be an NSA code breaker.
When I texted her that my car had be stolen, she texted me back for the first time in six months. She said she had been drinking and couldn’t drive. When I texted my closest friend, she said the exact same thing. Now I was getting really suspicious. When I texted my closest friend that I got shot with a sonic cannon that morning, she replied that her dog must have farted at me. I was angry, but she convinced me to return home instead walk to Chipotle and file a stolen vehicle report. The next day, when the cop came to investigate, he said some sort of hacker must have stolen my car since it has electronic locks.
My closest friend gave me a ride to the phone store that day after I said I was ready to buy a smartphone. On the drive back, she talked about how when driving, you need to conform and go with the flow. The timing of those comments was odd to me. It seemed like a cryptic reference to me needing to buy a smartphone to fit in. At the smartphone store, when I went to pay, the card reader displayed that the phone cost $14,000 and not the $140 it was marked with. I distinctly remember seeing on the display one, four, comma, three zeroes, decimal point, and then two more zeroes. Fortunately, my credit card was not charged that amount.
I found my car that evening in the convenience store parking lot. It was undamaged and none of my welding gear had been stolen from it. It seemed very unlikely that someone would steal a car only to abandon it less than a mile away without stealing any of the valuable things inside or causing any damage as they broke in. Whoever stole my car was familiar with my habits and wanted me to get it back, because I had been going to that convenience store daily for months.
My car recovered, I returned to my apartment and went to YouTube. For the past few months, I had done little on YouTube except search for songs and listen to music, and it was usually the same songs over and over. This time, the top clip suggestion was a cartoon. As I typed in my mental sandbox while refreshing YouTube, it seemed the cartoon clips being suggested were responses to what I was typing. For example, when I wrote that I felt like I was in an interrogation and needed a break, the next clip suggestion was a cartoon of a guy breaking glass with a hammer.
random video: man uses live cheetah as a pillow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTHDxJ_JWzY
Sadly, he was not eating Cheetos at the time.
I can do that but I don’t wanna.
But was his name Chester?
This took a turn. (It can be difficult for me to read some of your stuff. Not in a painful way, but it’s impossible to NOT see it through my own lens.) I’d say these bits are an unpleasant level (not the worst) of the Insane Scale. You begin to notice things mentally afoot but haven’t figured out if the oddities are mere coinky-dinks–and you’re reading too much into ’em– or if you’re realizing early signs of fully losing connection w reality.
I found the style appropriately jarring, in the best show-not-tell sense.
I have to admit that ‘coincidences’ make me unreasonably angry, as it seems they always go one way.
I know that’s a perception problem on my part, and if I put effort into observing what actually happens, I can see events occur that are fortuitous.
Which is a big ask. I’m a daydreamer and get lost in my own head, sometimes.
Upon occasion, I can even laugh at myself when I get angry at some stupid thing after asking myself what are the goddam odds of that happening.
Chance. Fortune. Coincidence. Hate it.
*climbs down from soap box*
Patiently observing (in one’s mind, though linked with real-life time) is crucial. It’s also maddening to my natural character, sadly. (I’ve MUCH improved. (Pobody’s nerfect.))
My least favorite: When my brain is awry and I’m actively aware of it. Not knowing what to trust, because after such reliable observation, not all is TO be trusted. Then ya wig out in your own head, sentient enough to be aware of just how lost you are. Lost in one of your many stations, all confused with each other, with far too much rapid congestion to make sense of the flow.
*Lost in your station, then you look at the map to find out how to get where you’re going. THEN, you’ve forgotten what station you’re IN. Then ya work it out, and then ya gotta find how HOW to get where you’re going…again, and the cycle goes on. It’s deeply unpleasant.
*Sadly, being Unaware is pretty good. Well, *I* don’t remember it. It was nightmarish for everyone else, but not too shabby for me. Odd to recover into something definitively better, but distinctly more challenging.
Well. Always see the smiley faces in headlights. They mean much.
They go the other way, too. It just usually they go unnoticed. You never notice when something DIDN’T happen that you weren’t expecting anyway.
Feminine itch cream is dangerous stuff.
Chuck U. Schumer used it and look what happened to her.
I’m not sure where (or if) Trump learned Economics but I hope he gets better advice then he or Biden had on import duties. I thought this was settled a couple hundred years ago with the Corn Laws.
Here we go again
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-biden-tariffs/
Drop income tax and all other mandatory federal payroll taxes and then we can discuss tariffs
Why not both?
Then spending could be cut. We’re in a deep hole and keep on digging.
If I work hard towards the company’s goal, they pay me a bonus. The government taxes that bonus at nearly 45%. It almost makes me not want to work hard. Why do suppose that is?
The government taxes that bonus at nearly 45%.
Bonuses are taxed at the same rate as your regular income. Withholding amounts are higher, certainly in the past but even those tables have been adjusted downward. Either decrease other withholding amounts or wait for the following year to refund it.
And it’s dependent on the employer. Either regular rate or 22% withholding if you make less than $1M.
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/jobs-and-career/what-is-the-federal-supplemental-tax-rate/
The economic plan?
Shovel harder, not smarter.
Thank you, Gustave.
I just got done explaining to my wife, yet again, how one is taxed on the income for the year, regardless of the withholding on any bonuses. I’ve never dug into why bonuses are withheld at a higher rate, but it’s annoying.
To their credit, my company always sends out an email right before bonuses are paid, reminding people they can adjust withholding for that one period, then move it back.
That reminds me, I need to do a test run on TurboTax, now that she has a new job…
It was an inside job. There. I said it.
Then feel sorry for the kid who was duped by the GOV, he dead.
/useless idiots
Donโt think so. I summarized my thoughts late in the last thread.
I skimmed because I have the attention span of a gnat, but I think you are a generous person.
Whatever it was, the left seriously fucked up. Making a martyr of Trump is probably the only worse thing they could have done.
As it is now, they’ve turned him into a god damn hero and legend. That is going to be the defining moment of Trump’s life and what he’ll be remembered for. Not any of the other bullshit they’ve tried to pin on him.
I lean towards someone set this kid up. How they found him and why him, no fucking idea. But I love the FBI “he was on our radar” meme that was posted here a few days ago. I suspect we’ll see something like that when this is all said and done.
Trump has good instincts too. He didn’t cower on the ground, he demanded his shoes, and he was threw his hand up in a fist. None of that with thinking it through and pre planning his responses. Spontaneous, as far as I can see.
I used to think that he either was deeply patriotic or was enough of an actor to believe that’s what the role was and deliver. I lean towards the former now.
I mean, there’s talk of Trump wearing a bullet proof vest in all of this. The idea of being shot at one of his rallies has probably been put into his head by his protective detail for years and years now. How he’d respond in such a situation had to have been on his mind.
So, I’m not sure how spontaneous it was. But god damn if he didn’t play his part perfectly because even if you have a plan, it’s a different beast entirely once real bullets start flying.
“Everyone’s got a plan until they lose a part of their ear.”
– Mike Tyson
Swiss and neighbors? Care to check in?
Had to vacate to the basement for a while but it looks like the worst of it has passed. I still see an amazing lightning strike now and again. Storms came in hard and fast and left pretty quickly too.
The following video shows a glitch that happened every time I went to lock or unlock my apartment door in April of 2022:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egj-9eO81a0
It finally stopped after I complained to my landlord. The technicians said there was a wireless device in the door lock, as I suspected. There was nothing wrong with the lock or its batteries. They were baffled.
I’m tempted to email James O’Keefe about my ordeal. Maybe he can help.
There was a steep drop in weird glitches after I emailed my autobiography in early 2022 to a friend who is a computer expert. His conclusion was that someone was definitely tampering with my electronics.
Pronunciation quiz –
Palmyra – do you say it “Palm-eye-ra” or “Pal-meer-uh”?
Pall-MY-ruh
That’s the way I grew up knowing it, but this documentary narrator is ‘meer’ing it up all over.
It’s bugging me.
Palmyra (/pรฆlหmaษชrษ/ pal-MY-rษ; Palmyrene: ๐กถ๐กฃ๐กฌ๐กฅ๐กดโ (“Image of city name written in Palmyrene script”), romanized: Tadmor; Arabic: ุชูุฏูู ูุฑ, romanized: Tadmur)
What’s that in non-linguist?
pal-MY-ruh
Where “pal” is like the synonym for friend.
I can only claim to have grown up near the version in NY and that’s not how anyone says it there.
Pall Meer ah
Responding to something from the dead thread…
I mean…the intel agencies were likely involved in knocking off two Kennedy’s last century. The other bullshit is just icing on the cake to be suspicious when someone takes a shot at Trump.
Yeah, but after living down the J. Edgar era — folks just thought the CIA was the corrupt one. The FBI was pretending it was honorable until recently they made it too obivous that they’re just as corrupt.
Jeebus on a crutch. Trumpโs SS team flailing around trying to extract him. What an embarrassment:
https://x.com/i/status/1812312136305045914
There should not be female SS.
Jebbus that was a shit show. Somebody on here said yesterday that the USSS is coasting on their reputation and that video helps confirm it.
That’s stronger than I’d go for, but “you need to be no shorter than X inches than the protectee” and “any 4 agents need to be able to be able to physically carry the protectee, rapidly, to the vehicle” would be prudent.
Hats off to the female agent who jumped in front of Trump – she was willing to take a bullet for a guy she may or may not like – but it doesn’t help if you’re a foot and a half shorter than him.
Sorry, Guatemalan-American dudes, you’re also off the Trump detail.
Trump is a natural bullshitter who people tend to like when they meet him. That’s his gift. Hollywood loathes him so much because he was one of them, an empty vacuous human being who turned the grift into the ultimate power fantasy they all have.
I’m going to guess his Secret Service detail loves him. Biden, on the other hand, is loathed by all accounts.
That one guy with the female body guards ended up with a pole up his ass.
Chubby short hair girl gets bumped around by the guys and can’t reholster her pistol. Damn lucky she didn’t Glock foot herself.
Youtube removed my episode about the Maui fire.
A video clearly making fun of the conspiracy theories is promotes and glorifies?
They’re in on it.
“…and I’m proud to be a bigot, because at least I know I’m free…”
https://youtu.be/9uQU0VNh5w8
Dunno why he’s worried about illegals so much. The bovines chose his song as an attack signal on humankind.
I’m worried about illegals because they are looting the coffers of the country at an incredible rate. Not too worried about Juan and Ensuela murdering me.
After a generation, Hispanics assimilate just like past immigrants and are net contributors.
Problem is, everyone is looting the coffers, and they all have reasons they believe they are justified. Conservative or liberal, they all think they deserve some pork.
Psst…there’s a reason that Western society has valued citizenship since the Greeks at the least. Allowing a bunch of people to flood across your borders to get nearly all of the benefits of citizenship with none of the prerequisite burdens is fucking retarded.
The only thing worse would be to grant them all citizenship just because they crossed that imaginary line on a map.
Is there a shit ton of welfare going to citizens, rich and poor alike? Sure. But the illegal population is almost entirely dependent on welfare. If it’s not greater in size than the amount going to citizens, I’d wager anything it’s at far higher rates. It’s disproportional compared to any group of citizens besides those living in the inner cities.
Well, how else are they going to make carnitas?
“Her name was Bovine. So Fine.”
Glibertarians…come out and play…
*clink, clink, clink*
๐๐๐
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OXcrEVFZOXs
๐ถ๐ถ
No playing — just sipping coffee and skimming links elsewhere.
Here’s a fun one if true — and given it is local news reporting (local to the scene, not to me) it is a touch more credible than a Reddit post at this point.
First thought — what were the “snipers in the building” doing? Bathroom breaks? Sitting on their asses?
Second thought — if true… I’ll definitely amend the screed yesterday with “Guy shows up to a rally, checks out a building then pulls out a rangefinder to check distances, you damned well detain him to find out what he’s doing (Yes, you’re being detained sir!)” Don’t wait for him to disappear back into the crowd and come back with a backpack, you idiots!
Fosters the statements around here that miscommunication was a big part of it. Reads to me like Secret Service didn’t view their job as “getting their hands dirty” — just stand and look pretty in the Raybans and “cover the perimeter”. Any icky things like detaining people or checking things was left to local yokels who they could call in — but their call in was too slow and too disorganized (and the yokel who did finally get there just in time backed down the ladder apparently).
I suppose PPP and his ilk might want to consider the implications of this next time they threaten half the country with F-15s though… I suspect they’ve gutted competency across the board in a like manner.
And I was seriously expecting this… why the relatively random music?
I see Michael Beck and I hear Xanadu’s music in my head.
No, I have to get breakfast ready.
Good morning, Sean, SDF-7, U, and Chip!
Morning, how goes?
Well, thanks! On the verge of finalizing this week’s payroll, which will include semiannual incentives for most employees (including me! ๐), and it may not get too beastly hot today before settling into much more temperate weather for the rest of the week.
How about you?
Its supposed to hit 94 today with thunderstorms.
๐ฅต
If it’s like what we got yesterday, the rain may at least cool things down briefly.
When I came out of the office yesterday shortly after the rain stopped, there was steam rising off the blacktop of the parking lot. ๐ณ
92 today with no rain… I would swear the lack of rain followed me across the country, but we do have something like a 40-50% chance daily for the next 4 days, so hopefully I’ll get to enjoy a good Southeast Thunderstorm(tm). I’ll pass on any tornadoes that might go with it, though.
Enjoy your bonus, GT… company I work for now has a weird, weird fiscal calendar — it ends in April, I think. Why — I have utterly no idea.
And thanks for the morning greeting… now I must decide if I feel like doing some chores (like sanding some exterior wood that needs some paint while I’m here) before starting my actual job. Yay.
We got a big cooldown after yesterday’s T-storms but the humidity is still 100%.
Real relief may be on the way tomorrow.
Good morning!
/thread fail
The new layout makes it challenging to figure out on a phone where to reply.
/not complaining, just explaining
Understand! How are things on the chipping frontier?
The dog slept in until 6 and she didn’t wet her bed. So far it’s a good day.
Really mangled accuracy on the XP — misspelled one word, and had a couple I think should be bonus that weren’t there. Ah well.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 07/16:
*24/24 words (+4 bonus words)
๐ In the top 10% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 07/16:
*32/32 words (+1 bonus word)
๐ฏ Perfect accuracy
๐ฅ Solve streak: 474
Good morning Glibbernam!
Oh my! You’re either up very early or very late! Either way, good morning!
Early. The pupster got spayed yesterday and was uncomfortable. Finally took her pain pill and is settling again.
I’m with Mojeaux. I think the evidence points more to involvement than incompetence.
A Skynews report says the shooter was reported on the roof at 5:45 by an EMS worker . The shooting happened after 6:00.
https://youtu.be/0Jmvuc9JsXI?si=ckmUHHqjVD3-q2CT
Maybe but donโt give even extreme incompetence short shrift when youโre talking about multiple local and federal agencies passing the buck on their specific areas of responsibility. Hell, the SS basically passed the responsibility, rightly or wrongly, to the locals on the day it happened and essentially said they had done nothing wrong.
Heard for years there will be another “9/11” and this was it. Not in scale or type of attack but the same ball dropping and finger pointing. All the information was there, all the players were there, and everyone is saying ‘well, that wasn’t my area’ or ‘we sorta checked it out’.
Not conspiracy in my mind, just human nature.
The “big lesson” learned from 9/11 is that the agencies needed to be able to intercommunicate. They created the ICS system that all first responders are required to learn. (An unreasonable amount of time in the training is spent on learning the ranks and which person is the Director of what).
This is kind of an enormous fuckup.
The thing I get hung up on is the building he was on. Any Barnet Fife could look at an overhead view of the area and identify that building as a prime location for a would be assassin to have line of sight to the target. Why wasn’t it secured?
Maybe they figured since it was a police staging point no one would be foolish enough to try and gain access.
ICS was pre 9/11. I remember doing the fema courses on it in the late 90’s.
I was a HAZMAT level III/IV in the late 1990s and didn’t learn the current system. Maybe they took the FEMA system and made it universal?
Ah, that explains it.
I remain skeptical of there being a direct plot. Admittedly, there is a ton of smoke coming from that direction (conspicuous and repeated incompetence, the autistic shooter who seems to be the only non-Amish 20 y/o with no digital footprint) What there definitely was, was a whole bunch of what we would call in the biz, “shaping operations” in the form of years long psyop equating OMB to the Austrian failed painter, a negligent (intentionally?) security apparatus. It really was a wonder that this didn’t happen sooner.
I blame the USSS, not the local yokels. USSS is finger pointing immediately which in my opinion means they know they screwed up.
Not everyone needs to be part of a conspiracy, for there to be a conspiracy.
Maybe we will get transcripts of the communication among the groups to confirm or dismiss this idea, but suppose group A, the group inside the building, notified someone that Crooks was milling about the area, checking his phone, etc. That someone says, โdonโt approach, Group B has him covered.โ Meanwhile, Group B notifies that someone that they have the kid in their sights. โDonโt engage, Group A has him covered.โ
Then no one does anything, because everyone is following protocols, and think that the Team as a whole has the threat well in hand.
I am here at this moment. In a day and age where communication between groups at distance is the easiest it has ever been in human history, it still fails.
This is how you overcompensate USSS…
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1813083103625158681
lol
Nice