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.

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.

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.

Watching Live PD last night. Guy runs on a motorcycle. They have the area surrounded after he ditches. They’re looking for him and one cop spots him. He commands the guy and he’s complying. He’s almost on his knees and another cop spots him. He ran, full on run, and leapt onto the guy that was almost on his knees. The other guy that was commanding jumped on him after that as well. Guy wasn’t resisting. Guy was complying. Guy had hands in the air. Guy wasn’t reaching for anything.

Cop after: “He ran and we didn’t know what he was capable of. So we tackled him and restrained him.”

It’s absolute cop wank material. All of it. The majority of the time they are way over reactive and then try to justify it all. They have that disclaimer, but then most of the time they never really follow up with info, or proper info. “Guy was booked on blah blah.” Ok, but was he actually convicted? Was he found guilty, or did you just over react and your “oh I totally for sure smell weed” was bullshit. I’m fucking sick of seeing that too. How many times has jackass said that only to find…nothing.

Very fair point. Some are definitely further left than others. We’ll take Bernie. I’m not nearly as far left as he is. I’m still left of center though. We need a uniting figure. Just as MAGA has. I think it still comes down to the DNC not fully listening to what their voters want. It’s anyone’s guess how the mid terms and forward will go. If the GOP is right, the impending depression will loose them majority for some time. I don’t think it’ll be as long as last time. Last time didn’t have the crutch of social media, 24/7 “news” and a myriad of other issues we have now. We can only hope that if the DNC does get control for a bit, it’ll be enough time to fix things.

I think it’s more a comparison of failed runs. Not so much on gender. The comparison runs to the DNC forcing a specific candidate that a lot just didn’t want. Kamala was a bit different situation with Biden dropping, but there are still other candidates that the left voters wanted to put up instead.

That’s the thing, we’re sick of the same old same very old. Walz wasn’t super bad, don’t get me wrong, but the democratic voter is ready for change. Long since ready. It’s only the DNC that hasn’t caught up. We want more left than appeasing centrists. We’re tired of reaching out a hand across the isle to bring back bloody stumps.

If you think that Hillary and Kamala lost just because they are women, then you haven’t been paying attention. They lost not because they are women, they lost because that is what we were told we were getting. We all wanted rocky road ice cream, and they gave us vanilla. Then they wondered why they lost out on business. Fighting against fascism didn’t seem to be enough for many. It blows monkey chunks that it had to happen when we have a fascist party taking hold, but it is hopefully a shake up that will actually get noticed.

It isn’t about color or gender, it’s about where they fall on the scale of things as well as age. Stop forcing that vanilla ice cream. We want the rocky road.

It may even become a self filling cycle, though I don’t know if they have even thought this far ahead.

1: Send legal Americans to Salvador prisons

2: Said Americans attempt to return

3: “Look at our border crisis!”

4: Fool idiots into thinking that there is now a border crisis, even though it’s previously legal Americans in every sense of the word.

5: Blame “liberals”

6: Rinse repeat

Those fucking voluntold assemblies on day shift. That’s ok, we don’t have jets to work on. I don’t have 10 computers to fix that will be kicked off the network tomorrow if I don’t patch them. Nah, we can stop this ISO inspection that is already behind. All so you can give some vapid speech and peace out before anyone else can talk to you.

Rogers showed up to a kid’s fund run. There were all of like 15 kids there. 3 of them mine. She wouldn’t talk to anyone that wasn’t an officer. She wasn’t even there when the race started. Kid’s fund run and she couldn’t even stay and see it through or even walk the thing.

I think he may need a presidential golden poop knife.

Fellow vet: I never understood fellow service member’s blind servitude to the GOP. They fuck us over ever chance they get, and we’re dogs at a dog show for them only when it’s convenient. When they show up at a base, it’s either a completely scripted Q&A, with questions vetted weeks to months ahead of time, or they show and are guided around by the base commander and make a super quick appearance at whatever event.

My favorite was the 1 time Cathy McMorris did a debate. She touted helping 100’s of vets a month. Her opponent: “If you are really helping the vets, you wouldn’t have 100’s a month with issues.”

Well fuck. Maybe we can hold out until us Gen Xers are too old to vote or die off as well.