^H

I’m working through Buck Sexton’s book. It was one of the ones on my to-read list while I was in massive money-saving mode. It’s probably will have enough there for a good OWT entry. Finally. Something I can do on the way back. I will say that I do not like the new roomette cars. It is a pain to put on shoes every time nature calls.

So, prompts…

What’s the most important lesson I’ve learned about myself this year?

I can just stop. And sometimes holding my tongue really isn’t the best thing.

How am I already shaping that story today?

As I said, working on that book review. Some of the things I was consuming podcast-wise just weren’t adding anything to my life, really. Yes, I’m still listening to lots of things, but rolling in books while writing about them, along with No Agenda seems to suffice.

I seem to remember a 90s country song about that. But I’m seeing it out the window, down the hill to the creek from the train track.

What kind of legacy do I want to leave, even in small ways?

I really don’t know. As I wrote in a previous entry, I’d really like to be remembered as someone who tried to “do the right thing” even when nobody was looking. Or would find out.

There’s been a lot of discussion about that general concept last couple of days in media I consume. Not only do people not have a good inner sense of what’s right and wrong, they’re willing to do what they think might be wrong, and expect that others will act similarly.

I need to add to this with the relevant stories from TheFP.

I honestly feel bad about having such a negative view of people with whom I have political disagreements. Okay, yeah, that means pretty much everybody, but I really do think it’s something that’s increased.

As is often the case, I fall back to Lawrence from Office Space when asked about what he’d do if someone asked him if he had “a case of the Mondays.”

No. No, man, no. I think you’d probably get your ass kicked.

I sill try to live like I assume the best of others; maybe it’s reflexive. But at the same time, the actual research numbers coming out don’t reflect at all positively on others’ beliefs if not behavior.

Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.

Um.

No, it’s not okay.

How am I already shaping that story today?

I’m not? I’m traveling. There really isn’t a lot of opportunity when you’re dealing with spotty Intertubes.

Keep getting sidetracked trying to put together a longer OWT post. Kinda blame YouTube’s suggestions, but I’m sure if I narrowed down what I wanted to write about, it’d be easier.

So, what am I focusing on?

• Situation with Iran. Unsurprisingly, the M5M have declared that OrangeManBad has failed backwards to Kerry/Obama’s blessed JCPOA. But nobody’s actually agreed to the new arrangement. Whether that happens for Friday’s ceremony with JDVP remains to be seen. But the facts on the ground remain. 1. Ali Khamenei is dead, along with many of his associates. 2. The IRGC members are fighting amongst themselves, and aren’t necessarily behind whatever agreement is supposed to be signed Friday. 3. UAE has exited OPEC, and has built a pipeline to send oil around the Strait of Hormuz. (The Saudis aren’t happy about these….). 4. The Saudis are sending oil to the Red Sea so they don’t have to deal with whatever Iran is going to try to impose. Similarly, the Iraqis who are generally-friendly towards the IRGC are sending their oil towards the Mediterranean and Black Seas. 5. The gravy train to the Houthis in Yemen is dry. The Saudis can take care of them again pretty quickly. 6. The Israelis and Syrians are taking care of Hezbollah; part of the sticking point on agreement is that the IRGC are saying that Israel has to stop fighting Hezbollah. OrangeManBad is telling is “master” Bibi to stop, and Bibi isn’t listening. (How’s that make OrangeManBad the puppet, exactly? Or the other way around? I don’t watch enough MS NOW or TYT to understand it, obviously.). 7. The IRGC killed somewhere north of 40,000 Iranians in January before the US and Israel struck in February. 8. FIFA, the classiest sporting agency in the world, tried to ban the Lion&Sun flag. Yeah, about that. There’s a ton, but I am following probably more-closely than I should. Recommend Goldie and Tousi on YouTube.
• Still following the DC Water situation. I guess the Potomac Collector is about to fail catastrophically upstream in MoCo, MDDR. DC Water has known about this problem since 2018, and are scrambling to fix it (before they dump millions of gallons of shit into the Potomac again). The guy who was in charge was finally fired, but he’s not leaving until they find a replacement to install. Um. Okay. That’ll be how long?
• The elections in DC and Maryland. Being in the DC Media market, there’s lots of ads. Given that MDDR has become as “blue” as many parts of New England, the ads tend to be about who’s more opposed to MAGA, more for abortion, etc. There was one of the PGC candidates, too, who mentioned that he wasn’t taking AIPAC or Oracle money.
• Medical stuff. Geez this is frustrating. I’d thought I was having an exacerbation coming down from Keysimpta, but that seems to have calmed down. My neurologist wasn’t too concerned, and I’ll have a Telehealth visit with her in a few weeks. But I’m feeling a lot better than I was last week. Also back into physical therapy; trying to learn to stand and walk is tough with numb limbs.
• Excited to be attending this tomorrow. I’ll be scribbling notes, but who knows how much I’ll end up putting down. If I have thoughts, I’ll write about them when I have a chance. (And my vote goes to George Wythe who’s not nearly as well-known as his namesake law School’s product, Mr. 8647.)

But the write-up might be something good to tackle while I’m away. We’ll see how it goes.

During my forced poverty, I’d created a list of books I wanted to read, well listen to on account of my vision, and I’ve been able to start getting through the list.

Sadly, one of the ones near the top of the list doesn’t show an audiobook on Apple (my preference), or on Space Cowboy Jeff’s station. But I’ve been trying to get through a couple of the others. By mistake, I bought a book by this British Anti-Capitalist Feminist author. I only got about a third of the way through before I moved onto Katie Herzog’s book.

Not sure what I think about it, honestly. I just have never had the constitution to do that much. Should I be envious? No, but in a way I am? I just can’t let myself get that out-of-control, and never have been able to.

My wife and I have been together for twenty years. I think she’s seen me drunk twice, maybe? I can, and do, set up limits on myself. “Dry January?” Been there, done that, wonder what benefit I got from it.

But I’m sure I’ll keep whittling through the list over the next few weeks. Still being cautious with spending, though there isn’t the urgent reason for it. But, much like the abstaining from alcohol, I guess I get accustomed to a routine.

Speaking. of that, I’m going to do a mini writing streak later this month. The prompt cards my wife had gotten me as a gift willl get use. I’m sure they’ll get more in November.

I do have to give the totes-didn’t-used-to-do-evil company credit for its OCR capabilities in their app.

It’s neat.

Things.
Get.
Better.

And not because of government.

Following last week’s revelations about the Massie loss, I’ve found myself in an odd situation. My determination, then, was that I’m not going to ever vote for anyone who supported the release of the “Epstein Files.” The one Louisiana Republican who actually was the sole vote against, on further research, seems more than a little off his rocker. My rep, Don “Replacement Moran” Beyer Volvo wasn’t there to vote. Didn’t take long for me to find yet another reason to vote against him. Whatever.

But Bridget Phetsey had a Dumpster Fire dispatch that largely mirrored my take on the reactions.

I’m sorry. I don’t believe in your space laser conspiracies. And I think a lot less of you because you’ve signed on to them. Bridget is pretty consistent with her 1990s feminist views on many subjects.

But that makes me a Christian Nationalist Rapist, right?

Elon Musk famously tweeted this cartoon. Do I necessarily agree with Elon? Nope. I’m farther right than he is on the X-Axis, but socially I’m pretty far to “the left,” even if some of those views have moderated as I’ve reconsidered faith teachings. When I was in college, I would have agreed with pretty much wide-open contraception/abortion, and I was in favor of capitol punishment.

While I now don’t want to see either eliminated, I’m not a fan of either.

I think I have a start of a long OWT on all of this, if I can find the energy to distill it.

Let’s see how I feel after some coffee.

So, The Internets have been back on in Iran for a couple of days now after the Islamic Dictatorship had shut off access for 80-some days.

There were things coming out of Iran with information about the tens of thousands of people the IRGC had executed in the wake of the pro-Shah protests, 1/8-9.

The Corporate Press didn’t report this back then because they couldn’t verify the stories coming out, even if there were numerous things on Twi^H^H^HX describing what was going on. Following the executions, the IRGC shut off access to the entire country.

The only information coming out was from people on the ground who were willing to risk punishment for using a Starlink terminal.

Elon Musk even gave free service to people who had terminals.

Which the IRGC almost immediately tried to block.

There really wasn’t a way to intependantly-verify the information coming out, meaning for the J-School products, it didn’t happen. Anything coming out with sources that can’t be verified are “Distortions At Fourth Hand.” (I do give him credit for not just deleting is writing denying what happened in Cambodia. If it was modern corporate press, you’d see the story just silently vanish…)

But, back on Iran, the IRGC actually admitted to having executed protestors; that was widely-reported, as it was from an official IRGC source. Through the intervening time, until probably about ten days ago, the number had been 30,000+, which I’ve now heard it probably 40,000+.

Some pictures of the shootings were posted, as well as dead people scattered across sidewalks.

But then it went dark. No internet, and the only things that were getting out were from people who smuggled phones and memory cards across the borders.

In February, the US and Israel started striking Iran, killing the Ayatollah, and many other senior leaders. And seemingly tanking the global economy, etc..

This War Of Choice wasn’t needed. (Sorry, Nick, but you were the first thing that came up in search results for that phrase. But it was also used by many Democrats…). It was reckless. It was actually to distract from the Epstein Files.

I do give the corporate press a bit of credit for eschewing some of the more salacious details that have been floating around on various social media platforms. At the same time, many of those corporate outlets were more than willing to report on some of the more outrageous bits. MeToo, GamerGate, PizzaGate, even stuff reworked from the McMartin Pre-School trial.

But the Internet came back on Thursday, and information started flowing out again.

https://twitter.com/i/trending/2060549410069905892?s=20

I hoped that on Thursday or Friday, there’d be some reporting. *crickets*

Check today, and still barely anything.

I’m sure someone on IG would respond that she hadn’t heard anything about it, and needed to do more research. But it isn’t nearly as evil as $fill_in_this_week’s_Trump_outgrage.

As might be expected, Memorial Day here was pretty uneventful. My wife and I spent an inordinate amount of time doing paperwork; what’s new? But I did manage to plow through The Great War on Netflix.

Overall impression? I don’t know that I can give a more emphatic “meh.” It is refreshing to see that WWI has been getting more attention lately. I don’t know that there’s a film that’s really captured the horror.

I’ve written before about riding as my dad snaked us through The Somme, seeing where his grandfather had fought.

Later, in high school while running the hills (football training) near our quarters in Heidelberg, seeing the incredible number of headstones in the cemetery that read 1915-18. Wait, why are all these dates before the most important war in human history? Corporate press tells us that!

If you can’t trust the media, who can you trust?

Note that this was before Tom Brokaw’s 90s/2000s “Greatest Generation” obsession, and things like Saving Private Ryan, or the ultimate movie about WWII, Pearl Harbor. (Yes, the sarcasm is intended.)

But I had two big take-aways I scribbled down. (And I don’t know that they’d really fit an Okay With This entry…)

• The writers/producers spent an incredible amount of effort glossing over how badly Wilson screwed up so many things. I don’t know if it was intentional, but Lusitania’s sinking was really pushed to the back, though it was still listed as a civilian ship; a passenger liner. I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s no mention of why it’s a more dangerous wreck to dive, despite having sank years after Titanic in much shallower water. Why can’t people dive Lusitania? Oh, the ammo that the US had been sending the British is scattered across the seabed and could cook off at pretty much any time. They also leaned heavily on Black soldiers and their role in the US Army atop the discrimination they faced back stateside. No mention of Wilson’s resegregation of the US Government (including the military). Yes, the people featured were heroes. I understand that the focus on the contributions of the minorities is important for cinematic awards consideration, but I do wonder if it was more than a little over the top. If you consider it too long, you reach a real indictment of what Hollywood’s become in the past twenty or so years. I don’t recall seeing things about LGBTQ, and wonder if that might push this out of cinematic awards consideration. They did touch on some of the Communist stuff following the war, but omit talking about things like the Palmer Raids. There really isn’t any discussion about how authoritarian Wilson and his allies were. Have I gone full Glenn Beck with my dislike of him? Hardly. That said, the more I see, the more I notice “the left” trying to gloss over what he did. Who was a bigger enemy of freedom? Donald Trump or A. Mitchell Palmer?
• Along those lines, they spoke glowingly of The League of Nations, and what it would have brought. The Treaty of Versailles was great had it been followed, there wouldn’t have been a World War II. No mention of how the US Senate didn’t ratify the treaty, and that the US remained at war with The Triple Entente (Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Germany) until Harding was President in the 1920s. What was actually finished and ratified after the US failed to support was far, far, far more extreme than what the US rejected. The audacity is rivaled by what the Democrats did here in Virginia after their 2025 win.

Governor Langley’s actions won’t be as detrimental, but they are comparably reckless.

So final take on the documentary? i didn’t give it a “thumbs down,” but it’s one of the few things I’ve seen that didn’t even warrant a lukewarm endorsement.

Do I make bits of this an OWT entry? Don’t know. I probably should. I’m cramming my brain enough with it, but I really don’t know if I have anything that anyone will care aobut hearing. But that’s okay; everything gets deleted, eventually. Including my scatterbrained missives.

I thought that, maybe, I had imported one of my old entries that would have covered Memorial Day of 1999. Nope. I didn’t actually start writing on OD until a few months later.

The impetus was watching the kinda nasty weather here in the Beltway Swamp.

I remember being at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront with friends, one of whom had posted something on Facebook last night.

It was cold.

Search around to see what the date of Memorial Day was in 1999; May 31.

It’d been warm during the day, but rain had moved in, and we were shivering, looking for restaurants where the underage amongst the group could get in. (Yes, I was underage, myself, but my ID said I was four years older than I was because the clerk at the DMV in Biloxi read my “9” as a “5.” I wrote my numbers like a European. It’s like I grew up there or something..)

But this Memorial Day isn’t as late as it was in 1999. Even through I’m 200 miles north, the weather is remarkably similar.

If I was healthy enough, though it looks like the rain is pretty much finished, I think my experience would be similar. I doubt if those old shorts are around they’d fit. And there’s no way I’d be able to keep top-siders on my feet.

So, back to the subject, I do want to pound things out. I need to sample through the writing prompts I got as a birthday present, and set some of those up for use later this year.

Do I do my summer streak?

I probably shouldn’t do that.

Do I write on. my trip next month? Mmmm. Consideration.

I don’t know where I stumbled across this, but I’ve been watching more than is probably appropriate.

Also following along with the Iran news.

That last bit has me thinking about military folks. I should go see my dad; maybe when it warms up, and the crowds have subsided. But walking ANC isn’t something I think I can do, either.