The Hair-Dryer Incident

 In the early 1960s...Barksdale AFB had a project where they were replacing all of the WW II barracks.  There was a row of 12 buildings erected and completed around 1963.  

When I got there in 1981...they were 18 years old.  To be honest....they had serious problems by this point.

I probably killed at least forty cockroaches a week in my room (3rd floor).  The AC marginally worked.  The original carpet had a funny mildew smell.  The mattress (original one) was crap. 

Along about 15 months of residency there...I came 'home' one day around 4 PM, and was there to change clothing and get my book for the evening college class.  Some disturbance occurred on the first floor....requiring a fire-truck/ambulance and the alarm was for folks  to leave the building.  I went to the two evening classes.....I didn't get back till almost 10 PM.

The building was dark.  The normal  door I'd  enter was 'engaged' in some way, and I had trouble opening it.

Some guy came to the door and said there was a natural gas leak  in the building.  Some guy on the first floor had showered around 4 PM...come into the room to run his hair dryer, and lit a smoke....having this 'FLASH' of fire erupt (this was the guy who needed the ambulance).

So I was allowed to grab 2 days of clothing....and directed to the base hotel.  

A week later....the word came down.  The base refused to renovate anything more in this zone....everything was to be torn down within 18 months.  

The $hit that hit the fan? Well...the AC was crap from that point on.  The last 3 months of this era?  Winter period, and the heat  marginally worked.  It was enough the final 4 weeks to keep the room at 45 F (yeah, brisk).  

I was transferring overseas....a week or two after that...they moved everyone to a brand new building.

The new building?  Well....I talked to someone who'd  been there in the mid 2000s, and they indicated this entire row of new buildings (1984 finished) were crap by 2000 and they were already planning the next batch of new barracks.  

Looking At This New Orleans and Vegas Terror Acts

 Just odd.

Both were US Army and at different times....passed through Fort Bragg.

The Muslim guy in N-O....had earned a DoD medal for Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Both rent vehicles from Turo.

The Vegas guy? He lives in Colorado....rents the Tesla Cyber-truck from there....drives it 800 miles to Vegas.  He selects a vehicle which will absorb the fireworks explosion fairly well....intending just to kill himself at the Trump hotel, but not really doing much damage to the hotel or killing others.

The N-O guy....does his act at 3 AM?  If he'd been out at 11:30 PM....he probably would have killed five times the number of people.

The first thing the FBI wants you to know....the N-O guy is not a terrorist. Within six hours....that statement is regarded as a joke.

Reflections Over 2024

1.  To be honest, if there is some alien invasion going on....most Americans might be open to the idea because of the crappy lack of trust we have with politicians, the police, lawyers, and authorities....in general. 

2.  Some of us haven't watched a single hour of CNN all year, and can't say we missed much.

3.  Once this whole idea of absorbing Canada into the US got explained in detail....it just seems like a majority of people think it's a great idea.  But the same people aren't keen on it being 12 different states....they just want one state called Canada. 

4.  When Trump's idea of 'buying' Greenland came up....probably 95-percent of people had to pull out a map to find where the hell it was located.

5.  Folks were rather shocked to discover that Haiti is more or less run by one gang, with the gang 'boss' named 'Bar-b-que'.  

6.  Americans were rather shocked to discover....as hopeless and 'lost' as Joe Biden was....Kamala Harris apparently was equally hopeless and 'lost' (maybe more so). And no matter how many times you viewed this Tim-guy as her VP....you got the impression that he was pretty goofy (more so than Joe Biden).

7.   Megalopolis, without much discussion.....was considered the worst movie of 2024.  Some weird clash between a artist and a mayor....set in the future where nothing makes sense.  You needed 15 shots of booze to make it through the whole 138 minutes.

8.   That Elon guy surprised folks about every 48 hours in 2024....on average.  It didn't matter what he said....you actually took a liking to the guy.

9.  Most everyone agreed by mid-November....getting political advice from Hollywood idiots....made no sense.

10.  It just became an acceptable practice in 2024....to be disrespectful of others while in public.  

11.  You finally reached a point where you weren't going to pay $16 for a McDonalds menu meal.

12.  People are reaching a level now....assessing both high school students and college students.....as dumbasses, and education is mostly about dumbing-down people.

13.  Most of us found it odd....84-year old Nancy Pelosi....needing to wear 3-inch heels, and tumbling down a staircase....breaking her hip.

14.  Most folks upon hearing all this exploding beepers in the Middle East story....just started asking who the hell owns beepers?  Most folks remember beepers going away around 2000/2001.  Some kids asked what the hell were beepers?

15.  Rather shocking....Americans in 2024...are using 'credit' (credit cards) to buy groceries, because they don't make enough to cover the monthly grocery bill.

Teacher Story

 Starting tomorrow....in New Jersey....there's a new law going into effect.  If you were curious about becoming a teacher in NJ....there will  be no requirement to take a test for teachers....on reading, writing and mathematics.

Yes, the certification is gone.

Reason?  They could not fill the positions sitting there empty.....so logically, they felt they could get the teacher billets filled....if no test existed.

I paused over this....pondering.

I worked once in a Department of Defense organization with a commander's secretary....who'd been taking evening classes for 12 years.  She was about to graduate college with a bachelor's degree.  

Her mother was connected to the city council in some way, and had gotten this gal hired-up to be a teacher (3rd grade).

If you had attempted to measure the 'wit' of this secretary....I'd guess her IQ to be in the 80-to-85 range....meaning she was not that bright. How she got the degree (legit local college)?  Unknown.  

At the time, you had to take a certificate-like test on math, and English.  Somehow, she'd passed.  But if you asked me on competency....I'd shake my head.

What'll happen in New Jersey?  Within a decade....most residents will not trust the education system, and kids finishing high school will marginally be able read, or do anything much with numbers.

Should we worry about this?  No....as long as you know they are from New Jersey....you can cross them off the hiring list, and save yourself time.  They are the future employees of McDonalds, or garbage-truck drivers.

Twelve Predictions For 2025

 1.  This Luigi Mangione shooter guy in the CEO murder in NY City.....the case will fall apart shortly because the gun found on the guy....doesn't match up ballistically. 

2.  At least 100 Congressmen and Senators will have SEC investigations going on by the end of 2025....having advanced knowledge about stock up's-and-downs.  

3.  A minimum of 25,000 DC gov't employees are given the pink-slip by the end of the year....with more than half finding a regular job....nearly impossible.

4.  The US 'gives' Cuba a dozen mini-nuke-power-stations....free of charge.  

5.  A weird poll is done in Greenland, where if 'free' electricity and natural gas were offered as part of the deal.....almost 50-percent of society would agree to the US 'buying' Greenland and being a US state. 

6.  President Trump shocks the DC mayor/city council....voicing the idea of giving almost 50-percent of DC over to Maryland.  At least 20-percent of DC residents indicate they like this idea.  

7.  The UFO/alien business is finally tied down....with forty-odd alien races admitting bases either on Earth, the Moon, Mars, or in the vicinity of Venus.  They admit use of Earth, for well over half-a-million years.   

8.  At least 40,000 Americans are diagnosed as having TDS (Trump Delusionary Syndrome), and under some form of treatment by the end of the year.  Some are as young as fourteen years old.  A mental review suggests that they should be declared permanently handicapped and unable to function in the 'real' world.  

9.  A poll will reveal that almost 70-percent of Americans don't particularly see 'scientists' as gifted, clever, intellectual, or worth trusting. Some scientists quietly hide their status....to avoid public ridicule.  

10.  A test is developed....showing high school graduates of 'today' (2025)....are at the level of a 6th-grader in 1973. Academics are unable to explain this, and to further complicate matters....the academics tested....show they lack the skills to work in the profession.  

11. A 'war' against the cartel in Mexico is declared, with over 400 cartel members dead by the end of 2025.  The escalation reaches a point where several cartel operations have packed up and moved to Venezuela.

12.  At least one California city declares a policy of not reacting to  drug over-dosing, and letting the individual die on the street....to save funding.  

Five Things That Would Make Folks Disgruntled About Real Aliens

 Upon pondering:

1.  It probably would make a lot of people angry and frustrated....to learn more than 500 alien 'races' exist and survey Earth on a yearly basis, and that we seem to be more of a open-zoo, than a developing society.

2.  Upon confirmation of aliens.....we get three or four to do an interview.....to discover that they are mostly pro-Trump. The anti-Trump people?  They will spend hours and hours....slamming the dumbass aliens.

3.  The shocking truth....a group of five alien races meet yearly (over the past 200k years) on how to advance mankind, and we were seen as a alien-Ford 'product'. 

4.  The aliens reveal that they were the original folks on Earth, and that we (the human race) were designed as the 'workers' to produce 'stuff'.

5.  The chief reason given why they suddenly now reveal themselves.....is that they are fed-up with the crappy portrayals by Star Trek, Stargate, and Alien movies. 

The Thing About $hithole Places

 Having traveled around the US, Europe and the world...I've occasionally been in some places where the term $hithole fits.

Sometimes, it's an airport.  Sometimes, it's a diner or a 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant.  Sometimes, it's a hotel.

I went to Berlin once (my first trip).  I didn't plan it....my wife did, and she went heavily economical.  It was on the 'east' side of Berlin...meaning it was over in the old Russian-held sector...about seven years after the wall came down.

The tour company had 50 of us (49 Germans and 1 American) to dump there.  This was what I'd call ultra-cheap.  I got my key and was told I'd be on the 10th floor.

Well...I got into the elevator and sized up the buttons.  There was a button for the basement and then 8 buttons.  I looked at the key....nothing 10th floor.  I exited the elevator and in broken German...asked the hotel lady...what the deal was.  She said....just get off the 8th floor and walk up the 2 floors.  

This had been a hotel which had two hidden floors for listening rooms and sensitive stuff (in the old East Germany days).

So I entered the room and unpacked....sitting in a over-sized big chair and staring at the wall.  You see, this was this half-inch crack from the top of the ceiling....down to the floor.  I walked up to it....yeah, there was a slight breeze.  It bothered me.

I probably wasted 3 hours that evening...staring at the crack.

The mattress?  I took off the sheets....some label indicated Romanian made....1969 (this was 1999).  It was a crappy mattress.

The bathroom?  The toilet seat was loose.  Water pressure....on a scale of 1-to-10...was a '1'.  The tub was probably an original one from the 1950s. 

Dinner for that night at the hotel restaurant?  It was not much to brag about.  The beer was average.....but came in a quarter-liter glass....meaning there wasn't much to sip.  The desert?  Around 12 highly sour cherries.

I got up the next day....having one entire day to walk around Berlin.  I walked out front and came upon eight Vietnam guys.  They had some meeting where a driver had arrived with a couple hundred cartons of black-market 'smokes', and they had some 'route' in the city to dispense their stuff.  I asked for subway station....they pointed over.  

I had a pretty nice day.

Then I returned...staring at the wall and the crack....then walked down to dinner.  The next day....the bus came and drove us home.  I didn't say much to the wife about the choice of the $hithole hotel.