Interreference 2026

I have written about my experiences in the Army, but very rarely have I offered the perspective against my political beliefs or justifications at those times. Sure, we know the “what,” but the “why” is often simplified with “Patriotic duty to nation.” This has been be a work in progress; I stared this post back in July 2025 and travel, work, family and life in general has delayed completion. However, the structure below offers a glimpse into the different phases of political motivations and time in (and after) the Army:

• Pre-9/11
• Post-9/11 to Pre-2003 Invasion of Iraq
• 2003 Invasion of Iraq to 2007
• 2007 to 2011
• 2011 to Retirement in 2016
• 2016 to 2020
• 2020 to present

Location, contemporary focus of attention, and sources play a key role in anyone’s political path – these will be clarified for context.

My perspectives have changed over the years. A bit in some aspects, and greatly in others… but perhaps those stories are my responsibilities as a fan of history, Veteran, and Parent.

Pre-9/11

Location: Detroit, MI; Virginia Beach, MI; Valparaiso, IN

Focus: Being young in the 70s, 80s, and 90s… Aviation, the US Navy, and Red Storm Rising.

Sources of Information: books – lots of books; Aviation Week & Space Technology; Mom, CNN.

Political interests: Regan and Perot.

The first major news story I remember paying attention to was the deorbit of Skylab on 11Jul1979 – I was six and convinced it was going to hit our house.

The Columbia launch had my complete attention, while the death of a whole lot of Soviet leaders, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul on 13May1981 were noteworthy enough to register, but out of my interests. We wrote letters to the American hostages being held in Teran, sung to help the starving kids of Ethiopia, wondered why Afghanistan was in the news, watched the Berlin Wall fall, Desert Storm, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Waco, Oklahoma City, Clinton tell the world to mind their own business, and everyone freak out about Y2K.

All delivered by talking heads on a few news networks, and all muttered and grumbled about with vague disdain from my Mother and other adults.

…Come to think of it, a LOT happened in those two decades, but none of it really had any direct influence on my life.

Politically, Ross Perot was my first inkling of interest and Bill Clinton was – even in my 20s – slimy and glib. I remember his appearances on MTV and the late-night shows and he always struck me as disingenuous. 1992 came and I was too mired in starting my new life in Virginia Beach when the election took place. When Clinton was elected, it really didn’t phase me at all. Somalia? It registered only because of the stupidity of the night amphibious assault into Somalia being filmed by the video crews already on the beach – “Charge of the Kleig Light Brigade” is what sticks out from memory.

The 1996 election found me once again starting a new life at my first duty station with the 25^th ID, so my focus was Readiness Level Progression and learning my new career path. Clinton won, and life went on… until I remember being completely disgusted with his statements during the Lewinski fiasco. Kosovo was kicking off and some of us wondered how much bigger it was going to become.  

The first news I remember receiving from an internet source was the death of Princess Diana on 31Aug1997 in an IRC chat room; even then, the details were sketchy, but the speed of information caught my attention and fascination.

The 2000 election… once again, staring at a new duty station with the 101^st. The big push from everyone was that “Bush is pro-military,” but my attitude was that such a stance implied that we would more than likely be going somewhere.

Post-9/11 to Pre-2003 Invasion of Iraq

Location: Ft. Campbell, KY; Wheeler AAF, HI

Focus: 9/11 and how Iraq factored into the equation.

Sources of Information: Conversations, internet, some major news networks.

Political interests: Insurgency, The Bear Went Over the Mountain / The Other Side of the Mountain, global energy markets.

ENRON was forgotten once the towers fell. No one knew what the hell was happening for weeks. Even then, I had questions: Was it related to the 1993 bombing of the WTC; the embassy attacks of 1998? Why didn’t the Intelligence Community (IC) catch something of such magnitude?

Like everyone else, I was eager to do something. The 25^th ID, however, was often joked to be the “National Guard of the Active Duty” – our priority for equipment and spares was far down the list (we were the last Active Duty unit to have AH-1 Cobras, M-60Ds, and patrol caps, after all).

Then… rumblings of Iraq stared.

I went from thinking GW Bush was the right guy at the right time to wondering if he was trying to settle an old score left over from HW Bush. Skepticism for the major news networks started from realizing that what was reported might not be the complete truth). 

2003 Invasion of Iraq to 2007

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / Bagram, Afghanistan / FOB Speicher, Iraq

Focus: Training, deployments, becoming a parent, and more deployments.

Sources of Information: Internet, foreign news.

Political interests: the Russian-Afghan War, the Sunni/Shia schism, geopolitics surrounding oil and the Law of War.

News was something that went on in the background. We were too busy on the organizational level to really pay much attention to the pundits – in preparation for the Afghanistan deployment, we had to stand up a brand-new unit; for the first Iraq deployment, we had to accelerate the training of the crews available and plan for in-theater training of the newly assigned folks.

2007 to 2011

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / FOB Speicher, Iraq / Mosul, Iraq

Focus: More training, more deployments, and continuing to be a parent.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news,

Political interests: Corruption in local and national politics/governance, the “price” of the individual, and what does “victory” look like in the Global War on Terror.

I was hitting the point where I was becoming more and more jaded when it came to politics. The election of Barak Obama and his first term was a point of skepticism and disdain due to the convenience of identity politics. Closer to home at the time, Aloha Airlines going under, the Hawaii Superferry debacle, the “beautification” of Haleiwa (relocation of powerlines underground and the inevitable property value increases which followed), diminished the idealism that local politics were noble callings. For Oahu (at the time), it just felt like an endless litany of errors for which there were never any consequences for the elected officials who embarked the state on such shenanigans. (Note: the Superferry ceased operation back on 19Mar09… yet $3.3 million is what remains of the debt.)  

It was around this time when I first started to become aware of subtle advertising tactics – weight-loss pill commercials immediately after cheesy-crust pizza ads. I guess that’s what happens when one spends so much time away from regular television.

2011 to Retirement in 2016

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / Ft. Benning, GA

Focus: Relocation, reorganization, remarriage, parenting.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: Acquisitions, Foreign Military Sales, innovation in defense technology, and congressional hearings.

Oahu started their Light Rail program right when I was leaving. The concept of “too big to fail” registered with that as well as my own epiphany about the 2008 financial crisis and what it meant for me. (Like I said, a lot of what went on in the world and nation escaped me due to more immediate concerns). The reelection of Barak Obama in 2012 did not surprise me, but the results of the 2016 election truly did… as did the complete lunacy that came from critics. Though not my candidate, I was interested to see what this would mean for our global efforts and relations.

Due to my academic pursuits, I became aware of the writings of Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, and, incidentally, started to lose all hope for objectivity in advertising, politics, and education.

Then the 2013 protests happened in Ukraine… then Crimea was invaded/annexed… then fighting in Donbass. It all registered… but it took a while for what it all meant to sink in…

Around that time, the US Army was taking an… interesting turn in what it was choosing to focus upon, and one of my last rants at the Gazebo in 2016 started with the observation that, while we are learning to be more sensitive, others are refining how to kill us. The fall of FOB Speicher, the ensuing massacre, and the mess that became Mosul and Iraq proper was not sitting well with me and I had commented that I fully understood what Vietnam Veterans felt like in 1973.

2016 to 2020

Location: Ft. Benning, GA / NE AL

Focus: School, becoming a new parent again, relocation.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: Post-Soviet Russia, Crimea, and the “how” of history.

I started this blog on 24Feb16 with the original intent of writing about military surplus rifles. While that was a horrible topic to focus upon due to the availability of all military surplus gear being a finite quantity, it became a destination for many of my academic submissions as well as my own commentary as I listened to defense-industry related blogs, TED talks, and other media.

I had been paying attention to the events in Eastern Europe on a macro-scale (remember the 2020 protests in Belarus?) and none of it was sitting well with me – though there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Around 2017, I realized I was losing patience for politics. Friends and family had crossed personal lines – my time advocating for a political figure had ended with Perot, and though I had been politically neutral (leaning slightly to the right on some issues, and left on others), my patience was wearing thin for both sides of the political isle.

2020 to present

Location: NE, AL

Focus: Work, work, and more work… parenting, watching The Boy become a Marine

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: just shut up.

2020… wow. Where to begin?

That, right there is the problem I have been having and what I have mentioned previously in the past – the Interference… the exponential acceleration of events and developments that seem to pass by so many folks. I can’t even keep up: are vaccines good, or bad? Who is going to take jobs – illegal immigrants or AI? Is antisemitism bad or is Israel bad? Is “I can’t breathe” the correct statement, or is it only an expedient slogan to be mocked? Is it real – or is it Memorex? Did history happen the way it did, or will this generation know it happened the way it was re-imagined for Modern Audiences by an algorithm… or AI… or malicious entity… or by some complete dumbass who insists that their truth is the correct truth?

I can’t keep up.

People want to blame everything on everything else but themselves: skin color… socioeconomic status… sexual preferences… rights… religion… political figures… algorithms… However, in doing so, they fail to realize that the more they advocate for Draconian causes, the more they become the hate and evil they oppose. They become the abyss… the audience in the Cave… the useful idiots… the Bolsheviks… the Brownshirts… the Blackshirts… the very people who, throughout history, believed their truth was absolute and that anyone who opposed was to be dehumanized and eliminated.

As of this post, this blog has 439 posts for a total of 397,906 words. The five months since my last post is the longest lapse between posts I can remember. There are times when I feel that there isn’t much that I can say that I haven’t already said before… but with this being early in the summer and a high-profile court case pending, I am sure there will be a lot of repetition over the next few months.

I need to get back in the swing of writing more consistently – it’s hard for me to stay focused on the point I initially set out to make… but then again, I think that this is just my way of writing. Until the next post – thank you for making it this far and may your days be viciously optimistic.

[I have written about my experiences in the Army, but very rarely have I offered the perspective against my political beliefs or justifications at those times. Sure, we know the “what,” but the “why” is often simplified with “Patriotic duty to nation.” This has been be a work in progress; I stared this post back in July 2025 and travel, work, family and life in general has delayed completion. However, the structure below offers a glimpse into the different phases of political motivations and time in (and after) the Army:

• Pre-9/11
• Post-9/11 to Pre-2003 Invasion of Iraq
• 2003 Invasion of Iraq to 2007
• 2007 to 2011
• 2011 to Retirement in 2016
• 2016 to 2020
• 2020 to present

Location, contemporary focus of attention, and sources play a key role in anyone’s political path – these will be clarified for context.

My perspectives have changed over the years. A bit in some aspects, and greatly in others… but perhaps those stories are my responsibilities as a fan of history, Veteran, and Parent.

Pre-9/11

Location: Detroit, MI; Virginia Beach, MI; Valparaiso, IN

Focus: Being young in the 70s, 80s, and 90s… Aviation, the US Navy, and Red Storm Rising.

Sources of Information: books – lots of books; Aviation Week & Space Technology; Mom, CNN.

Political interests: Regan and Perot.

The first major news story I remember paying attention to was the deorbit of Skylab on 11Jul1979 – I was six and convinced it was going to hit our house.

The Columbia launch had my complete attention, while the death of a whole lot of Soviet leaders, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul on 13May1981 were noteworthy enough to register, but out of my interests. We wrote letters to the American hostages being held in Teran, sung to help the starving kids of Ethiopia, wondered why Afghanistan was in the news, watched the Berlin Wall fall, Desert Storm, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Waco, Oklahoma City, Clinton tell the world to mind their own business, and everyone freak out about Y2K.

All delivered by talking heads on a few news networks, and all muttered and grumbled about with vague disdain from my Mother and other adults.

…Come to think of it, a LOT happened in those two decades, but none of it really had any direct influence on my life.

Politically, Ross Perot was my first inkling of interest and Bill Clinton was – even in my 20s – slimy and glib. I remember his appearances on MTV and the late-night shows and he always struck me as disingenuous. 1992 came and I was too mired in starting my new life in Virginia Beach when the election took place. When Clinton was elected, it really didn’t phase me at all. Somalia? It registered only because of the stupidity of the night amphibious assault into Somalia being filmed by the video crews already on the beach – “Charge of the Kleig Light Brigade” is what sticks out from memory.

The 1996 election found me once again starting a new life at my first duty station with the 25^th ID, so my focus was Readiness Level Progression and learning my new career path. Clinton won, and life went on… until I remember being completely disgusted with his statements during the Lewinski fiasco. Kosovo was kicking off and some of us wondered how much bigger it was going to become.  

The first news I remember receiving from an internet source was the death of Princess Diana on 31Aug1997 in an IRC chat room; even then, the details were sketchy, but the speed of information caught my attention and fascination.

The 2000 election… once again, staring at a new duty station with the 101^st. The big push from everyone was that “Bush is pro-military,” but my attitude was that such a stance implied that we would more than likely be going somewhere.

Post-9/11 to Pre-2003 Invasion of Iraq

Location: Ft. Campbell, KY; Wheeler AAF, HI

Focus: 9/11 and how Iraq factored into the equation.

Sources of Information: Conversations, internet, some major news networks.

Political interests: Insurgency, The Bear Went Over the Mountain / The Other Side of the Mountain, global energy markets.

ENRON was forgotten once the towers fell. No one knew what the hell was happening for weeks. Even then, I had questions: Was it related to the 1993 bombing of the WTC; the embassy attacks of 1998? Why didn’t the Intelligence Community (IC) catch something of such magnitude?

Like everyone else, I was eager to do something. The 25^th ID, however, was often joked to be the “National Guard of the Active Duty” – our priority for equipment and spares was far down the list (we were the last Active Duty unit to have AH-1 Cobras, M-60Ds, and patrol caps, after all).

Then… rumblings of Iraq stared.

I went from thinking GW Bush was the right guy at the right time to wondering if he was trying to settle an old score left over from HW Bush. Skepticism for the major news networks started from realizing that what was reported might not be the complete truth). 

2003 Invasion of Iraq to 2007

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / Bagram, Afghanistan / FOB Speicher, Iraq

Focus: Training, deployments, becoming a parent, and more deployments.

Sources of Information: Internet, foreign news.

Political interests: the Russian-Afghan War, the Sunni/Shia schism, geopolitics surrounding oil and the Law of War.

News was something that went on in the background. We were too busy on the organizational level to really pay much attention to the pundits – in preparation for the Afghanistan deployment, we had to stand up a brand-new unit; for the first Iraq deployment, we had to accelerate the training of the crews available and plan for in-theater training of the newly assigned folks.

2007 to 2011

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / FOB Speicher, Iraq / Mosul, Iraq

Focus: More training, more deployments, and continuing to be a parent.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news,

Political interests: Corruption in local and national politics/governance, the “price” of the individual, and what does “victory” look like in the Global War on Terror.

I was hitting the point where I was becoming more and more jaded when it came to politics. The election of Barak Obama and his first term was a point of skepticism and disdain due to the convenience of identity politics. Closer to home at the time, Aloha Airlines going under, the Hawaii Superferry debacle, the “beautification” of Haleiwa (relocation of powerlines underground and the inevitable property value increases which followed), diminished the idealism that local politics were noble callings. For Oahu (at the time), it just felt like an endless litany of errors for which there were never any consequences for the elected officials who embarked the state on such shenanigans. (Note: the Superferry ceased operation back on 19Mar09… yet $3.3 million is what remains of the debt.)  

It was around this time when I first started to become aware of subtle advertising tactics – weight-loss pill commercials immediately after cheesy-crust pizza ads. I guess that’s what happens when one spends so much time away from regular television.

2011 to Retirement in 2016

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / Ft. Benning, GA

Focus: Relocation, reorganization, remarriage, parenting.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: Acquisitions, Foreign Military Sales, innovation in defense technology, and congressional hearings.

Oahu started their Light Rail program right when I was leaving. The concept of “too big to fail” registered with that as well as my own epiphany about the 2008 financial crisis and what it meant for me. (Like I said, a lot of what went on in the world and nation escaped me due to more immediate concerns). The reelection of Barak Obama in 2012 did not surprise me, but the results of the 2016 election truly did… as did the complete lunacy that came from critics. Though not my candidate, I was interested to see what this would mean for our global efforts and relations.

Due to my academic pursuits, I became aware of the writings of Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, and, incidentally, started to lose all hope for objectivity in advertising, politics, and education.

Then the 2013 protests happened in Ukraine… then Crimea was invaded/annexed… then fighting in Donbass. It all registered… but it took a while for what it all meant to sink in…

Around that time, the US Army was taking an… interesting turn in what it was choosing to focus upon, and one of my last rants at the Gazebo in 2016 started with the observation that, while we are learning to be more sensitive, others are refining how to kill us. The fall of FOB Speicher, the ensuing massacre, and the mess that became Mosul and Iraq proper was not sitting well with me and I had commented that I fully understood what Vietnam Veterans felt like in 1973.

2016 to 2020

Location: Ft. Benning, GA / Huntsville, AL

Focus: School, becoming a new parent again, relocation.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: Post-Soviet Russia, Crimea, and the “how” of history.

I started this blog on 24Feb16 with the original intent of writing about military surplus rifles. While that was a horrible topic to focus upon due to the availability of all military surplus gear being a finite quantity, it became a destination for many of my academic submissions as well as my own commentary as I listened to defense-industry related blogs, TED talks, and other media.

I had been paying attention to the events in Eastern Europe on a macro-scale (remember the 2020 protests in Belarus?) and none of it was sitting well with me – though there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Around 2017, I realized I was losing patience for politics. Friends and family had crossed personal lines – my time advocating for a political figure had ended with Perot, and though I had been politically neutral (leaning slightly to the right on some issues, and left on others), my patience was wearing thin for both sides of the political isle.

2020 to present

Location: Huntsville, AL

Focus: Work, work, and more work… parenting, watching The Boy become a Marine

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: just shut up.

2020… wow. Where to begin?

That, right there is the problem I have been having and what I have mentioned previously in the past – the Interference… the exponential acceleration of events and developments that seem to pass by so many folks. I can’t even keep up: are vaccines good, or bad? Who is going to take jobs – illegal immigrants or AI? Is antisemitism bad or is Israel bad? Is “I can’t breathe” the correct statement, or is it only an expedient slogan to be mocked? Is it real – or is it Memorex? Did history happen the way it did, or will this generation know it happened the way it was re-imagined for Modern Audiences by an algorithm… or AI… or malicious entity… or by some complete dumbass who insists that their truth is the correct truth?

I can’t keep up.

People want to blame everything on everything else but themselves: skin color… socioeconomic status… sexual preferences… rights… religion… political figures… algorithms… However, in doing so, they fail to realize that the more they advocate for Draconian causes, the more they become the hate and evil they oppose. They become the abyss… the audience in the Cave… the useful idiots… the Bolsheviks… the Brownshirts… the Blackshirts… the very people who, throughout history, believed their truth was absolute and that anyone who opposed was to be dehumanized and eliminated.

As of this post, this blog has 439 posts for a total of 397,906 words. The five months since my last post is the longest lapse between posts I can remember. There are times when I feel that there isn’t much that I can say that I haven’t already said before… but with this being early in the summer and a high-profile court case pending, I am sure there will be a lot of repetition over the next few months.

I need to get back in the swing of writing more consistently – it’s hard for me to stay focused on the point I initially set out to make… but then again, I think that this is just my way of writing. Until the next post – thank you for making it this far and may your days be viciously optimistic.

[I have written about my experiences in the Army, but very rarely have I offered the perspective against my political beliefs or justifications at those times. Sure, we know the “what,” but the “why” is often simplified with “Patriotic duty to nation.” This has been be a work in progress; I stared this post back in July 2025 and travel, work, family and life in general has delayed completion. However, the structure below offers a glimpse into the different phases of political motivations and time in (and after) the Army:

• Pre-9/11
• Post-9/11 to Pre-2003 Invasion of Iraq
• 2003 Invasion of Iraq to 2007
• 2007 to 2011
• 2011 to Retirement in 2016
• 2016 to 2020
• 2020 to present

Location, contemporary focus of attention, and sources play a key role in anyone’s political path – these will be clarified for context.

My perspectives have changed over the years. A bit in some aspects, and greatly in others… but perhaps those stories are my responsibilities as a fan of history, Veteran, and Parent.

Pre-9/11

Location: Detroit, MI; Virginia Beach, MI; Valparaiso, IN

Focus: Being young in the 70s, 80s, and 90s… Aviation, the US Navy, and Red Storm Rising.

Sources of Information: books – lots of books; Aviation Week & Space Technology; Mom, CNN.

Political interests: Regan and Perot.

The first major news story I remember paying attention to was the deorbit of Skylab on 11Jul1979 – I was six and convinced it was going to hit our house.

The Columbia launch had my complete attention, while the death of a whole lot of Soviet leaders, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul on 13May1981 were noteworthy enough to register, but out of my interests. We wrote letters to the American hostages being held in Teran, sung to help the starving kids of Ethiopia, wondered why Afghanistan was in the news, watched the Berlin Wall fall, Desert Storm, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Waco, Oklahoma City, Clinton tell the world to mind their own business, and everyone freak out about Y2K.

All delivered by talking heads on a few news networks, and all muttered and grumbled about with vague disdain from my Mother and other adults.

…Come to think of it, a LOT happened in those two decades, but none of it really had any direct influence on my life.

Politically, Ross Perot was my first inkling of interest and Bill Clinton was – even in my 20s – slimy and glib. I remember his appearances on MTV and the late-night shows and he always struck me as disingenuous. 1992 came and I was too mired in starting my new life in Virginia Beach when the election took place. When Clinton was elected, it really didn’t phase me at all. Somalia? It registered only because of the stupidity of the night amphibious assault into Somalia being filmed by the video crews already on the beach – “Charge of the Kleig Light Brigade” is what sticks out from memory.

The 1996 election found me once again starting a new life at my first duty station with the 25^th ID, so my focus was Readiness Level Progression and learning my new career path. Clinton won, and life went on… until I remember being completely disgusted with his statements during the Lewinski fiasco. Kosovo was kicking off and some of us wondered how much bigger it was going to become.  

The first news I remember receiving from an internet source was the death of Princess Diana on 31Aug1997 in an IRC chat room; even then, the details were sketchy, but the speed of information caught my attention and fascination.

The 2000 election… once again, staring at a new duty station with the 101^st. The big push from everyone was that “Bush is pro-military,” but my attitude was that such a stance implied that we would more than likely be going somewhere.

Post-9/11 to Pre-2003 Invasion of Iraq

Location: Ft. Campbell, KY; Wheeler AAF, HI

Focus: 9/11 and how Iraq factored into the equation.

Sources of Information: Conversations, internet, some major news networks.

Political interests: Insurgency, The Bear Went Over the Mountain / The Other Side of the Mountain, global energy markets.

ENRON was forgotten once the towers fell. No one knew what the hell was happening for weeks. Even then, I had questions: Was it related to the 1993 bombing of the WTC; the embassy attacks of 1998? Why didn’t the Intelligence Community (IC) catch something of such magnitude?

Like everyone else, I was eager to do something. The 25^th ID, however, was often joked to be the “National Guard of the Active Duty” – our priority for equipment and spares was far down the list (we were the last Active Duty unit to have AH-1 Cobras, M-60Ds, and patrol caps, after all).

Then… rumblings of Iraq stared.

I went from thinking GW Bush was the right guy at the right time to wondering if he was trying to settle an old score left over from HW Bush. Skepticism for the major news networks started from realizing that what was reported might not be the complete truth). 

2003 Invasion of Iraq to 2007

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / Bagram, Afghanistan / FOB Speicher, Iraq

Focus: Training, deployments, becoming a parent, and more deployments.

Sources of Information: Internet, foreign news.

Political interests: the Russian-Afghan War, the Sunni/Shia schism, geopolitics surrounding oil and the Law of War.

News was something that went on in the background. We were too busy on the organizational level to really pay much attention to the pundits – in preparation for the Afghanistan deployment, we had to stand up a brand-new unit; for the first Iraq deployment, we had to accelerate the training of the crews available and plan for in-theater training of the newly assigned folks.

2007 to 2011

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / FOB Speicher, Iraq / Mosul, Iraq

Focus: More training, more deployments, and continuing to be a parent.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news,

Political interests: Corruption in local and national politics/governance, the “price” of the individual, and what does “victory” look like in the Global War on Terror.

I was hitting the point where I was becoming more and more jaded when it came to politics. The election of Barak Obama and his first term was a point of skepticism and disdain due to the convenience of identity politics. Closer to home at the time, Aloha Airlines going under, the Hawaii Superferry debacle, the “beautification” of Haleiwa (relocation of powerlines underground and the inevitable property value increases which followed), diminished the idealism that local politics were noble callings. For Oahu (at the time), it just felt like an endless litany of errors for which there were never any consequences for the elected officials who embarked the state on such shenanigans. (Note: the Superferry ceased operation back on 19Mar09… yet $3.3 million is what remains of the debt.)  

It was around this time when I first started to become aware of subtle advertising tactics – weight-loss pill commercials immediately after cheesy-crust pizza ads. I guess that’s what happens when one spends so much time away from regular television.

2011 to Retirement in 2016

Location: Wheeler AAF, HI / Ft. Benning, GA

Focus: Relocation, reorganization, remarriage, parenting.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: Acquisitions, Foreign Military Sales, innovation in defense technology, and congressional hearings.

Oahu started their Light Rail program right when I was leaving. The concept of “too big to fail” registered with that as well as my own epiphany about the 2008 financial crisis and what it meant for me. (Like I said, a lot of what went on in the world and nation escaped me due to more immediate concerns). The reelection of Barak Obama in 2012 did not surprise me, but the results of the 2016 election truly did… as did the complete lunacy that came from critics. Though not my candidate, I was interested to see what this would mean for our global efforts and relations.

Due to my academic pursuits, I became aware of the writings of Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, and, incidentally, started to lose all hope for objectivity in advertising, politics, and education.

Then the 2013 protests happened in Ukraine… then Crimea was invaded/annexed… then fighting in Donbass. It all registered… but it took a while for what it all meant to sink in…

Around that time, the US Army was taking an… interesting turn in what it was choosing to focus upon, and one of my last rants at the Gazebo in 2016 started with the observation that, while we are learning to be more sensitive, others are refining how to kill us. The fall of FOB Speicher, the ensuing massacre, and the mess that became Mosul and Iraq proper was not sitting well with me and I had commented that I fully understood what Vietnam Veterans felt like in 1973.

2016 to 2020

Location: Ft. Benning, GA / Huntsville, AL

Focus: School, becoming a new parent again, relocation.

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: Post-Soviet Russia, Crimea, and the “how” of history.

I started this blog on 24Feb16 with the original intent of writing about military surplus rifles. While that was a horrible topic to focus upon due to the availability of all military surplus gear being a finite quantity, it became a destination for many of my academic submissions as well as my own commentary as I listened to defense-industry related blogs, TED talks, and other media.

I had been paying attention to the events in Eastern Europe on a macro-scale (remember the 2020 protests in Belarus?) and none of it was sitting well with me – though there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Around 2017, I realized I was losing patience for politics. Friends and family had crossed personal lines – my time advocating for a political figure had ended with Perot, and though I had been politically neutral (leaning slightly to the right on some issues, and left on others), my patience was wearing thin for both sides of the political isle.

2020 to present

Location: Huntsville, AL

Focus: Work, work, and more work… parenting, watching The Boy become a Marine

Sources of Information: Internet, conversations, foreign news.

Political interests: just shut up.

2020… wow. Where to begin?

That, right there is the problem I have been having and what I have mentioned previously in the past – the Interference… the exponential acceleration of events and developments that seem to pass by so many folks. I can’t even keep up: are vaccines good, or bad? Who is going to take jobs – illegal immigrants or AI? Is antisemitism bad or is Israel bad? Is “I can’t breathe” the correct statement, or is it only an expedient slogan to be mocked? Is it real – or is it Memorex? Did history happen the way it did, or will this generation know it happened the way it was re-imagined for Modern Audiences by an algorithm… or AI… or malicious entity… or by some complete dumbass who insists that their truth is the correct truth?

I can’t keep up.

People want to blame everything on everything else but themselves: skin color… socioeconomic status… sexual preferences… rights… religion… political figures… algorithms… However, in doing so, they fail to realize that the more they advocate for Draconian causes, the more they become the hate and evil they oppose. They become the abyss… the audience in the Cave… the useful idiots… the Bolsheviks… the Brownshirts… the Blackshirts… the very people who, throughout history, believed their truth was absolute and that anyone who opposed was to be dehumanized and eliminated.

As of this post, this blog has 439 posts for a total of 397,906 words. The five months since my last post is the longest lapse between posts I can remember. There are times when I feel that there isn’t much that I can say that I haven’t already said before… but with this being early in the summer and a high-profile court case pending, I am sure there will be a lot of repetition over the next few months.

I need to get back in the swing of writing more consistently – it’s hard for me to stay focused on the point I initially set out to make… but then again, I think that this is just my way of writing. Until the next post – thank you for making it this far and may your days be viciously optimistic.

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