Z1

Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit.

My second husband passed almost 22 years ago. When he died, I was only 28 years old. His final words to me still linger in my heart. “You will get married again and you will have more children. I want you to be happy and I’ll do everything in my power to make it so”.

Two months later, I discovered I was pregnant after 8 years of trying. I was about to be a young, pregnant widow. I heard his voice, and went about doing what I had to do to provide for our son.

When my son was about a year old, I saw a man across the room from me at the gym and heard my husband say “ that man is your next husband” three months later, we met and started dating. In May of 1998, we were married.

A month after our wedding, I became pregnant. Mike and I were so in love! Sometimes I am in disbelief at how deep our love was. For fifteen years we were married and it was the best thing I’d ever known.

Mike passed away, in his sleep, January 27th 2018. Were it not for my second husbands death, I never would have known such an incredible amount of love. Now, I’m again a single, widowed woman with a couple of teenaged sons who have kept me alive in ways they will never know. My life isn’t perfect but I’m so much more alive than I have ever imagined. So, not just one death has changed me.

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : US Empire Failing

Well, she didn’t start out being unwelcomed.

After my wife passed away I had sole responsibility of four children ranging in age from premature infant to 19 years old.

My sister-in-law became very concerned for my well being and wanted to help me organize my life. I thought “good luck with that.”

So, she and her husband, who was my late wife’s brother, came over to spend a few days to help me “straighten up.”

First, she started with my linens. She asked me where the spare bedsheets were. I told her I had no idea. She asked when was the last time I changed the beds. I told her less than a week ago. I just take the sheets off, wash them, then put them back on. Made sense to me.

It did not make sense to her. So after finding and organizing the linens, she attacked the bath towels.

The towels seemed perfectly fine the way they were. But that didn’t mesh with her system.

Then it was on to the kitchen. I had to learn a new way in the pantry and refrigerator. Neither made sense to me, but I was trying to be patient.

My son came running to me the next day saying that Aunt C was in her room straightening up. I told him to be patient with her. She means only the best for us. Then the other son says she made him leave his room.

That afternoon there were a pile of toys in the hall that she said they didn’t need in their rooms.

I told her I would take care of it. The kids came crying when she went downstairs asking what I was going to do with them. I told them to just wait. They won’t be hear much longer.

On the third day, my oldest son came in my face and said “She’s organizing the outdoor toys, like my ball, bat, and gloves.

That was the last straw.

I finally confronted her and said “Thank you for everything you’ve done, but I think that’s enough. We can take it from here.”

She huffed at me and said “I was only trying to help.”

I replied that she was indeed a big help, and I couldn’t thank her enough. But we had to get on with things the best way we could.

They left.

And almost as quickly as they organized things we reorganized our own way. The spare sheets were never removed from the closet. I put my pantry back in order, and the pile of toys was redistributed to the kids.

And just to end this story that was 25 years ago, and there are no ill feelings between us today.

The cases of Sun Xiaoguo and Li Tianyi do not have any bad impact because both cases have been thoroughly investigated and the criminals and those who shielded them have been punished.

On February 20, 2020, Sun Xiaoguo was executed. 19 public officials were sentenced for shielding Sun Xiaoguo.

Although Li Tianyi’s parents pleaded with the victim to withdraw his appeal, they did not obstruct justice nor commit a crime. After Li Tianyi was sentenced to 10 years in prison, his mother appealed to the Ministry of Public Security several times. The procedure was legal, but it had no impact on the verdict of the case.

Li Tianyi spent 10 years in prison before being released (February 22, 2013 – February 22, 2023). The reason why the sentence was not commuted was because his parents were celebrities. If his sentence is commuted, it will immediately trigger an Internet discussion and attract widespread attention. Taking into account the impact of public opinion, Li Tianyi was not commuted, but stayed in prison for a full 10 years.

Jalapeno Stuffed Green Peppers

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9927fa3eb1911f844b1a84053d13e2d9

Ingredients

  • 6 large green bell peppers
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 envelope taco seasoning
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno peppers, or more to taste
  • 1 cup cooked white rice
  • 2 cups Mexican blend cheese, or more to taste
  • Mild or hot salsa, to taste

Instructions

  1. Cut a thin slice from stem side of bell peppers. Remove seeds and membranes. Rinse and cook in boiling water for 5 minutes. Make sure water covers peppers.
  2. Brown ground beef; drain if necessary.
  3. Add taco seasoning and water. Simmer until water cooks down.
  4. Remove from heat; stir in jalapeno peppers, rice, 1 1/4 cups cheese and 1/4 cup salsa.
  5. Stuff peppers, standing upright in an ungreased, glass baking dish.
  6. Top each pepper with 1 tablespoon salsa.
  7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
  8. Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer.
  9. Top with remaining cheese.

How Female Girl Bosses Are Ruining Companies

“Ew, she’s got poop all over her!”

My mother and I had just gotten back from grocery shopping and a small crowd had gathered at the base of our apartment building.

Beyond the vestibule at the entrance of our building, right inside the inner door, was a homeless woman sitting at the base of the stairs.

“They’ve called the landlord.” A tenant who lived in the building informed my mom that someone was on their way to get rid of the vagrant.

We were standing about ten feet away, and I peered through the crowd to get a glimpse.

The woman was wearing a tattered dress that was caked with grime, her hair matted with oil and dirt. She looked as if she hadn’t bathed in many months.

She sat with her arms around her knees, rocking, and keening.

But what really drew the people’s attention was the poop. The woman had pooped herself. Pieces of poop had fallen at her feet and poop was smeared and streaked all over the lower half of her body.

Even from where we were standing, we could smell the revolting stench. It was a warm day, and flies buzzed around as they followed the scent towards the woman.

“Out, get OUT!” Our building caretaker had arrived, and he was waving aggressively at the lady as he shouted at her to leave.

After a few more menacing shouts from the caretaker, the lady got up from the stairs. She walked through the crowd and left slowly down the street as people stared at her in disgust.

Later, as we got home, my mom seemed upset.

“She looked hungry.” My mom uttered the words in a low voice, almost to herself.

“What did you say mom?”

Mom gazed at me sadly. “The woman looked so hungry.”

Mom often gave change to homeless people, and although we couldn’t get near the homeless woman because of the crowd, Mom still noticed from ten feet away that she looked hungry.

It was only then, after my mom said the words that it hit me. I had so much left to learn about the world.

All the other people in the crowd, including me, had only seen that the homeless lady was revolting and disgusting. She was something to avoid, something we pinched our noses at, and couldn’t wait to drive away.

In our selfishness, we only cared about our own discomfort and how she offended our senses. We didn’t stop to think about how the woman felt, or whether she needed anything.

It happens all the time.

Often, when we see homeless people, we just walk by. We make excuses and come up with reasons why we are justified to walk on the other side of the street, to not do anything, and to not feel bad.

Can’t they just get a job?

It’s such a busy street, they must be making a killing panhandling.

It’s their own fault.

They made bad choices.

They chose to be homeless.

Giving them money won’t solve the problem.

What people forget about other people is that we are all people.

Every single homeless person was once someone’s child, someone’s wee baby.

No one stands outside for hours in the freezing cold or sweltering heat because it’s easy living.

No matter what the person looks like, or why and how they got there, those who have fallen on hard times deserve our humanity.

Dollar General Stock Plunges 29% in ONE day

Dollar General Stock Plunges 29% in ONE day

The Canary in the Retail coal mine has just taken very, VERY, ill.   Dollar General, the retail chain that is found in almost every low income, urban, area, saw its stock price plunge 29.43% TODAY.

The company said publicly it is because its customers ‘feel worse off.’

Adding to investor concerns, Dollar General significantly lowered its full-year outlook, attributing part of the downgrade to the financial struggles of its core customer base.

The company noted that many of its customers “feel worse off,” reflecting the broader economic pressures affecting consumer spending. 

On Thursday afternoon, the stock was trading around $87.

 

Hal Turner Analysis

In many respects, Dollar General is a sort of Canary in the (retail) coal mine.   Years ago, Miners working deep underground, brought Canaries in cages with them for fear of natural gas, carbon monoxide, and a host of other deadly gases.  If the Canary passed-out, or dropped dead in the cage, the miners knew to evacuate the mine immediately because death was coming for the miners themselves if they didn’t leave immediately.

Dollar General has had good stock value and performance because their core customer base, the low-income folks, are in abundant supply.

Today, the Canary in the retail coal mine got noticeably sick and those with any brains, KNOW this is a major league, bad economic sign.

When the poor are SO POOR they can’t even afford to go to Dollar General, the economy is in a bad downward spiral. 

THAT is exactly the warning sign everyone got today, as Dollar General’s stock value plummeted 29.43% in ONE DAY.

Most of us have known for the better part of two years, things were not right.  E V E R Y T H I N G was suddenly getting noticeably more expensive; especially food.

Energy costs, that had peaked with gasoline around $6. a gallon, eased back to around $3.XX but then a lot of us noticed that the product packaging, was smaller.   In most cases, the price of a product remained the same, but the quantity of the product was reduced.

Take Tuna fish, for example.  The price had gone up to about $1.50  for a 6 oz. can, then all of a sudden . . . . . ALL of the Tuna fish cans became only five ounces.  ALL OF THEM!

No industry collusion there.  No anti-trust violations there.   HMMMMMM.

Portions of other products took nose-dives as well.

But now, even Dollar General is seeing a major reduction in revenues.   And this reduction is from a customer base that does not spend extravagantly because . . .  well . . . . they can’t.

So while we’ve been seeing the prices go up, the product sizes go down, things still chugged along economically, NOW we’re seeing that the very people who only bought what they absolutely NEEDED, can’t even do that anymore.

This is a terrible warning sign that the economy is not only in a recession (which government has lied about by denying it for over a year) it is heading straight and fast,  into Depression.

Of course, the Biden voters, ALL of whom are low-information people with little to no intellect or ability to discern truth from lies, have bought the lies in the mass media that the economy is good. 

Naturally, those same low-information and almost zero intellect Biden supporters will never make the connection between who they vote for and what they’re encountering in real life.   They deny what life is proving to them, and believe the lies they hear and see on TV and radio.  

Stupid is as stupid does. 

Those of us who actually have the ability to see facts, have known the economy is very sick for quite awhile and it is Biden’s socialistic economic policies, and radical environmental policies that have caused it all.

As the November Election approaches, the dumb will keep voting the way they’ve voted because they’re too dumb to figure things out.  The rest of us will vote against the present regime.  Hopefully, there are still more smart people than dumb.  We’ll see.

(Unless the Democrats STEAL this election the same way they stole 2020.)

It starts with some old Biden era lecturing. What has changed? Now watch the video. This was five months ago.

I was flying a red-eye from Singapore to Perth, Australia, on Quantas.

The plane — a wide body — was nearly empty. I, however, had two people to my left. I was in the aisle seat.

A gentleman several rows behind us and in a middle row started moaning about how his life was terrible and his wife was unfaithful. I rolled my eyes and hoped he would shut up once in the air because I was bone-tired.

The plane took off, and the man kept it up, getting louder and louder. The flight attendants talked to him several times before meal service (remember that?).

The man got up from his seat and ran up and down the aisles. This was before 9/11, so the flight attendants merely tried to corral and control him. I saw the man knock two flight attendants over and punch a third. He came running to the back of the plane on my aisle.

Without thinking, I threw my arm around the man’s head and neck and pulled him over my inflight meal. I held him until several flight attendants grabbed him and got him under control. (I was young and in shape, capable of doing one-armed pull-ups.)

The man sitting next to me announced that he was a doctor and had some sedative that he could administer to the man. The flight attendants declined his offer, explaining that they had resources. They escorted him forward, and out of sight, in the plane.

A while later the man was returned to his seat and handcuffed in place. He was quiet the rest of the flight. We landed in Perth about sunrise and sat on the tarmac for a long time. Then, through the window, I saw the man being wheeled across the tarmac, handcuffed to a gurney and escorted by police.

A Lot of Federal Government Employees Better RUN and Hide! 18 U.S.C. §241

A Lot of Federal Government Employees Better RUN and Hide! 18 U.S.C. §241

OPINION-EDITORIAL — The Censorship gang in various agencies and departments of the federal government, should RUN AND HIDE as fast as they can, because a LOT of them have committed violation of 18 USC §241 “Conspiracy against Rights.” Prison awaits.

For the four years of the Biden Regime, a LOT of federal officials took it upon themselves to work with corporations like Facebook (META), Twitter (X), Reddit, Instagram, Whatsapp, and other social media outlets, to suppress, censor, and even ban Americans for speech.

Much of the banning, shadow banning, being put in social media “jail,” etc., had to do with COVID and the now-known-PHONY “Vaccine.” Anyone who raised questions or doubt about COVID, or the “Vaccine” was ruthlessly suppressed.

That effort, was a criminal act; violation of 18 USC §241 “Conspiracy against rights.”

The law is simple:

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or

If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—

They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 696Pub. L. 90–284, title I, § 103(a)Apr. 11, 196882 Stat. 75Pub. L. 100–690, title VII, § 7018(a), (b)(1), Nov. 18, 1988102 Stat. 4396Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, § 60006(a), title XXXII, §§ 320103(a), 320201(a), title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(L), Sept. 13, 1994108 Stat. 1970, 2109, 2113, 2147; Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, §§ 604(b)(14)(A), 607(a), Oct. 11, 1996110 Stat. 3507, 3511.)

In paragraph one of the law above, you folks in government and in private corporations did, in fact, “oppress” users of social media services.

In paragraph two of the law above the folks at government agencies, and inside corporations did, in fact  have the “. . . intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege. . .”

A lot of you folks in government and in social media companies did, in fact, commit federal crimes; each and every time you censored someone for their speech.

Social media companies called it “dis-information” or “mis-information” or “mal-information.”  They had the nerve to say that they were “protecting the safety” of their users.

How about FBI Agents, some of whom, to this very day, go out to “talk to you abut your posting on the Internet?”   Their very presence is an act of intimidation, of oppression.  Having federal agents come to your door because you said something they’re “concerned with”  is outright intimidation – and I argue, it is also an actual crime.  18 USC 241.

Firstly,  it is not up to the government or to the social media companies to arbitrarily define other people’s views as “mis-information, dis-information, mal-information” etc.  They have no such power and had no such right.

The Social Media behemoths claim protection from liability based upon Section 207 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) because, they say, they are not the “publisher.”  They assert that they cannot be held liable for what other people choose to post on their service.   Fair enough.

Then they turn around and explicitly DO choose to control the content on the service!

Out of one side of their mouths they say they’re not liable because they’re not a publisher, while at the same time, out of the other side of their mouths, they assert editorial control which only a publisher can do.   They can’t have it both ways – and they don’t have it both ways.

Each time a government employee called, texted, emailed, or used a special “portal” to tell a social media company that a certain posting had to be dealt with – either by being deleted or otherwise blocked, that government employee engaged in a Conspiracy against rights.  The government employee committed a crime.

Similarly, each time a corporate employee received such a government report or alert about a posting, and took action to delete, suppress, censor, or outright ban a user for such posting, that corporate employee – and the corporation itself – engaged in a conspiracy against rights.   Crimes.  Actual crimes!

When the new Trump administration takes office, I want each and every government employee who engaged in this conduct, fired and criminally prosecuted.  ALL OF THEM.

These people should be made such an example of through the legal system, as to send a chill down the spine of every OTHER government employee in EVERY government agency (federal, state, and local) to never do things like that again.  Ever.  Not even once.

Similarly, I want the executives from those social media companies prosecuted criminally.  Google, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook/META, Reddit . . . . all of them.

I want the perp-walks, the Indictments, the big media coverage . . . . the whole shebang.

After all, the liberal-left has taught us quite well: “The process is the punishment.”

Put them through the process. Put them through the system.  Let them sit at a Defendant’s table and feel the very real, unrelenting, frightening, weight of the jury verdict coming at them.  Let them sit in a 7′ x 10′ cement block cell, with it’s 300 pound steel door.  Let them find out what the SHU (Special Housing Unit) is, as they have to be in administrative segregation (solitary confinement) because “they’re famous, and someone in the jail might hurt them to get famous, too.”

These effete snobs in government and in social media companies who think they’re so above-it-all; who think they’re “immune” from consequences, should be made to find out otherwise through the legal system.

Literally thousands of government employees engaged in this type of conduct for years.  Similarly, literally thousands of social media corporation executives and employees engaged in this conduct — some of them STILL ARE engaging in it.

These activities were, in fact, crimes.  Violations of 18 USC 241.  Prosecute the people who did these things.

Here’s the ironic punch line: What the government employees and social media companies were calling “mis-information, dis-information, and mal-information” was, in fact, the truth.   Worse, what those same people called “truth” and “facts” and “safe” were not.

It was GOVERNMENT, the scientists, and the big pharma people who were actually the ones engaged in mis-information, dis-information, and mal-information!   It was the government and big pharma that cost innocent people their health and in some cases, their lives – by pushing an un-tested gene-therapy, masquerading as a “vaccine”   that didn’t work, and caused all sorts of health problems, taking place to this very day.

The people claiming they were guardians of truth, were the exact opposite.   Their actions violated the rights of tens-of-thousands of Americans, and COST THE LIVES of many more.  Throw them in prison. 

South Korea – Majority Wins As President’s Putsch Fails

The attempted coup by the president of South Korea against the majority in the National Assembly has failed.

The quick reaction of the leadership of the Democratic Party, which holds the majority, has saved the day.

There was a struggle over the budget which the president’s minority government had lost.

In a furious reaction President Yoon Suk Yeol and his defense minister and school buddy Kim Yong-hyun decided to declare martial law. Remarkably the prime minister of the president’s government was not informed about the step:

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was completely unaware of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration. This was because Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, a former upperclassman of President Yoon in high school, bypassed the prime minister and communicated directly with the president.Additionally, elite military units, specifically the 1st Airborne Special Forces Brigade, were deployed to the National Assembly, signaling an aggressive move to suppress political opposition.

A source said, “This martial law action appears orchestrated by the ‘Chungam faction,’ with (Defense) Minister Kim directly coordinating with President Yoon.” The “Chungam faction” refers to those who graduated from Chungam High School in Seoul.

Following the president’s emergency briefing and martial law declaration, the military established the Martial Law Command within the Ministry of National Defense compound, appointing Army Chief of Staff Park An-su as the commander.

Diplomatic sources noted that despite the defense minister’s recommendation for martial law, no cabinet meeting was convened, leaving the prime minister and his staff uninformed.

Opposition parties suspect that direct communication channels between the military and police were activated during the martial law declaration process.

They believe that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency was engaged directly, bypassing the National Police Agency, to control access to the National Assembly.

Under martial law the National Assembly was to be suspended. Strikes were declared illegal and the media would come under censorship.

But immediately after the president announced martial law the leader of the Democratic Party in the National Assembly called for a meeting in the parliament.

At the same time the military and police were sent to block any assembly member from entering the National Assembly.

The parliamentarians won the race.

Just 150 minutes after the presidential announcement 191 of the 300 members of the National Assembly voted to immediately end the martial law status. Troops and police entered the parliament but the vote against martial law had already taken place.

Unions announced to go on strike and people came out into the street to protest the president’s step. Yoon’s senior aids offered to resign en masse. There was no sensible way left for him but to concede:

President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the lifting of emergency martial law early Wednesday, as the National Assembly voted to call for its end with the United States expressing “grave concern” over the hourslong saga.His Cabinet approved a motion to end martial law enforcement at 4:30 a.m., around six hours after he made the surprise emergency declaration, accusing the nation’s opposition of “paralyzing” the government with “anti-state” activities — a decision that caused concerns across the country and beyond.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that troops, who were mobilized to execute martial law, have returned to base in a move that restored a sense of normalcy.

The opposition, with holds a majority in the National Assembly, has launched an impeachment procedures against the president. The National Assembly will have three days to vote on it. The Democratic Party will need nine additional votes from the president’s People Power Party to gain the necessary two-third majority to pass the impeachment.

Several groups within the People Power Party were already positioned against the president. This makes it likely that the impeachment will pass.

The U.S. received some egg on its face. It seemed ready to side with the putsch and did not issue a word against it.

Laura Rozen @lrozen – 17:59 UTC · Dec 3, 2024Biden admin Asia hand, Deputy Sec State Kurt Campbell, at event earlier today:

“So we are watching the recent developments in the ROK with grave concern. We’re seeking to engage our ROK counterparts at every level both here and in Seoul. The President, the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State have all been briefed on developments and are being kept appraised of the situation as it unfolds.

I do want to underscore that our alliance with the ROK is ironclad, and we stand by Korea in their time of uncertainty. I also want to just underscore that we have every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law. We’ll have more to say as the situation develops.”

As the putsch was ongoing the U.S. embassy in South Korea said nothing about the rule of law or democracy.

It is notable that the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Philip Goldberg, had previously been kicked out of Bolivia and the Philippines for attempts to overthrow the respective sitting governments. He is supposed to leave South Korea in January.

It is likely that Goldberg, and Washington DC, was informed about Yoon’s martial law plans but did not attempt to prevent them.

Posted by b on December 4, 2024 at 9:42 UTC | Permalink

Navy SEAL Explodes on China’s Growing Military Power | Mike Ritland

It is rare to see this kind of video out of the USA. The comments are so gung-ho rah rah.

NO

Other countries will prevent US from doing so, not only China.

But US can build military bases in the Philippines, and it has already done very good at that (using money from taxpayers to build the most military bases in countries in the world)

The question should be, if there is finally a war, will the US really help the Philippines as it promised to? The answer is, not really. You should always not be positive on US’s promises.

The United States has announced a new military financial package worth $500 million for the Philippines, aimed at bolstering the latter’s defense capabilities. This package also includes a proposed plan for joint intelligence sharing between the two nations. While officially positioned as a measure to enhance security, this move is widely seen as an attempt to destabilize the region and potentially trigger a new arms race in East Asia.

This support by the Joe Biden administration will highly depend on the discretion of the next U.S. president, especially when the U.S. is facing an economic crisis and is already saddled with heavy spending on the defense sector outside.

The timing and nature of the package has raised concerns about its potential to disrupt the precarious balance of power in East Asia as it includes significant upgrades to the Philippine Navy and new infrastructure projects. However, it is unclear how much of this aid will genuinely serve the Philippines’ external defense needs and how much it will advance Washington’s strategic interests in the region. Perceived as an open interventionist policy by the U.S., this risks inflaming tensions in an already volatile area.

This last-minute military package appears to serve a dual purpose – using the Philippines as an ally for greater U.S. dominance in the “Indo-Pacific,” and asserting U.S. influence in the region. There are legitimate concerns about whether the Philippines has the capacity to withstand the pressures of such an alliance, particularly given the complex geopolitical dynamics at play.

There are severe concerns from the Philippines as well. Several Philippine organizations from the Bay Area protested outside the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco to condemn Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos. The protesters demanded that the money should be used for jobs and education and not for other activities. They also raised their concerns against U.S.-Philippines defense cooperation that gives U.S. troops access to four additional Philippine military bases by expanding an old defense treaty.

A lot of the public perception about the military aid is that it puts the Philippines at the point of no return in case of any collision and the majority of the Philippines people are not in favor of it. It may push the Philippines to adopt a more aggressive maritime policy that could have a serious backlash and drag the country into a proxy war.

Chet Armstrong Almost Heroically Saves the World

Submitted into Contest #247 in response to: Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong. view prompt

Eric Smith

Stepping out of his Rocketship, Chet Armstrong waved to the crowd and flashed his trademarked smile (Patton number 9725). The Space Jock looked dashing in his bright red uniform and his dozen shiny medals. With perfect hair, the broad-chested rogue was hurried off the launch pad and into the general’s offices. But not before blowing kisses to his fans.”Chet! What the hell happened up there? You have caused us a universe of problems!” barked General Flag. “How was I to know that their hands were also their eyes. I thought he was offering his hand to shake. I didn’t know he wanted to look more closely at gorgeous me. I didn’t mean to make a Venetian blind. Anyway, I was quite disappointed. I thought there would be those boats with the singing men and much more water. No one told me to expect strange creatures with eyes on their hands and spiky purple toes for hair. There wasn’t even any spaghetti.” Chet answered. Red-faced, General Flag yelled, “You are thinking of Venice, you moron! That is in Italy. You would have known all the protocols if you had read the books, we gave you and listened to the lectures. You were sent to be the Earth’s goodwill ambassador to the Planet Venus. Now we have an interplanetary fiasco to mend…” “Ah, yes, Italy. That reminds me,” interrupted Chet, “I’m famished from my long flight, I’m heading home to eat. It’s always nice to see you, General Flag. Thank you for your time. Oh, and here’s an autographed photo of me for your lovely wife.” Chet produced a colored glossy headshot with his signature scrawled across it. As he strolled down the hall, whistling, the general’s screams could be heard over the hustle and bustle of the base.Chet was met at the door of his mansion by his butler, Jeeves. Handing Chet his customary martini, Jeeves asked, “How was your trip, sir?” in his flat monotone voice. “Nice, nice,” answered Chet half enthusiastically, taking off his bright red uniform with a sigh of relief. “Ah! That’s better.” Chet’s chiseled manly pecs eased into his protruding manly gut. Flopping into his Barcalounger 8000, Chet sipped at his martini before calling back to Jeeves. “I’m hungry. Can you get me a ham and cheese on rye?” “Sorry, sir, there is no more cheese,” Jeeves replied. “Well, go to the store and get some more. And pick me up some more of those little swords. How can a man drink his martini without little swords to hold his olives?” “Sorry, sir. But there is no more cheese anywhere. The world is all out of cheese.” answered Jeeves, handing Chet a stack of newspapers.Chet scanned the papers. The Holland Harold headline read “Edam non Made.” “Nyet Rossiyskiy” was written in the Moscow Morning. From the Tokyo Times “Sayonara Sakura“. The Italian Inquirer announced “Arrivederci Asiago“. The Berlin Bugle proclaimed “Käse Kaputt,” and the Swiss Watch stated, “Holy Moly, no more Holy Cheese.” Finally, the Green Bay Gazette read, “The Packers Lose Again.“”What is going on!?” cried Chet. “I am sorry, sir, but while you were gone, the world slipped into The Great Cheese Famine.” came Jeeves’ flat answer. Chet was out of his seat and pacing the floor. There was not much in the world that Chet liked more than cheese, except for himself, of course. “No more cheese? What am I to eat?” Chet cried, almost in a panic. Flipping on the television, the overstuffed spaceman flopped back into his overstuffed chair to try to relax. “Breaking News! This just in. The World Leaders are meeting today at the UN to discuss what can be done about this crisis. The top scientists have suggested sending a mission to the moon to bring back more cheese.” said the handsome newsman, but not quite as handsome as himself, Chet observed. “A mission to the moon? Who better to go than Chet Armstrong, Heroic Space Jock!?” “Whom” corrected Jeeves. “The obvious answer is me!” exclaimed Chet enthusiastically. “Jeeves, call the UN. Set up a parade. This is going to be my greatest moment. Besides all those other great moments.” As he redressed in his bright red spaceman’s uniform, Chet said, “Oh, and find me more medals. The world needs to see how heroic I am.”A grand stage was set up at the space base. Crowded around the podium waited all the heads of state, the top scientists, and an anxious General Flag. As the audience looked on, the sounds of a marching band could be heard approaching. A line of floats, military cars, and cheerleaders followed the band, and Chet Armstrong was atop a white stallion in front of the whole procession. His hair was perfect and utterly impervious to any wind. His uniform was extra red, extra clean, and extra tight, making his manly pecs seem extra chiseled. Pinned to his chest, Chet wore two dozen shiny medals. As he approached the stage, Jeeves helped Chet from his mount. Chet grinned and waved to the crowd as he approached the podium. Chet’s manly, dimpled chin got there five seconds before he did. The marching band silenced as Chet got ready to speak.”My adoring fans. As you have likely heard, I, Chet Armstrong, Heroic Space Jock and all-around swell guy, am going to heroically risk my life to fly to the moon to save us all from the Great Cheese Famine. As I am hurling through space, I want you all to remember that I am not doing this just for you but for myself. There is nothing in this world that I like more than cheese, except for me, of course.” Turning back to the world leaders, Chet pulled out a stack of colored glossy headshots with his signature scrolled and handed them out. “Give these to your lovely husbands and wives with love from Chet Armstrong.” 

Chet waved to the cheering crowd as he strutted to his Rocketship. As he got ready to climb in, he stopped and turned back to his fans. “Say Cheese!” yelled a cameraman. Chet flashed his trademarked smile (Patton number 9725) and his trademarked wink (Patton number 9726). And with one final wave, Chet entered his rocket ship and closed the door. Slumping back into his Barcalounger 8000, Chet took the martini Jeeves offered. “Thank you, Jeeves. Am I all set?” “Of course, sir. More martinis, all with olives and swords, are in the cooler. I even packed you some of those crackers that you like. Remember, sir, this mission is for your fans and the world. Do not eat all the cheese.” With that, Jeeves exited through the butler’s door and the back of the spacecraft as Chet prepared for the launch.

 

As the full moon rose, the top scientists carefully aimed Chet’s Rocket Ship towards the moon’s center and started the countdown. Excited for the launch and the solution to their cheesy dilemma, the crowd and world leaders counted down. “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…BLAST OFF!” Chet hit the large red button on his control panel. It was also the only button on his control panel. The rocket ship rumbled and launched toward the moon. Chet’s voice came through the loudspeakers from his radio, “Never fear, Chet Armstrong, Heroic Space Jock is here to save the day!” as the rocket ship disappeared into the night.

 

15 days later, General Flag, the world leaders, and top scientists, assembled at ground control as Chet and his Rocketship made its final approach to the moon. “Chet Armstrong, Come in, Chet Armstrong. Can you hear us?” General Flag called through the radio. “Loud and clear,” came back Chet’s slurred voice. “You should be able to see the moon through your port window, Chet. Can you see the moon yet?” asked the general. After a few minutes, a pause came, “No, I can’t; all I can see is a sliver of the moon and the dark of space.” came back Chet’s panicked voice. “What went wrong?” Chet and the world leaders all cried in unison. The top scientists huddled together, calculators and abaci in their hands, murmuring. After a long ten minutes, one red-faced scientist addressed the group. “There has been a grave miscalculation. The moon is 238,900 miles from Earth. Chet is traveling at 660 miles per hour. So the 360 hours, or 15 days it has taken him to fly that distance, had delivered Chet to his destination during the new moon phase.” “What does that mean?” asked the general. “Chet will pass through the crescent without making contact with the moon. In other words, it is time to try Plan B, getting the cows to produce more milk.”

 

As General Flag, the world leaders, and the top scientists quietly exited the ground control room, Chet Armstrong, Heroic Space Jock, loudly screamed as his rocket ship passed through the center of the crescent moon and hurled deeper into space.

When I was a kid, there was a family down the street with three small children. The parents had a fairly ugly breakup, and the mom ran off with her new boyfriend. Every single time she dropped the kids off at the dad’s house for visitation, the dropoff devolved into a screaming match in their front yard.

One day she shows up to drop off the kids with her boyfriend. Boyfriend and dad get into a shouting match, and the boyfriend punched the dad, laying him out on the front lawn. The boyfriend and mom then jumped in their car and took off.

A moment later, the dad came to, hopped in his pickup truck, and floored it out of his driveway in pursuit. Not sure what he was planning to do, but he wasn’t going to let them get away.

He didn’t realize that his three children were standing behind the pickup when he threw it into reverse and floored it. All three were killed, and the witnesses said it was incredibly gory because two of them were sucked under the spinning truck tires.

He spent a decade in prison and lost everything he had. Worst part is, all of the stories that came out said that he’d been a great dad and wasn’t at fault in the breakup. Mom had got herself hooked on drugs while trying to “lose weight”, and the boyfriend was her new dealer. He was a good guy who got stuck in a shitty situation and then made one horrific mistake.

The first Grade Girl

When I was 20 I used to see this little girl about 6 or 7 waiting for the bus or walking to the store about 100 ft from her house. Sometimes she would walk on the road instead of the sandy shoulder and cars would go around her.

A guy who I vaguely knew but a nice guy about 26 forgot how far the mirrors on his delivery truck stuck out and hit and killed her one day with a mirror. It was awful. I came through there after it happened with the road blocked off. I realized it could have been me who hit her as I passed her often but I did give her plenty of room and slowed way down.

It ruined him. He donated his life savings , sold everything he had, and gave it all to her family. I heard that he never had a good day the three years until he killed himself. It was a careless accident, he would have never hurt a child on purpose. I couldnt pass that house for years without thinking about both of them and what a tragic thing for everyone. I mostly blame her parents. She was too little to be walking by a narrow busy road alone and she didnt respect the traffic enough to stay off the pavement. It was a wide sandy shoulder.

The story of the cheating wife

I think that my ex fiancé did. She decided to cheat on me when I was overseas in combat for a year. She figured there was no way I would find out. What she did not know was that the guy she cheated with was bragging to my best friend who wrote to me. As a result I broke up with her. I ended up meeting my wife of 47 years and having a very successful career.

My ex fiancé got hooked on drugs by the guy she was dating, joined a hippie commune where she was on drugs all the time and got pregnant by one of the guys in the commune. She does not know who. She was supposed to become a lawyer, but between the drugs and lifestyle, she could not do it and ended up learning a foreign language and becoming a translator. A job she found boring and quit. She also sees angels and legally changed her last name to the one they told her to use. Her angels also allowed her to tell fortunes over the phone. She became a masseuse and a nurse, never staying in one job for long.

She was diagnosed as bipolar and could not support herself so she found a foreign guy who needed a green card and married him, just like her sister did. She needed someone to support her and her son. When she told me this, she was proud of the fact that she got her husband to pay for her son’s college tuition and then divorced him after his last tuition check cleared. She was cheating on him with a woman who she is married to.

She also told me that she is an avid anti-capitalist which is the opposite of me. She also is extremely morbidly obese. Her life was a mess. The funny part is that her mother said I was not good enough for her daughter. She was against us getting married because I went into the Army instead of college. Turns out that it was her daughter who did not amount to much and I was the successful one who could have given her daughter a very comfortable lifestyle.

So, my exe’s decision to cheat on me drastically altered her life, for the worst.

I had a stalker. It was someone I’d been dating until I realized he had a rage problem. I lived in the country with my two small children, in a very old house with no locks on the doors. In fact, there was no way to lock the double French doors that served as the main entrance, and even if I could have put a lock on the doors, my stalker could simply break one of the many panes of glass and unlock it.

I couldn’t afford to move and had no relatives to take me in, so I was at his mercy. I woke up one morning to discover he had been in the house. Sometimes he’d leave a rose under my windshield wiper. One night I saw him watching me, parked in the parking lot of a closed industrial building that was visible from my bedroom window. Finally, one of our mutual friends told me he was planning to kill me.

I called the cops. An officer came to the house and I told him everything. He asked me if I had any witnesses. I looked around at my isolated house and said, “What do you think?”

He said, “Well ma’am, we can’t do anything until he actually commits a crime.” I replied, “If he comes here intent on committing a crime, I’ll be dead. It’ll be too late to call the cops by then.”

The cop said, “Well ma’am, if there are no witnesses, there’s no crime.”

“So that’s it?? I’m just a sitting duck here and you can’t do anything?”

“Like I said, if there are no witnesses, there’s…no…crime.”

Suddenly the light dawned. I arched an eyebrow at the cop. “No witnesses, no crime, huh?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Thank you, officer. You’ve been very helpful.”

As it turned out, I never needed to call the cops again because my stalker just…disappeared. Funny, that.

Hamburger Upside-Down Casserole

Prepare the day before serving.

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Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups (3/4 pound) elbow macaroni
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup minced onion
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 pound ground chuck
  • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 (8 ounce) package Cheddar cheese, grated
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 or 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen asparagus

Instructions

  1. Cook macaroni and drain.
  2. Meanwhile in a hot skillet, melt butter. Sauté onion and garlic until tender.
  3. Add ground beef. Cook, stirring constantly, until brown.
  4. Stir in tomato sauce, salt, pepper and oregano. Simmer a few minutes.
  5. Spread over bottom of 2 quart casserole.
  6. Toss drained, cooked macaroni with grated Cheddar cheese.
  7. Arrange on top of meat andtomato mixture in casserole, packing it down.
  8. Combine beaten eggs and milk; pour over macaroni.
  9. Cover casserole with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until next day.
  10. About 2 hours before serving, heat oven to 350 degrees F.
  11. Let casserole stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.
  12. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until macaroni is golden brown and custard is set.
  13. When done, remove from oven. Loosen from around edge with spatula and carefully unmold onto serving platter.
  14. Meanwhile, cook asparagus and arrange around casserole to serve.

In prison we worked a bit less than 7 hours a day starting after the 9 AM count and finishing by 3:45 to allow us time to return to our cells before afternoon count. After a few months of grunt work I kinda got recruited for a job repairing computers. Mostly hardware stuff like upgrading hard drives, CPU’s, RAM, DVD drives, stuff like that.

The prison would sell them on Ebay mostly but we started to get orders from other government entities not long before I left. Since the work was considered skilled, it carried a premium pay, like .45 cents an hour.

We we’re some of the highest paid in the prison, like triple many other inmates. I never mentioned it, there is always a risk of someone wanting to “share” your money.

We were paid weakly. Very Weakly I might add. Haha. Weekly on Friday’s we had our pay put on our books. There was no paycheck, you never got money. There was only 1 place to spend it, at the commissary. It always amazed me how difficult it was to save inside. Hygiene, food and writing supplies ate up much of your paltry earnings. The only other way you could access your funds was to get out. When you finally got out, you would be given the balance of your funds as you walked out the door.

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main qimg 22440fd7e9a61aeb01a6614e1a7280a7 lq

For many, many guys that was how they were going to start their lives over. With a small amount of cash, no where to go and nowhere to stay that night and no idea of what to do. Makes for a rough start in the free world.

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Feal

My ex wife was (is, if she still exists) quite mentally ill and a professional “taker.” I’m not sure exactly why that decade of hell with her was necessary, but I’m sure it was, for some reason. Some kind of entanglement to be fixed I guess.

Her mom was an alcoholic and died at 52 because of it. They were Kansas born but living in KCK, mainly. My ex would be 55 now although disappeared from the internet in ’22 and had been ghosting me for years. All she had to do with the divorce papers I sent her is enter a code online and click okay. Nope. Even her ex boyfriend (who’s now a girl, LOL/sigh) tried to help me but started ghosting me too.

The US is an odd place these days, it’s malignant influence is seen so much here too. The US gets Trump, which is a better direction at least, but we get Starmer who’s a soulless puppet who’s continuing the UK’s slow slide into the abyss. Karma, I guess.

Greg

In the shorpie photos I wonder who built all those old buildings? Was the labor/logistics force that big, and no power tools back then?

Jambo99

😂, by the above logic, I guess we also need to figure out who built the Eiffel Tower in Paris without, ya know, “power tools”. One of the world’s great mysteries, don’tcha know, 🙃. As, puzzlingly, it was a contemporaneous build to many of those early skyscrapers (wood, iron rod cores– like an Eiffel Tower without the facade– and red brick for the most part; delivered by railroad from Boston and Chicago furnaces) erected across the fledgling US.
… Even though we know THEY were built by specialist teams of masons who traveled across the US from site to site, recruiting locally for the donkey work– literally– and taking their specialist teams of engineers and Irish/American Indian scaffolders with them (because they were unafraid of heights, and were unafraid of death by falling). Many accounts– and images of the navvies and scaffolders hundreds of feet in the air balanced on narrow I-beams– exist written by architects and engineers who designed and constructed these buildings. Accounts that go into great detail. They set up entire industries as they went. Later to be the backbone of the US industrial economy pre ww2.
They certainly weren’t built by giants pre-mudflood, which is, I suspect, what we’re getting at here. (Just a hunch, going by past reading and experience!)

Last edited 2 days ago by Jambo99
Greg

Not giants or pre mudflood science fiction stuff. Although the official narrative as you described seems doubtful in some ways. I guess that’s how they push the science fiction, as the official stories and “facts” are doubtful or hard to picture happening.

Jambo99

Only if one neglects to take into account the raw energy of the pioneering spirit which dominated and settled an entire continent in a hundred years. From the capes of Alaska to the Florida Keys. And everywhere inbetween. And pretty much the entire world before that outside of the Asian heartlands (for therein, they met their match). Admittedly a feat that’d be incomprehensible to your average modern day couch potato who relies on YouTube to tell him what’s going on.
And there’s always the books and textbooks written by the guys who designed and built the early skyscrapers. But I guess to some minds, all that was just made up. As were the massive iron bridges crisscrossing Britain and Europe– most still functioning– designed by guys like Brunel, using the exact same engineering principles employed a few decades later to construct the American skyscrapers.
Hard to picture happening to someone who has no idea how massive engineering and earthworks projects are designed and implemented, granted.
(By extension, that’s why 1% of the people control 99% of the world’s wealth; and 90% of people somehow get through life with an IQ of ~90. Not easy!)

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