When I was attending university, perhaps after my sophomore year, but between I entered my junior year, I spent the Summer with my father. And, of course, my step mother; the Karen from Hell.

Now, she was a royal pain in the ass, and I could go on, and on, enumerating all the shitty things that she did to me. But today, I will relate one such event of curious charm.

At that time, I had long hair and a beard.

The Summer was spent in Summer-classes.

Where I studied anthropology and archeology. I worked in a few digs off of Lake Erie, and I really enjoyed the classes.

I learned a lot, and I found the experience really rewarding for me personally. Not only for the credits that I could transfer to my “regular” university, but also for the experiences that I was getting.

But, you know, that didn’t matter to my fathers wife; my step mother.

She hated me. She hated everything about me. There was nothing that I could do right. And if there was something that she could pick on… she would make an issue of it.

Well, at that time, in the 1970’s I wore bell bottom pants, a choke collar, puffy sleeve, wide collar polyester paisley print shirt, and had long hair.

And she hated it all.

A day didn’t go buy without her complaining, and bitching about me. It was endless and relentless. And the top topic was my hair.

So one day…

After I dealt with yet another tirade from her about my hair, I left the house and went to a nearby barber and told them to give me a crew cut. Yes. They kept on asking “Are you sure?”. And yes I was.

And when I came home, she shut up. She shut the fuck up, and was really kind of embarrassed. Actually.

But, you know what?

I loved her looking like she was sucking on a lemon every time she looked at me.

So, yeah, something good did come out of that entire fiasco. LOL!

Today…

"The West has really crossed—or is in the process of getting ready to cross—some red lines.

That's what's so critical for people in America and Europe to understand: when Russia sets out red lines, they're not kidding.

These are not suggestions; these are what they view as life-and-death issues.

The Russian people have a history of this.

The city I'm in, St. Petersburg, was known as Leningrad during World War II.

When you look at the fact that the Germans encircled the city and tried to starve them out, Hitler's desire was to kill every Russian inside Leningrad at the time.

800,000 died in about two and a half years, most of them from starvation and disease.

Think of that number: twice as many Russians died in this one city as a result of a two and a half-year siege as died in the United States in both theaters of war—Pacific, Europe, and Africa.

This stays with the Russian people.

They have paid with their blood for having faced threats in the past from the West.

So, they don't take the current threats from the United States and Europe about launching missiles into Russia as 'Oh, no big deal'.

I wrote about this and challenge every American.

Donald Trump recently said what he's going to do is cross the border into Northern Mexico after the drug cartels.

I understand why he wants to do that because they're killing over 110,000 Americans a year.

However, if Russia then intervened and started supplying missiles to those drug cartels, and those drug cartels were launching those missiles at San Antonio, Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles, or San Diego, do you think we in America would sit back and say, 'Oh, no big deal'?

Hell no. We would view that as an act of war.

So how, in the name of God, do we have politicians advocating that sort of madness against Russia and expecting that Russia will behave differently than we would?

For God's sake, people, wake up!"

What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?

about 40 years ago, I commuted to work daily on a large motorcycle. i did heavy construction work, and was very tired by the time i needed to get the bike to ride home,

i regularly left my bike in a parking lot across the street from the commercial multistory building i was helping construct. the side of this lot closest to my job had a 6–10′ retaining wall bordering it. i would park in one of the auto spaces right along that, since it was the closest to my place of work. [there were none for cycles]

one day, i arrived at the lot and found a vw bug occupying most of the space that my motorcycle had been in. though my bike was very heavy, and the front wheel was locked, that driver had gone to considerable trouble and effort to place my bike horizontally right next to the retaining wall drop off. then they pulled the darn bug so far into that space that it was not possible to move my bike, let alone get out of the parking space and go home unless their vehicle was moved.

presumably, they were angry that a motorcycle was taking a parking place the bug owner felt they were entitled to, and were endeavoring to teach me a “lesson”.

that “lesson” backfired rather badly.

i had owned and worked on many volkswagens, and knew how to get this one open. i did so, and then pushed it completely out of the parking space to where it would block traffic in the lot and be towed.

then i popped the rear engine compartment lid and rearranged the spark plug wires on the distributor cap so that the engine could not start or run.

lastly, i unscrewed the valve stems in all four tires.

after a mere 5 minute or so delay, i was headed home.

never saw that same vw parked in that lot again, and never had any other auto driver mess with my motorcycle.

as ms crouch and idgy say in “fried green tomatoes”: “TOWANDA!”

U.S. Escalates ‘Nuclear’ Risk: World Stands On ‘Edge’ Of Destruction | Richard Wolff

Great video.

How far down would you be able to still escape from a submarine?

In 1970, at Submarine School at the US Naval Base in New London, CT, we were taught that the maximum depth from which we could hope to escape, using the Steinke Hood… basically, a cloth bag that you pulled over your head, with an inflatable buoyancy chamber attached… was about 400 feet.

Luckily, I never had to test this, using one of the Hoods that were stowed aboard the USS von Steuben SSBN 632 in a storage compartment built into the stairs next to the watertight door leading to the Engineering Spaces.

But, we grizzled old sea dogs, being the sadistic bastards that we were, used to scare newly-arrived seamen by showing them the Steinke Hood stowage locker… forcing them to think about it.

One hazard of escape from that deep is that, before opening the Escape Hatch, we would be required to rapidly pressurize the escape compartment to sea pressure. Such a maneuver would almost certainly rupture our ear drums.

But, i did have the adventure of doing a free ascent… just me in my swim trunks… from ~100 feet, at the Dive Tower. We entered a room at the bottom, which was then (relatively slowly) pressurized to the appropriate pressure for a 100-foot water column. Then we were brought into the water through an “air lock”.

We didn’t actually wear the Steinke Hood, as shown in this picture. Don’t know why… hope I’m not getting any instructors in trouble.😜 We had been trained to lock our hands over our heads in a Superman pose. Then, we were released to “blow and go”, exhaling by yelling all the way as our natural buoyancy carried us to the surface.

Divers were stationed at several points along the ~15-second ascent, to intercept and hold anyone who did not appear to be exhaling sufficiently to prevent their lungs from popping like balloons.

Larry Johnson: RED ALERT! Russia Was Ready For DESTRUCTIVE War, Just Waiting Nato SPARKED!

What’s the rudest experience you ever had at a dealership?

My parents never had great credit growing up. They lived paycheck to paycheck for most of my life and when I was in high school my mom got a great job almost through a combination of luck, hard work and dedication. Suddenly, money wasn’t as big of a deal.

After a few years of catching up financially so to speak, my mom wanted a new car. She had been driving an older Sebring for a while and wanted to get out of a smaller car and into a SUV. I’m not talking a Maserati but something nicer than a sky blue mini van.

We went to F.C. Kerbeck in NJ about 30 minutes from where we lived. Kerbeck is known for its high end cars mainly lamborghinis, Bentleys, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Etc. But they also did Cadillacs, Buick, GMC.

My mom wanted a used Cadillac SUV – maybe an Escalade, or the smaller one. This was in 2005 or so.

Anyway. We went to the dealer, took us some time to get someone to talk to us but got a nice salesman who showed us cars in our price range that my mom really liked. This was a 2003 Escalade, jet black, not fully loaded but more than what she’d had before and it was well below what she wanted to pay for a car. A slam dunk.

As mentioned credit still wasn’t great, probably in the low 6’s at the time. My parents never declared bankruptcy but had a car repossession. They told the sales guy this from the begining of the conversation.

Anyway, we go inside after a test drive, to talk numbers. Trade in plus I think around 2 grand down and let’s see where we can meet with a price.

The guy goes to run my parents credit and never comes back.

Meanwhile I had excellent credit and would have been happy to co-sign. But he never gave us that option. He literally ignored my parents and me until we got up and left. They were embarrassed. I was embarassed for them.

A simple, “Hey, we just ran the numbers and found some credit issues; I don’t think we’ll be able to find a bank for a loan” would have sufficed, but to ignore people is more than rude – it’s unconscionable.

Scott Ritter Alarming Revelation: Russia Will Use Nuclear Weapons if U.S Continues to Aid Ukraine

Scott is on a rant and tells it as it is. Really worth the view.

Tex-Mex Beef and Bean Burritos

Ingredients

• 1 boneless chuck roast
• 1 envelope dry burrito mix
• 1 to 2 tablespoons salsa (mild, medium or hot according to taste)
• About 1/4 cup water, just enough to cover bottom of slow cooker
• Flour tortillas
• 1 can refried beans
• Flour tortillas
• Grated Cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Place chuck roast in slow cooker.
2. Add burrito mix and water.
3. Turn the roast a few times to blend in the mix. Add the salsa.
4. Cover and cook on LOW for 12 to 14 hours or until the meat is falling apart.
5. Wrap flour tortillas in foil and warm in a 325 degrees F oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
6. While tortillas are warming, heat up beans. During the last couple minutes add some grated Cheddar cheese.
7. On the middle of the tortillas place some of the meat, some beans and some grated Cheddar cheese if desired.
8. Leave about 1/2 inch at the top and the bottom and have the mixture go out to the sides a couple of inches.
9. Fold over the top and the bottom.
10. Fold one side, then the other.

The United States should not in any way meddle with Hong Kong affairs — Chinese Foreign Ministry

China expressed firm opposition to U.S. blatant interference in China’s internal affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing on Monday.

Mao’s remarks came after the U.S. State Department Spokesperson announced new visa restrictions on officials of the Chinese Central Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government in a statement released last week on the verdict issued by the Hong Kong court on some of those involved in the case of conspiring to commit subversion.

Mao said that the United States has deliberately attacked the principle of “one country, two systems,” smeared the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong SAR, irresponsibly commented on democracy and freedoms in Hong Kong, sought to meddle with HKSAR’s judicial matters and abused visa restrictions.

“Such moves blatantly interfere in China’s internal affairs, violate international law and basic norms governing international relations. China strongly deplores and opposes it,” said Mao.

Mao added that the so-called “primary election” organized by those involved in the case who are anti-China and sought to destabilize Hong Kong amounts to a serious challenge to the constitutional order in Hong Kong and endangers national security.

“Among the defendants involved in the case, 31 have already pleaded guilty,” Mao said, noting that it is reasonable and lawful for the law enforcement and judicial authorities in the HKSAR to carry out their duties in accordance with the law, and punish all acts that undermine national security, and that it is firmly supported by the Central Government.

Mao stressed that Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s domestic affair that brooks no external interference.

China urges the United States to earnestly respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong, and abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, the spokesperson said.

“The United States should not in any way meddle with Hong Kong affairs,” Mao said, adding that if the United States implements the visa restrictions on officials of the Central Government and the HKSAR government, China will take firm countermeasures.

Shorpy

Have you ever ripped up a ticket in front of a cop?

In Maryland, where I was police, we had the old fashion citation books. If people refused to sign a ticket or if we felt the violator would disregard the citation, we had the option to arrest and take them before a commissioner where a bond would be set or the person released on their own recognizance. It amazed me when people would refuse to sign for their copy of the citation, believing they would not be arrested. They were often proven wrong, usually by other officers.

I would typically write “Refused to Sign” on the signature line and scratched out another ticket for refusing to sign a citation. When these came around to court, the judge would see this as aggressive and hostile behavior and be pretty harsh on the violator.

If they tore up the ticket, I usually let that go to if they signed it. The reason I would let this slide is there was very specific instructions on the citation of what the violators options were…typically pay the caution or go to court. If you didn’t select one of those and return it to the court, they would automatically set it for a trial…and guess who wouldn’t show up in court? The idiot who tore up the instructions.

When people were uncooperative in that they would not let me talk, I’d hand them their copy of the citation and not explain the instructions to them…just hand it to them and walk away. I had a signed copy that they received their copy.

I should note that the signature line has a bold line that says by signing, it’s not an admission of guilt but indicates they received a copy of the citation.

Years before I retired, we moved over to an electronic system that did not require a signature. I’d just print out a copy and give it to them. It had instructions on what needed to be done if they wanted to pay it or dispute it.

Can the USA overtake China in the supercomputer race with her 200 petaflops Summit?

Regrettably, no. The USA needs to aim for at least 2 exaflops if they are starting now, since it takes about two or three years to go from design to actual running hardware.

Sitting in Singapore, I am in the unusual position of having visited the Chinese #1 and #2 supercomputer sites and met with their designers, and also being familiar with the usual TOP500 sites in the US and what some of their plans are.

As a citizen of the USA, I find the disparity discouraging. The Chinese already have a 1 exaflops system in their pipeline, and their designs are excellent and getting better. By the time the USA ekes out a 200 petaflops system, the Chinese will almost certainly have one already in operation that runs circles around it.

While the USA economy grew slowly from 2001 to 2016, China’s economy grew very quickly and in some specific areas they actually surpassed the USA, supercomputing being one of them. Their supercomputer engineers did a lot of things right:

• They were willing to spend the large amount of money required to compete in this arena.
• They were not wedded to the x86 processor mentality, and instead created a hardware-software stack (mostly based on the Alpha processor and its associated software that they had licensed) that delivers significantly more speed per watt of power. Alpha processors achieve about twice as many instructions per clock as do x86 processors.
• They took a holistic approach to the physical design, from the building structure to the cooling system to the custom cabinet design, instead of restricting themselves to easily-available and low-cost solutions to those challenges.
• They bought or licensed USA technologies and picked out the best ideas, then combined them with shrewd ideas of their own.

I should probably note that my colleague Jack Dongarra has written that Taihu Light is not based on the Alpha processor. With all due respect, he should ask one of his Mandarin-speaking graduate students to read the Taihu Light literature that has not been translated into English. The use of Alpha appears in the original, but not in the English translation… I am surrounded by bilingual Singaporeans who can confirm this! There may have been sensitivity that the designers would be accused of ripping off USA technology, so they de-emphasize that aspect of their design. They shouldn’t. There was easily enough innovation in the Taihu Light to earn the designers not just one, but two Gordon Bell Prizes.

Each processor of Taihu Light looks like the Cray T3D on a chip. The Cray T3D was a nimble system based on Alpha processors that many HPC people feel was one of the best-designed supercomputers of all time.

Most supercomputers are severely communication-bound; the T3D was much less so, with an unusually good system balance and low-latency interconnect that made it easier to sustain a high fraction of the peak rated speed. Imagine a 256-processor T3D on a single chip (together with four processors that service that array), and a cleverly-cooled cabinet that packs hundreds of those close together, and a roomful of those cabinets, and you have a system that makes the DOE and NASA labs in the USA go… *gulp*.

If the USA wants to really get back in the game and not just play catch-up, they need to break the me-too paradigm of filling standard racks with x86 processors that have GPU accelerators attached. We can get an order of magnitude improvement in operations per joule by rethinking everything. If I were doing it, I’d use a Very-Long Instruction Word (VLIW) processor with no caches, no instruction lookahead or speculative execution or branch prediction, explore the use of gallium nitride with 16-level logic instead of silicon CMOS, change the numeric representation from IEEE floats to posit arithmetic, connect the cabinets with free-space optics at terabytes per second per channel and a full crossbar, use only stacked memory and extensive use of in-processor RAM and ROM, and declare it a “moon shot” to make such a system work by 2022. This is the way all the great breakthroughs in supercomputing have been made historically… by being willing to change paradigms. Right now, the Chinese are proving better at breaking from legacy thinking than the USA.

VIKTOR ORBÁN:

“Today Europe is preparing for war.

Every day another section of the road to hell is handed over.

Every day we are besieged with the demand for hundreds of billions of euros for Ukraine, the deployment of nuclear weapons in the middle of Europe, and the conscription of our sons into a foreign army: into a NATO mission in Ukraine, into European military units sent to Ukraine.

My Friends, it seems that the pro-war train has no brakes and the driver has gone mad.

In the European elections what we are committing to is nothing less than stopping this train.

We must pull the emergency cord, so that at least those who want to get off can do so, and stay out of the war.

The Hungarian government knows how to do this. We know how to stay out of deadly situations.

In good time we disconnected the Hungarian railway carriage from the pro-migration train, as it hurtled towards the abandonment of nations. Stop migration!

And we also rescued Hungarian children from the hands of dangerous, repugnant gender activists. Stop gender!

Nor will we allow our children and grandchildren to be wagoned to the Ukrainian front. Stop war!

For those looking for how to get to hell, try the second door on the left.

Just so that Brussels, too, can understand: No migration! No gender! No war!”

Excerpt from the speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the ‘Peace March’, Budapest, June 3, 2024.

What is the most terrible way you’ve seen a person that you loved transform into someone unrecognizable?

My best friend from high school was the same age as me. She was the most beautiful girl, with an awesome figure and a head of long, curly dark hair. We were best friends for 27 years! We both had our first children at the age of 29. For her, it was the only child because 18 months after she was born she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her cancer was HER2 positive, one of the nastiest and most aggressive cancers, and by the time she found the lump in her breast, it was no longer in the early stage.

So at 32 she had a partial mastectomy. Then chemo so she lost all her hair, and finished up with radiotherapy which left her with burn marks on her skin.

But the treatment seemed to have worked, her hair regrew, she went back to work, divorced her husband and started dating again. She had a nipple tattoed on her breast to mimic the one she had lost (the tattoo plus all her treatment was free because we live in Australia). All was looking good. She even had her 5-year cancer-free milestone which is supposed to mean that you’re all finished with the cancer.

But six months later it fell apart. The cancer was back and it was everywhere; all through her organs, her spine, everywhere. And it all started again.

Chemo, hair loss, radiation treatment. She was started on a brand new drug, Herceptin, (free of charge because we live in Australia). But there was no more talk from the doctors about cure, only “prolonging life”.

I helped care for her in her last six months of life. The cancer finally metastasized into her brain, she had fearful hallucinations seeing things that aren’t there and swearing like a sailor at all of us because we couldn’t see them (she had never sworn; she was a perfect lady). And finally, a tumour pressed the optic nerve in her brain and she went blind. But she couldn’t understand that she was blind. She kept asking us to turn the light on.

And that’s how she was when she died on Boxing Day. Weighing less than 40kg; badly tattoed-on nipple (looked like a kid with a crayon had done it) on her half a breast on one side; bald from chemo; burn marks all over her skin; small moustache on her upper lip from steroids.(I used to take hair removal cream into the hospice and remove it – she would have HATED it); blind, raving and swearing. It was a death I would never wish on my worst enemy. Cancer is an EVIL thing. It takes everything away from you and then it kills you.

Is it true that many U.S. active duty soldiers have financial struggles?

The biggest problem leadership has in the military with it’s personnel is debt among the lower enlisted.

Whenever I got a new soldier, one of the first thing I’d do is find out if they had an AAFES line of credit (credit card or otherwise). I’d make them tear up the card and prioritize paying off that debt. AAFES is borderline criminal in how they issue credit and they’ll let an E-3 buy a Mercedes.

Next is buying cars. Go to any major military installation and you’ll see two things lined up right outside the gate to the base. First are used car dealerships. Yep, they have that Mustang you want so bad. Yep, they’ll charge you 23% interest for that Mustang. Nope, they won’t detail all the other expenses, like insurance, that come with that Mustang.

I actually took a Soldier back to a dealership to return a car he had purchased the day before. They charged him $17,000.00 for a $12,000.00 car, at 21% interest.

In other words, give an 18-20 year old a steady paycheck and they’ll likely be pretty stupid with it.

I was. I took a lot of financial lumps.

Then there’s marriage. These clowns can’t wait to do it. First, they think it’ll gain them something financially. It doesn’t. It makes a bad situation incredibly worse. Plus the divorce rates are really high.

The marriage thing is so bad that when I talk to an aspiring military recruit I really only emphasize one thing. DO NOT GET MARRIED IN THE MILITARY. I can’t stress that enough. DO NOT GET MARRIED IN THE MILITARY. Let me say it again. DO NOT GET MARRIED IN THE MILITARY.

You’ll recover from a bad vehicle purchase. You will not recover from a bad marriage and worse, a pregnancy. Some of these women out in town outside of a base can’t wait to get pregnant by a military member. That’s assured health care and a paycheck.

A typical E-3 under 2 years of service will bring home about $750.00 a paycheck. That’s $1,500.00 a month. This income is almost all disposable, given you live in the barracks and eat at the provided dining facilities. $1,500.00 a month of disposable income is a lot more than most families in the U.S. have. You can either make that money go a long way or you can blow it on stupid stuff. Most choose to blow it, then complain they don’t make enough.

Why doesn’t China forcefully reclaim Taiwan now, since USA and NATO are engaged with Russia and running low on ammo, why doesn’t China sieze the golden opportunity is it afraid of other navies in the Indo Pacific?

China has its own consideration.

Both Ukraine & Russia exported lots of agricultural products incl fertilizer. The Ukraine disrupt the supply chain incl food. Who suffer the most? Under-developed countries in Africa.

China is the world supplier ranging from low-end products eg pencil to medium-end eg medicine to high-end eg solar panel. If there is another war – Taiwan war, the entire world will suffer. Again the under-developed countries.

To take Taiwan is easy. In days or at most weeks, a retired Taiwanese veteran said.

But a war will give USA & its allies an excuse to impose heavy sanction on China just like they did to Russia in the Ukraine war. Though Russia’s GDP growth is doing better than the West, but its GDP does drop.

Same thing will happen to China too. Western sanction cannot hurt China too too much but it for sure will hurt a bit.

One important detail must be well planned. That is to catch the leaders alive. Otherwise you cannot put them on trial to warn the rest of people. Look at Hongkong. There was a coup in Hongkong in 2019. The #1 traitor was put on trial now. When the court shows all evidence of treason, those HKers who were misled to support the traitor now see it with their own eyes & hear with their own ears how they were fooled by the traitors before.

See, a military war with Taiwan is easy for China. What to consider is the big economic consequences for the world & the details how to catch Taiwanese leaders.

China has just cancelled 134 items from trade with Taiwan. Some has calculated Taiwan’s GDP will drop by at least 1/3. Many medium & small business will be closed. … Let Taiwanese give pressure to its government/leaders.

What was the most shocking incident about your neighbour that you witnessed?

I’ve answered this in another Quora forum, but it deserves to be repeated.

We bought this cute house which was the one of the triplets of little one bedroom one bath built in a row.

We were a young newlywed couple living in the middle house. To our right was an elderly couple who were pretty nosy, but they rarely bothered me.

But to the left was a rental under Section 8 Housing. For those unfamiliar, Section 8 is a voucher program where the federal government subsidizes rent for low income families.

It was a revolving door there. One was a single mother that we befriended, but she didn’t stay long. Another family moved in, but they kept to themselves. Again, their tenure was short-lived as well.

Then a couple moved in. We think they were a couple. It appeared to be more than two or three sometimes. Lots of people came and went. We never introduced ourselves because they appeared to be the type of people who did not want to be known.

They never acknowledged our presence either even when we would greet them when we saw them outside. They would quickly disappear inside.

One evening at a dinner at my brother-in-law’s there was a family friend who also happened to be a city police. I can’t recall his rank at the moment, but he had been with the department for some time.

I don’t know how the discussion came around to drug dealing in town, but I happen to mention to Alex that our neighbors had an awful lot of visitors. Cars would pull up to the curb and honk. The residents, usually the woman, would come and greet them down the sidewalk. And then the vehicle would leave.

He chuckled when I told the story and asked if I would be home at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. I told him that I could be. And he said “fine, put on some coffee, and we’ll visit.”

It struck me as odd, but I did what he said. At 3:00 the next afternoon Alex arrives in his police cruiser in full uniform. We sat in the kitchen and watched cars slow down in front of our next door neighbor’s home and then leave quickly. Alex laughed at each one. I think he may have recognized a couple.

Fifteen minutes later he got up to leave and said “let’s do this again tomorrow.”

We repeated the same thing that next afternoon.

Before the weekend our neighbors moved out.

What is something that someone told you that made you immediately realize that the crazy story they were telling you was actually true?

A long time ago now, my elderly father fell in love with a woman appx. 20 years younger than him. She actually dated my brother for a short time who is younger than her, and decided she liked my Dad and started dating him and they had a relationship for about 10 years until I put him into a senior’s home due to dementia.

This woman drove me crazy because it seemed to me that she was lying about her past. She bragged about living in California and managing a huge club featuring the Chippendales male strippers when she was younger. She said she used to own a big horse ranch and bred horses. She also said she used to own a yacht and used it a lot. She had been married a few times and had 3 children and said she lived the high life in the past.

I found this very hard to believe because my Dad was always a very poor carpenter and was retired and lived in a modest housing cooperative which was the only kind of home he could afford on his pension and seniors benefits. She was severely disabled, legally blind and sometimes needed a wheelchair and was living on social assistance and was just as broke as my Dad and always needed money. She was renting a cheap apartment in a very low income, crime ridden neighborhood and had next to nothing and actually took advantage of my Dad who gave her money when he could spare some. She also said that she was part of a mass lawsuit of hundreds or thousands of people who were suing a pharmaceutical company because she became disabled using a pharmaceutical drugs which had severe side effects which made her disabled and ruined her life.

The way she behaved made me think she had a mental illness and was a compulsive liar – there was just something very off with the way she presented herself. Well – I was surprised when she actually showed me old photos of her surrounded by Chippendale male strippers, on a ranch with horses and on a yacht. The photos looked legit and maybe she wasn’t lying after all. I also checked the internet (at that time there wasn’t nearly as much info as there is now) and sure enough – there was a class action law suit against this pharmaceutical company by a lot of people who have been disabled and hurt by taking a pharmaceutical drug which was now discontinued due to its serious side effects. She had a daughter and I overheard them casually talking about when her children were very young and she was managing an adult strip club, etc. So I guess her outrageous stories were probably true to some extent and her life had seriously gone downhill and she was living in extreme poverty in Canada (not the US). I have lost touch with her since my Dad went into the seniors care home and as far as I know, she never did get any money from that lawsuit. But those things can drag on for a very long time.

“The confiscation of Scott’s passport is a unconscionable act by a government that’s afraid of him because of the truth he speaks,” retired CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson