LightfighterGrew up in Beautiful Downtown Burbank, spent 10 years in the US Army (Infantry). Attended Southern Cal (IR degree) and CUA(JD). And I work currently as an SRE supporting a cloud SIEM product for which I have absolutely no education for, all hands on. Currently loving my adopted State of Colorado. Interests include #books #linux #politics #philosophy #hiking #cycling #motorcycles #veteran #photography
Lightfighter1. Representative democracy involves voters relinquishing their own powers and giving them to others to exercise on their behalf.
2. Liberal democracy creates a political class whose interests are not the same as their electors.
3. Under capitalism, the executive and legislature is not where power is really found and so constitutional activity is misdirected.
— Rebel Alliances by Benjamin Franks
LightfighterSo, people tend to assume that because I am a veteran of multiple enlistments that I’m some sort of patriot. It is far more complicated than that. I joined the Army to get away from an abusive step-father mostly, and also to prove myself. My father was 20 years older than my mother and fought in WWII(101st Abn, Band of Brothers) and Korea. My step-father was a former Marine. I was a “troubled youth”, white suburban punk on dope(Repo Man anyone?). I joined to get away and to prove myself, Airborne Infantry. My first deployment with the 82nd was to Egypt with the Multinational Force and Observers(MFO). We had our “mirror” Egyptian checkpoint come over and ask for medical supplies, our squad leader freaked out about the “enemy”... It just sounded like a screwed up chain of command to me… I traded about a pound of tea for a bunch of medical supplies with the Egyptian soldiers and got chewed out for it. That’s when I started to realize that this was BS. I had read all about the Egypt/ Israel conflict due to the library on post(from 1948-73).
I then switched to 7th ID in California. We spent 3 months in Panama, came back to watch the wall fall in Berlin, then got sent back for the invasion in Dec 1989. I knew we were trying to fix the problem Bush had created when he was CIA, Noriega. We did. It was horrific what the US supported.
I got out and joined the California National Guard. I was in college and wound up in a Long Range Surveillance (LRSD) unit. We were deployed for the 1992 Los Angeles uprising. We were the first unit in, and I learned a lot. The enemy wasn’t the people on the streets, it was the gang bangers and LAPD.
I went back on active duty to pay off college debts and served from 1997-2000 and was medically discharged.
I served later with the California State Guard training National Guardsmen about to deploy to Syria.
Why did I do all of this if I wasn’t a “true believer”? Well, because I was good at it. I brought all of my men home alive from a combat deployment. I trained soldiers and helped keep them alive. I worked with a bunch of ROTC cadets in SC for a couple of years, most of them did combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, they all came back alive. I trained ROTC cadets and, to my knowledge, all of them came back.
I’m good at combat… urban, jungle, mountain, desert, and I felt the need to pass along what I knew.
I fought the system the whole time, as best I could. While at the same time trying to pass on lessons learned to keep people alive.
Fuck Authority! Fuck the Government. Fuck Nazis specifically. Question authority, always.
Lightfighter
LightfighterSnacks for the next couple of weeks. Greek Pasteli, toasted sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds in lightly caramelized honey/sugar mixture.
#cooking
LightfighterGrilled chicken shawarma tonight. Just had rice, taziki, hummus, and pita bread with it. Came out great, but managed to burn the heck out of my thumb grabbing the thermometer probe like a dumb ass.
LightfighterHad a talk with my manager today. Seems I'm doing an acceptable job. He asked if I wanted to stay on. I'm glad to take another 6 months of being able to eat. He really wants a SIEM Engineer position created for me to go full time. We'll see how it goes. It's a big change going from my last two positions at software companies to working in the IT department of a Fortune 200 company, but, the team I'm on is good to work with.
LightfighterIn just 9 months, Mark Zuckerberg has cruised in his superyacht so much that the $300 million vessel has burned 2 million liters of diesel and spewed 5,300 tons of CO₂. The Facebook co-founder has now sent his yacht to the La Ciotat shipyard in France for repairs and upkeep. - Luxurylaunches https://share.google/cFkDmxUrpc8Uo0TP0
Lightfighter1. Representative democracy involves voters relinquishing their own powers and giving them to others to exercise on their behalf.
2. Liberal democracy creates a political class whose interests are not the same as their electors.
3. Under capitalism, the executive and legislature is not where power is really found and so constitutional activity is misdirected.
— Rebel Alliances by Benjamin Franks
LightfighterSo, people tend to assume that because I am a veteran of multiple enlistments that I’m some sort of patriot. It is far more complicated than that. I joined the Army to get away from an abusive step-father mostly, and also to prove myself. My father was 20 years older than my mother and fought in WWII(101st Abn, Band of Brothers) and Korea. My step-father was a former Marine. I was a “troubled youth”, white suburban punk on dope(Repo Man anyone?). I joined to get away and to prove myself, Airborne Infantry. My first deployment with the 82nd was to Egypt with the Multinational Force and Observers(MFO). We had our “mirror” Egyptian checkpoint come over and ask for medical supplies, our squad leader freaked out about the “enemy”... It just sounded like a screwed up chain of command to me… I traded about a pound of tea for a bunch of medical supplies with the Egyptian soldiers and got chewed out for it. That’s when I started to realize that this was BS. I had read all about the Egypt/ Israel conflict due to the library on post(from 1948-73).
I then switched to 7th ID in California. We spent 3 months in Panama, came back to watch the wall fall in Berlin, then got sent back for the invasion in Dec 1989. I knew we were trying to fix the problem Bush had created when he was CIA, Noriega. We did. It was horrific what the US supported.
I got out and joined the California National Guard. I was in college and wound up in a Long Range Surveillance (LRSD) unit. We were deployed for the 1992 Los Angeles uprising. We were the first unit in, and I learned a lot. The enemy wasn’t the people on the streets, it was the gang bangers and LAPD.
I went back on active duty to pay off college debts and served from 1997-2000 and was medically discharged.
I served later with the California State Guard training National Guardsmen about to deploy to Syria.
Why did I do all of this if I wasn’t a “true believer”? Well, because I was good at it. I brought all of my men home alive from a combat deployment. I trained soldiers and helped keep them alive. I worked with a bunch of ROTC cadets in SC for a couple of years, most of them did combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, they all came back alive. I trained ROTC cadets and, to my knowledge, all of them came back.
I’m good at combat… urban, jungle, mountain, desert, and I felt the need to pass along what I knew.
I fought the system the whole time, as best I could. While at the same time trying to pass on lessons learned to keep people alive.
Fuck Authority! Fuck the Government. Fuck Nazis specifically. Question authority, always.