im here, testing

yes, me too

Dial up the negative, scolding stuff some more Team Clinton! Might as well go down swinging and double down on your strategy. Should end this thing for sure on March 4th, and we can focus on the Repubs. The next debate should be interesting.

And the second major use of Marines abroad was on the coast of Sumatra…Marines assaulted a petty Chieftain who captured and robbed a clipper-ship. Marines came the next year and made a coastal assault on the town, freed a couypkle of enslaved crew, and destroyed the fort (assisted by another Chieftain just down the coast who felt piracy was “bad for business”.

Obama’s family lived there at a very troubled time in Indonesia’s modern history. It was when Suharto took over from Sukarno (the left-oriented Third World Movement leader). In that process between 250,000 and a half-million people were killed in about 2-3 years. There was a witch-hunt for “communists” and many local Chinese (including businessmen who had lived in the country for more that 300 years) were executed by death-squads. Lemme tell you, if Obama’s father was a “Communist” he’d have been dead. The CIA and MI6 provided a list of about 1000 “Communists” (labor activists, writers, newspaper reporters, peasant organizers, etc.) that soon escalated to include landlords, money-changers, shop owners who sold goods on credit, and people who were just “bad neighbors”.

The novel and film “The Year of Living Dangerously” deals with the preface to this period. People still debate whether Suharto was part of an internal coup that “went bad” for Sukarno…and played a role in the counter-revolution that cemented the power of the Generals.

It must have been a very strange, and dangerous, time to live in Jakarta.

I think you’re right about the last scene of Dr. Z. I remember the huge dam and the last couple of lines about the balalaika.

I like your story, though it probably probably had some pretty painful moments. Glad there wasn’t freezing cold or people shooting at you. And probably/hopefully no loss of wife and children involved.

You’re probably gone and this has been enjoyable. I’ll catch up with you. I wasn’t married and in between the first time that we were together and the time I drove to be with her all night in the rain, she had gotten married, but had decided to get divorced so the next time we got together it was a tough time for her in that context, but a good time for us.

So none of this was a breakup for either of us that involved someone else or was hurtful for kids, although she had had a little boy when she got married.

And then after the ten years, of course she had had relationships, but she wasn’t married and we had a very strong bond. So not only was it great to be with her, I’d do it again without the separations by distance anytime.

I wonder how she’s doing now. I could probably find her unless, and there is a very real possibility, her name has changed. I’ll bet she still lives in the same area though. Later on I’ll see if I can find her.