Ending the Ronald Reagan Lie

[Olive Drab Green]

remember our last conversation where you stated the gi Bill wasn't funded by taxes but rather service member salaries?

that was a hoot, almost as much fun as all the times you threatened to beat me up, you are very entertaining.

Because it is. We pay into it for 12 months. We have to opt in, and if you don't opt in, pay each month, and serve 3 years, you don't get the GI Bill. There you go, running your dumbass face about something you know nothing about again.

 

[abandonconflict]

Because it is. We pay into it for 12 months. We have to opt in, and if you don't opt in, pay each month, and serve 3 years, you don't get the GI Bill. There you go, running your dumbass face about something you know nothing about again.

Do they still let you collect the mgib for 3 years and then the post 9-11 for 3 more on top of that? I majored in GI bill for a while. I intended to go to medical school but I lost interest in what the West calls medicine. I triple majored, took me 5 years but I did ok. My brother got tuition paid while he was in and then used the post 9-11 on law school. Apparently tapping into that meant he couldn't use the mgib. So I guess it was like a loop hole, if you were collecting the mgib, you could use it up, then would still have the post 9-11 available.

 

[Fogdog]

There you go, running your dumbass face about something you know nothing about again.

Ha

As of this minute, he's done that 8,014 times.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

Do they still let you collect the mgib for 3 years and then the post 9-11 for 3 more on top of that? I majored in GI bill for a while. I intended to go to medical school but I lost interest in what the West calls medicine. I triple majored, took me 5 years but I did ok. My brother got tuition paid while he was in and then used the post 9-11 on law school. Apparently tapping into that meant he couldn't use the mgib. So I guess it was like a loop hole, if you were collecting the mgib, you could use it up, then would still have the post 9-11 available.

I dunno, I believe so. I heard that while I was in. Use the MGIB first, then use Chapter 33 for what isn't covered by the MGIB.

I waived the MGIB for the Post-9/11 Chapter 33, and once the 4 years runs out on that, I have the VRAP program to finish up my degree. VRAP is, to my knowledge, only available for vets with service-connected disabilities, and from what I hear, I can at least get my Master's, if not my Doctorate with it, but I don't think they pay for BAS/BAH like the GI Bill does.

I'm going for Research Psychology. I want to help reintroduce psychedelics back into mainstream medicine. Majoring in Psych and Pharmacology.

 

[abandonconflict]

 

[abandonconflict]

I dunno, I believe so. I heard that while I was in. Use the MGIB first, then use Chapter 33 for what isn't covered by the MGIB.

I waived the MGIB for the Post-9/11 Chapter 33, and once the 4 years runs out on that, I have the VRAP program to finish up my degree. VRAP is, to my knowledge, only available for vets with service-connected disabilities, and from what I hear, I can at least get my Master's, if not my Doctorate with it, but I don't think they pay for BAS/BAH like the GI Bill does.

I'm going for Research Psychology. I want to help reintroduce psychedelics back into mainstream medicine. Majoring in Psych and Pharmacology.

Nice, as an idea I hold dear, that I think a guy like you should consider at least once, I posit the benefits of diving for troubled vets. It truly changed my life.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

Nice, as an idea I hold dear, that I think a guy like you should consider at least once, I posit the benefits of diving for troubled vets. It truly changed my life.

That's the idea, brother. I think if I hadn't found Ayahuasca and naturally-derived psychedelics, I'd still be stacking opiates and amphetamines and staying up 3-5 days at a time. I want to help others like me before it's too late. It's why I started growing cannabis, why I started growing mushrooms, etc.

 

[abandonconflict]

That's the idea, brother. I think if I hadn't found Ayahuasca and naturally-derived psychedelics, I'd still be stacking opiates and amphetamines and staying up 3-5 days at a time. I want to help others like me before it's too late. It's why I started growing cannabis, why I started growing mushrooms, etc.

I got really politically active, especially when I first got out. I was drinking a lot, like on average 4 bottles a week for a good 2-3 years but I think I got it up to a fifth a day for a good 6 months. Cheap scotch, Dewar's on a good day. I was growing cannabis for the last year or so of that and started wanting to change the pattern. It was a good strong shroom trip that might have been the catalyst for the big change I made. I just up and decided to get rid of my possessions and live in a van with my dog in Baja California Sur. Someone who isn't me, but looks like me and has the same story did a few more grows down there while getting clean from alcohol and started diving. Since then I have been back stateside a few months of every year and I always do small grows when I'm here but I'm still off alcohol.

I had my first DMT trip a few months back in Cancun. A good friend of mine who runs a shelter for deported vets in Tijuana (he recently set up a second shelter for deported vets in Juarez) put me in touch with a guy who does the shaman role. I can see how it would be extremely helpful. I came out of it feeling like my choice to stick with scuba diving was fully affirmed. The guy told me he hoped I would be blessed by Tlaloc. I guess the point of that was that I'm not very spiritual, but it was something of a spiritual experience.

 

[abandonconflict]

The guy who runs the shelter is named Hector Barajas. I don't think he would mind me mentioning him here by name. He's an 82nd vet, honorably discharged. He loves his country, the US and never criticizes it despite the injustice dne to him. He thought he was a citizen, but when he got into some trouble, he was deported.

I think a lot of people don't realize that the troubles we go through, the psychological turmoil leads to getting into trouble and abusing substances. So they end up just overlooking the service that men have done for their country and focus on the trouble they have caused afterward, not realizing that the trouble is a symptom of service related trauma. It's a public health crisis and these men often even earn themselves dishonorable discharges because they don't know how to deal with the war after they come home.

At least we look out for eachother.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

I got really politically active, especially when I first got out. I was drinking a lot, like on average 4 bottles a week for a good 2-3 years but I think I got it up to a fifth a day for a good 6 months. Cheap scotch, Dewar's on a good day. I was growing cannabis for the last year or so of that and started wanting to change the pattern. It was a good strong shroom trip that might have been the catalyst for the big change I made. I just up and decided to get rid of my possessions and live in a van with my dog in Baja California Sur. Someone who isn't me, but looks like me and has the same story did a few more grows down there while getting clean from alcohol and started diving. Since then I have been back stateside a few months of every year and I always do small grows when I'm here but I'm still off alcohol.

I had my first DMT trip a few months back in Cancun. A good friend of mine who runs a shelter for deported vets in Tijuana (he recently set up a second shelter for deported vets in Juarez) put me in touch with a guy who does the shaman role. I can see how it would be extremely helpful. I came out of it feeling like my choice to stick with scuba diving was fully affirmed. The guy told me he hoped I would be blessed by Tlaloc. I guess the point of that was that I'm not very spiritual, but it was something of a spiritual experience.

Yeah, man, that's awesome. Your experience and mine kind of resonate on the same frequency. Fifth of bourbon a night back then. I couldn't take the nightmares, the hypervigilance, and especially that emotional deadness. Like, all I could feel was either uninhibited rage or complete despair. And I just hated everything and everyone. I never believed in God or the spiritual side of things, and if there was a God, I hated it.

I think that's probably the key, though. Psychedelics give you a sense you never knew you had before. You can feel your soul exist, and everything that you thought mattered just become trivial. Because when you're God, and everything you're experiencing is God, and you can't really die beyond shedding the body you inhabit, what is there really to be afraid of in the face of how eternal you are? Y'know? And I really think that's what a lot of people need in this world. They need to be reminded of their soul, which most people write off as immaterial and thus nonevident. Obviously, you can't explain that to someone, they have to experience it. They have to be able to feel the existence of their soul to know it's there. That is what I want to achieve.

 

[ttystikk]

Yeah, man, that's awesome. Your experience and mine kind of resonate on the same frequency. Fifth of bourbon a night back then. I couldn't take the nightmares, the hypervigilance, and especially that emotional deadness. Like, all I could feel was either uninhibited rage or complete despair. And I just hated everything and everyone. I never believed in God or the spiritual side of things, and if there was a God, I hated it.

I think that's probably the key, though. Psychedelics give you a sense you never knew you had before. You can feel your soul exist, and everything that you thought mattered just become trivial. Because when you're God, and everything you're experiencing is God, and you can't really die beyond shedding the body you inhabit, what is there really to be afraid of in the face of how eternal you are? Y'know? And I really think that's what a lot of people need in this world. They need to be reminded of their soul, which most people write off as immaterial and thus nonevident. Obviously, you can't explain that to someone, they have to experience it. They have to be able to feel the existence of their soul to know it's there. That is what I want to achieve.

What the United States doesn't do for those who have served in the military makes me angry and embarrassed for my country.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

What the United States doesn't do for those who have served in the military makes me angry and embarrassed for my country.

I feel pretty guilty sometimes. A lot of guys from my unit aren't being taken care of and finding themselves in some shit with no idea what's going on. A dude in Second Platoon in my company shot another guy in a bar and I guess he had done 2-3 years before I ran into him again for him to tell me that. The dude survived. I joked and said "I'm disappointed in your shot placement," but it was just a really fucked situation, because that's just one of many instances I've seen from guys in my own unit, people I actually know. Not to mention all the suicides and ODs when we first got back. Some of these guys saw what I saw, and worse in some cases, and a lot of them are chaptered out for disciplinary reasons instead of anyone recognizing their shit as symptoms. It makes me feel like shit that I have a pension and some of these guys can't seem to find their way out of the gutter.

 

[ttystikk]

I feel pretty guilty sometimes. A lot of guys from my unit aren't being taken care of and finding themselves in some shit with no idea what's going on. A dude in Second Platoon in my company shot another guy in a bar and I guess he had done 2-3 years before I ran into him again for him to tell me that. The dude survived. I joked and said "I'm disappointed in your shot placement," but it was just a really fucked situation, because that's just one of many instances I've seen from guys in my own unit, people I actually know. Not to mention all the suicides and ODs when we first got back. Some of these guys saw what I saw, and worse in some cases, and a lot of them are chaptered out for disciplinary reasons instead of anyone recognizing their shit as symptoms. It makes me feel like shit that I have a pension and some of these guys can't seem to find their way out of the gutter.

There was an actual policy in place to throw people out for (trumped up) disciplinary reasons and then use that as an excuse to bar then from VA access and benefits.

Despicable.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

There was an actual policy in place to throw people out for (trumped up) disciplinary reasons and then use that as an excuse to bar then from VA access and benefits.

Despicable.

Absolutely disgusting. I actually was really paranoid they were going to try to fuck me when they first told me they wanted to med board me. People were coming back from multiple deployments and being chaptered out for adjustment disorder or some ailment existing prior to service (EPTS) they decided to make up. It's fucking horrible.

 

[abandonconflict]

Yeah, man, that's awesome. Your experience and mine kind of resonate on the same frequency. Fifth of bourbon a night back then. I couldn't take the nightmares, the hypervigilance, and especially that emotional deadness. Like, all I could feel was either uninhibited rage or complete despair. And I just hated everything and everyone. I never believed in God or the spiritual side of things, and if there was a God, I hated it.

I think that's probably the key, though. Psychedelics give you a sense you never knew you had before. You can feel your soul exist, and everything that you thought mattered just become trivial. Because when you're God, and everything you're experiencing is God, and you can't really die beyond shedding the body you inhabit, what is there really to be afraid of in the face of how eternal you are? Y'know? And I really think that's what a lot of people need in this world. They need to be reminded of their soul, which most people write off as immaterial and thus nonevident. Obviously, you can't explain that to someone, they have to experience it. They have to be able to feel the existence of their soul to know it's there. That is what I want to achieve.

Yeah I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes when I'm down in the water and I look up toward the surface and catch the few rays of sunlight that penetrate into the water, that cyan color and the feeling of weightlessness relieving me of chronic lower back pain, it's like a moment of clarity and I forget my grudge against our creator and thank God for giving me back a little bit of what I lost. It makes me want to help the other guys like us get some of it too, somehow, in whatever way will work for them.

Sometimes out on diving boats in remote locations where it is dark enough to see the stars better, I get a sense of my place in the universe. It's like I have a "good flashback" to the times in Afghanistan when I could see all the stars. Somehow that makes me loosen up from the fear of having to re-experience the bad times that made me hate my existence.

Once, in Thailand, on Koh Phi Phi Don, I was way up the hill and I woke up early morning to the sound of a mosque playing the call to prayer. I had a good shroom trip the previous day and still had a strong sense of well-being. Previously, I think the prayer on the loudspeaker would have been dreadful. In Deh Rawood Afghanistan, my unit was attacked daily and they would use the prayer on the loudspeaker as a signal, then attack and run away. We never knew which one they would use, which time of day and it played 5 times a day. Some days they wouldn't attack, but no matter what, when it played, my nerves would wind up and I would think about who might not survive the next few minutes. Even a decade later in 2012 when I was in a walmart and I heard a loudspeaker call for a clerk to come to a particular register, the sound began with that shrill feedback of a loudspeaker and make me feel like I was back there again. I got a rush of adrenaline and felt the worry of who would be harmed. I thought about my rifle and looked for cover. It was just a split second but the strain it put on my heart might have taken years off my life. But that day in Thailand when the prayer played, I was at peace. I had no flashback.

 

[Olive Drab Green]

Yeah I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes when I'm down in the water and I look up toward the surface and catch the few rays of sunlight that penetrate into the water, that cyan color and the feeling of weightlessness relieving me of chronic lower back pain, it's like a moment of clarity and I forget my grudge against our creator and thank God for giving me back a little bit of what I lost. It makes me want to help the other guys like us get some of it too, somehow, in whatever way will work for them.

Sometimes out on diving boats in remote locations where it is dark enough to see the stars better, I get a sense of my place in the universe. It's like I have a "good flashback" to the times in Afghanistan when I could see all the stars. Somehow that makes me loosen up from the fear of having to re-experience the bad times that made me hate my existence.

Once, in Thailand, on Koh Phi Phi Don, I was way up the hill and I woke up early morning to the sound of a mosque playing the call to prayer. I had a good shroom trip the previous day and still had a strong sense of well-being. Previously, I think the prayer on the loudspeaker would have been dreadful. In Deh Rawood Afghanistan, my unit was attacked daily and they would use the prayer on the loudspeaker as a signal, then attack and run away. We never knew which one they would use, which time of day and it played 5 times a day. Some days they wouldn't attack, but no matter what, when it played, my nerves would wind up and I would think about who might not survive the next few minutes. Even a decade later in 2012 when I was in a walmart and I heard a loudspeaker call for a clerk to come to a particular register, the sound began with that shrill feedback of a loudspeaker and make me feel like I was back there again. I got a rush of adrenaline and felt the worry of who would be harmed. I thought about my rifle and looked for cover. It was just a split second but the strain it put on my heart might have taken years off my life. But that day in Thailand when the prayer played, I was at peace. I had no flashback.

Deh Rahwood's in Uruzgan. You must have been early 2000s. They sent a lot of SF guys there. A lot of shit went down there. It's good to have you back, brother.

Yeah, those stars. I swear there was a shooting star every two minutes. When you're 10,000-12,000 feet above sea level with no light pollution, you can see how beautiful it is. It really would be a beautiful country, if not for the IEDs, RPGs, PKMs, and AKs.

 

[_gresh_]

Thank you both for your service.

 

[ttystikk]

Absolutely disgusting. I actually was really paranoid they were going to try to fuck me when they first told me they wanted to med board me. People were coming back from multiple deployments and being chaptered out for adjustment disorder or some ailment existing prior to service (EPTS) they decided to make up. It's fucking horrible.

The policy was implemented because Republicans were complaining that VA costs were too high for veterans returning from post 9/11 deployments.

They're good enough to be turned into soldiers, but not good enough to be returned to society. Apparently it's not profitable...

 

[Grandpapy]

There was an actual policy in place to throw people out for (trumped up) disciplinary reasons and then use that as an excuse to bar then from VA access and benefits.

Despicable.

AIG is still pissed.

 

[abandonconflict]

Deh Rahwood's in Uruzgan. You must have been early 2000s. They sent a lot of SF guys there. A lot of shit went down there. It's good to have you back, brother.

Yeah, those stars. I swear there was a shooting star every two minutes. When you're 10,000-12,000 feet above sea level with no light pollution, you can see how beautiful it is. It really would be a beautiful country, if not for the IEDs, RPGs, PKMs, and AKs.

It was a hard deployment. 4 of the 9 guys in my squad from that deployment are alive, 3 suicides.

Yes! Afghanistan is majestically beautiful. We used to fly nap-of-the-earth getting moved around the entire area by 160th SOAR. I wasn't SF but my company was attached to a team to guard their positions and be ready to back them up. We got to see Afghanistan in a way most people will never know. It is such a beautiful place.