Alan Skeoch

Month: July 2024

  • Fwd: EPISODE 1084; HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. VANCE…culture in crisis



    Begin forwarded message:


    From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>
    Date: July 18, 2024 at 11:34:23 AM EDT



    EPISODE 1084;  HILLBILLY ELEGY by J.D. VANCE…culture in crisis

    alan skeoch
    July 18. 2024



    Trump frightens me. He is best described as  a loose cannon … 
    a gut feeling.

    Quite by chance while shopping in Marjorie’s favourite store…The Salvation Army Thrift Store.
    I nosed through  the book collection,…drawn to an odd book titled 
    ‘Hilbilly Elegy  by  J.D. Vance.     An unknown person to me.
    The subject was  industrial towns like Middletown, Ohio,which had
    become wastelands as factories departed for cheap labour elsewhere in the world.
    leaving behind the so called Rust Bellt … American States orbiting around Ohio.

    I paid little attention to the author, J.D. Vance, but found the book interesting as a fist person
    account  of the kind of working class Americans left in the rust belt cities.  

    The name J. D. Vance has suddenly become a household word as 
    he is now Donald Trump’s choice as running mate for the Republican Party’s presidential election.
    His speech at the convention was larded  with comments about his personal life in the 
    Rust  Belt/.  Much of it tragic.  Yet much of it heroic as well.

    Vance was not a lifelong Republican.  His roots are as much Democrat.    Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat ,  
    was admired by the Vance family.  

    Why did Trump choose J  D  Vance as his running mate?   Was the choice brilliant? Was the choice risky?
    Time  will tell.





  • EPODE 1080 MARJORIE AND HER GARDEN

    EPISODE 1,079   MARJORIE AND HER GARDEN

    alan skeoch
    July 12, 2024
    MARJORIE AND HER GARDEN



    I THINK WE NEED TO RELAX A BIT HENCE GARDEN PICS….A COUPLE OF  HOURS AGO TRUMP WAS NEARLY ASSASSINATED,    WILL THAT BRING GUN CONTROL?


  • EPISODE 1,O72: WALKER HANDICAP — A FEEL GOOD STORY

    EPISODE 1,O72:   WALKER HANDICAP — A FEEL GOOD STORY


    aln skeoch
    July 10m 2024

    EPISODE 1,O72:   WALKER HANDICAP — A FEEL GOOD STORY



    I was pushing my walker through the crowd at the food booth at Cosco.
    Big crowd .  Noon on Friday July 5,   I had ordered hot dog, fries and a Pepsi
    …all of which were difficult to push and carry to the table area.  I circled the
    tables once….all taken.   Stand up tbale was vacant but awkward for a man with a walkier
    and Pesi/

    Then  a surprise:

    A short man about 60 years old…husky…perhaps Middle Eastern

    “I do not speak English well”
    And he handed me his cell phone 
    “Follow me, we have a table for you.”
    I followed Ih’m to a table where his wife was sitting.
    “There, the table just for you:
    And they disappeared in the crowd.

    Marjorie arrived and we split the hot dog and chips.

    Made me feel good….hope it does the same for you

  • CNADA DAY 2024…FIND MRJORIE

    CANADA DAY 2021


  • EPISODE 1070: JOHNSTONE ISLAND…TINY ATOLL IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN…YOU CANNOT GO THERE…agent orange storage cite




    EPISODE   1070:    JOHNSTON ISLAND…TINY ATOLL IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN…YOU CANNOT GO THERE…AGENT ORANGE STORAGE SITE

    alaln skeoch
    July 6,   2024

    Thousands of leaky drums of Agent Orange were stored on johnston island

    Johnston Island is so tiny that it is almost invisible,  
    few people are aware of the existence of the island.  Visitors are forbidden by the United 
    States Air Force who has bulldosed coral from the lagoon to make an airstrip and a dock for freighters.
    Most days the base is inactive,

    But in the 1970’s Johnston Island was very busy receiving thousands of 45 gallon drums of a defoliant
    called  Agent Orange. a Million of gallons shipped from USAF bases such as Da Nang in Vietnam..42,000 gallons    
    from USA

    some of the drums leaked chemical into ground water in Laos and Vietnam.    
    The results?  birth defects and  cancers even now 50 years after the war.. 
    600,000 gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed on the jungle of Laos in an 
    attempt to expose the Ho Chi Minh Trail which delivered supplies and  
     soldiers to the battlefronts.








    “Tell me a bit about Agent Orange.”

    “ Chemical companies like Dow, Monsanto and many others were contracted
    to make a more  lethal defoliant from common herbicides used by gardeners.’The
    result was Agent Orange.’
    ‘If it made people sick why not find a less lethal defoliant”
    “The danger was not known immediately and the chemical was terrific defoliant.”
    “How terrific?”
    “Plants sprayed with Agent Orange died immediately.”
    No one knew the long  term effects … 
    agent Orange could live 100 years in soil and 14 years in the human body.”
    ”No alternative?”
    “None,   The  closest defoliant took a month to kill jungle plants…Agent Orange was immediate.
    The long term effects.”
    “By the end of the war great swaths of jungle had been defoliated and villages saturated.”
    “Howmuch Agent Orange remained?”
    “millions of gallons were stored in USAF air bases like Da Nang.”
    “So Johnston Island was chosen as a storage site. “
    “Out of sight out of mind….is it still there?
    “No.  Special incinerator ships destroyed what could be incinerated.  
    some remains in the ground wherever 
    Agent Orange was stored “
             



    437114732060673@1481227681264/The-At-Sea-Incineration-of-Agent-Orange-Near-Johnston-Island-in-the-Central-Pacific-Ocean.png” alt=”3 The At-Sea Incineration of Agent Orange Near Johnston Island in the Central Pacific Ocean by the M/T Vulcanus During Operation PACER HO in August 1977 (Photograph courtesy of USAF OEHL, Brooks AFB, Texas)  ” itemprop=”contentUrl” class=”figure-details-image__main-image”>