82_28 » Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:51 am wrote:tapitsbo » Tue Sep 13, 2016 9:29 am wrote:My two cents -
the cognitive dissonance and "big lies" of 9/11 are potentially much more traumatizing, I suspect, than the burst o
Does your last name happen to start with a Z or G or a deceased J? How about a B?
How about we just roll with PKD!
I noticed something that appeared to be a simulation of something the other day and I can't fucking remember what it was. f violence on that day
just consider how viscerally uncomfortable most real-life convos on the subject are
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Ask most people why the west is partnered with ALLEGED 9/11 suspects Al-Qaeda , all over the globe (as AliceTheeKurious elucidated, where's the damn evidence about the 19 hijackers actually hijacking?), and they'll answer something like "I can't keep track of all this, it's too complex for me"
Boxcutters no less. I hate to perpetually repeat my JFK airport story that happened in oh, around 2006 or so. But in case any one missed it or haven't noticed it themselves here I go again.
A steak restaurant in the concourse with long steak knives at every pre-set table past security. Also those long sharp clear fruit spears in every drink. I was like, what fucking security? My girlfriend thought I was wacky for noticing it and also wanted to visit "ground zero" the day before we left.
At Denver International last year, security just waved me through, telling each other as I overheard their conversation that their supervisor hadn't shown up for work.
EDIT: Not DIA. It was at Seatac. I was headed to DIA.
I have not been on an airliner since 1999 but had some years when flew over 70,000 miles, most for work.
I also have a JFK tale but was before all the post 9-11 airport security, specifically the last week of June 1994.
I had work in Maine and New Hampshire and decided to take my then gf and later exe wife along paying for her trip with frequent flier miles. I already had reservations through work and could not get her on the same flight. I was to go from California to Portland Maine through JFK and she was to travel to Portland via a connecting flight in Washington DC and get to Maine four hours prior to my arrival and was to check into the Portland ME airport Comfort Inn (same motel used by Atta).
There was major fog and airport closures through out the northeast USA that day - Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, etc. My connecting flight out of JFK to Portland ME was on United Express and those local United Express flights then (I do not know about now) went out of a small terminal separate from the main terminal. The terminal was a zoo because of all the people that arrived and could not get a flight out. We were loaded on a plane and waited several hours and then let off back into the terminal where there was not enough room even including the floors for folks to sit. My gf had apparently never reached Portland as she had not checked in to the Comfort Inn. The airline folks were frantically (and irritably) trying to get hotels for folks to stay until the weather broke as it was growing late. At least the terminal thinned out as people were dispersed into lodging. There were lots of young folks headed off to summer camps. Someone figured out for the airline folks is that for some reason our flight had been overlooked and no plans were being made to find a place for out flight to weather the night. There were 25 or so folks, about half a group of teens headed to a music summer camp. Some flights on other airlines at this point had started to leave the airport again but it was nearly midnight.
I asked the United Express folks if they could get me on a flight with another airline to Boston. United Express thought this was a great idea and decided to offer everyone on our flight the option of going to Boston in what was looking to be the middle of the night. They loaded the 25 or so of us onto a small bus and we were driven to another gate where we were to be met by a skycap. No one was there and our bus driver was angry and frustrated and could not communicate clearly with dispatch who insisted that the skycap was there to meet us. Finally the bus driver just left.
So here it was about midnight on the JFK tarmac under the wing of an airliner in a bus with the motor running completely unattended and abandoned by our bus driver and not found by our skycap; about half of the group were teenagers. After about 45 minutes an older guy on vacation with his wife got out and saw that the airliner we were supposed to board was lights out and probably parked and empty. He got on the radio of the bus and called the dispatcher. Turned out we were at Gate 7 and should have been at Gate 17 and our bus driven had not gone for help but had gotten so pissed off he walked off his job and essentially quit. They us all to and loaded on the other airliner. We got a rousing ovation from other passengers on our arrival.
When we got to Boston there was a United skycap to meet the teenagers in our group and take them to lodging for the remainder of the night. The United Express folks in Boston didn't expect the dozen or so adults. Ooops. Did not effect me as I already had plans to get a rental car and head to Portland ME to find the then gf. Another had already agreed to help me with the drive and we filled the car with two others. It turned out I had rented the Comfort Inn room under my name and gf checked in under her maiden name but was freaked in general because she had not heard from me and United had no idea of where I was at the time she went to sleep.
The trip actually turned out nice. United reimbursed my flight cost, paid for the car for a week, and bought us three nights at the end of the week at a nice Boston hotel, and gave us a set of rt complimentary tickets destination of our choice for another vacation. The gf / exe wife 2B was not that worldly and sort of sheltered and naïve and country. This was only her 2nd trip ever on an airliner (and she was overwhelmed by San Francisco or Portland OR and would never have attempted on her own), the first we had flown from California to London and back. So when I did my business around Portland she stayed in the hotel. I can't recall the name but it was a then recently refurbished older hotel in downtown Portland. So she hung out and read and watched TV while I did my work during the day. She smoked and there was a small park outside the hotel where she went several times a day as our room was non-smoking. She made friends in the park (other smokers lol) and told me of the interesting people she met. The third day when I go to the hotel she was upset. It turned out some guy she had met had been stood up by his "date" and asked her if she could fit him in her schedule. Her new "smoking" friends turned out to be "pros" and she fit right into the scene coming to the small green square several times a day to "smoke".
We had a great three day 4th of July holiday in Boston courtesy of United. We stayed at a great hotel on Boston Commons (where I had stayed before for work). Had front row box seats for an As game at Fenway obtained by the hotel. Did the historical walk and Boston Market. Went to music and comedy clubs and good food and Cheers. Flew out of Boston the morning of July 4th and barbequed with her family and watched fireworks in California July 4th evening. Thank you United.
But the point of this is that we were abandoned / missing to the management of United Express on the tarmac of JFK in a bus with a running engine at midnight. Half of us were unattended teenagers. I don't think that would occur now. Plus being as it was 1994, there was essentially no security to speak of.
My life has completely changed and in unexpected and even not ever contemplated fashion since 2001.
