Photo by a comrade-in-arms, blog post by John Hoff
As close friends know from a flurry of last minute email messages, I am leaving Paktya Province and headed for a different province in Afghanistan. Though things are pretty primitive where I'm stationed at the moment, things are MORE primitive where I am going, i.e., I may be off the internet FOR A WHILE.
As I did once upon a time when I went on a long trucking trip, I am hanging out the virtual "gone fishing" sign...
In the "hooked like a fish" photo above, I'm showing off my new gold crown, courtesy of Uncle Sam. I want to thank the dental techs at Fort Gordon, Georgia for rushing that crown to Afghanistan after working off the impression made by the army dentist here in Paktya. The crown went in my mouth the day after it arrived, and turns out there was only one day to spare.
You guys were on the ball. You rock, Fort Gordon.
I must say, this is the coolest Christmas Eve ever. You know why? Because I'll be looking out the window of a Chinook helicopter, and I might see Santa.
26 comments:
Merry Christmas Johnny and to all the Johnny North side readers, and soldiers staying in Aphganistan - Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Quanza. God, Johnny keep safe in his new assignment in Afghanistan. May all the soldiers come home soon.
Good luck Johnny.
My question to John is ;Are you going to come back with all gold teeth, cuz THAT would be cool!
Capt. Jack
p.s. Good Luck
Hi Johnny, we in OccupyMinneapolis stand in solidarity with your blog. We've recently begun occupying foreclosed homes in NOMI preventing eviction of the owners. I'd like to ask that readers join our OccupyHomes movement and consider occupying vacant homes in North Minneapolis. Maybe you know someone who is homeless who needs a home. We can occupy those spaces and put them to good use.
Hi Occupy Homes, from reading the post you commented on you can probably tell that Johnny Northside is busy in Afghanistan and no internet access at the time. But I approved your comment because I saw no reason not to. I can say for myself and most likely for Johnny Northside himself, that occupying vacant/foreclosed homes is not a good idea in our books. First of all it's illegal. It's not a good set up. Just to name a few more reasons there would be no way for neighborhood watch type folks like us to distinguish from "occupy homes" occupiers and just general squatters. Squatters tend to do things like smoke crack, steal copper and architectural features, break into surrounding homes, cause various other mayhem in the areas they are squatting in. Occupy Homes occupiers would also be in danger. But mostly it's just a bad idea in general.
Hi Nomi Passenger, thanks for approving the comment and opening the dialogue. I can completely understand your concerns. However as you can see from our last effort, we actually CLEAN UP the vacant property when we occupy it. This sets us apart from the squatters who might steal from the property.
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa_Rh4eyy8E&feature=related"
In fact think of any home occupied by Occupy Homes or one of our designated persons is very secure in that it is no longer vacant and open to trespass. In addition to cleaning and guarding the property, we would be interested in making certain zones of North Minneapolis foreclosure free zones as we are now currently doing in South Minneapolis. Perhaps we could partner with other local neighborhood organizations and combine our efforts. You could approve the persons before we liberate a property so you now who is occupying them and improving the neighborhood. You can see what we're doing in real time at our website href="http://www.occupyminneapolis.mn/" thanks for all you do. Occupy Everywhere!
Will these foreclosed homes be Occupied quietly? Meaning is there gonna be a ruckus (chanting, shouting, etc.) every night when I'm trying to sleep? Just asking.
So did the Occupy people spray paint "All Cops Dead" on the door or was that there when they got there? Fair question!
Isn't it generally unsafe to Occupy boarded up homes and buildings? Because of structural integrity issues and whatnot? What if someone gets hurt in there? Who would be responsible?
I watched the video posted by "Occupy Homes" and fail to see where they actually IMPROVED the property they occupied.
Looks like they just added more graffiti.
What a bunch of clueless occupy fucks. If you can't tell them from the crack hos and drunken squatters then wtf?
OMG! No we DO NOT need Occupy Minnesota in NOMI. Did you see what the government center plaza looked like until winter drove them away? I'm all for protesting the 1% but we don't need marchers surrounding vacant homes in our neighborhoods. In South Minneapolis they took over a house that the next door neighbor was trying to purchase. They almost wrecked the deal and even tried to talk the neighbor out of buying the home. It would then have indeed become vacant since the former owner was not actually even living there. Please keep this group on the plaza and out of our neighborhoods. Foreclosures are a problem here but squatting in vacant homes is not a way to solve the problem.
OMG! We DO NOT need Occupy MN coming to NOMI. Did you see the mess on the plaza before the winter drove everyone away? Recently a home was "occupied" in South Minneapolis that was actually being purchased by the neighbor next door. It almost killed the deal and since the old owner had moved out this would have actually added a vacant home to the neighborhood vs subtracted. I'm all for preventing foreclosures but squatting in vacant homes is not the answer. It makes a great show but we need real solutions not protests and shows.
The trash and nuisance people we already have to deal with in NOMI is bad enough! We don't need more nuisance people who do not have a true stake in NOMI adding to the junk. Because when the Occupy people move on who is left to clean up after them? We are!
My family is looking at one of two options; paying the city $1000.00 for a license to rent out the home that has been good enough for us to live in for nine years, or handing it back to the bank. I'll be damned if I pay the commie city to handle my own property as I see fit, that I work and pay for. And I'll be damned that the occupy commies (free shit army)will ever squat in it,...I'll torch it first, and it will look like an accident ;)
I can see you people are not in favor of us occupying vacant homes so we may pursue that in another area of Minneapolis. One other option would be for us to start an occupation of the many vacant lots in the neighborhood. We plan to move some of our occupation to Loring Park and also to some MNDOT land in South Minneapolis. As there are plenty of us we could start setting up tents on vacant lots where we can also serve food and hold meetings. Thoughts?
@Occupy Homes - how is occupying a vacant lot different than occupying a vacant house? It is still ILLEGAL, and a nuissance and what good does it do?
I have a vacant lot near me, consider me the first one to be calling 9-1-1 if any were to "occupy" it.
I never really got the point of any of the "occupy" crap. I get protesting, but I didn't get the total and complete waste of effort and energy. Like, occupy a soup kitchen. Occupy a littered street (clean it up). Occupy a riverfront that needs clean up and grooming. Occupy Basset creek and remove some buckthorn. Occupy a classroom and do some tutoring.
But that crap down at government plaza was just a MESS! I'd be walkig over bums, stepping around what looked like h omeless camps, I just didn't get it. Coulda also been that I was there on my regular day to day job duties, but.. who knows.
Don't show up to camp on the vacant lot on my block! The day they tore down the disgusting house that sat on that (now vacant) lot was one of the best our neighborhood has had. The whole block does not want anything or anyone put there.
We are happy the way it is right now!! Leave well enough alone please!
My dogs (actual dogs, not "Doggs") aren't gonna like all the extra commotion and ruckus an occupy camp would bring to our neighborhood. Neither will the older people on my block that enjoy the quiet. Or the Moms with children who want them to be able to play out in the yard without a bunch of occupy people harassing them. Shouldn't the people who PAY to live in our neighborhood be able to enjoy it without having to look at and deal with the giant mess of an occupy camp? Like I said earlier: We don't need more nuisance people who do not have a true stake in NOMI adding to the junk. Because when the occupy people move on who is left to clean up after them? We are!
I wouldn't camp out in NOMI if I were you... a Gomez might poke their head into your tent. Scary!
lol- Occupy some of the L3 sexoffender front yards!
Are you aware we've now kept three families from being evicted by the banks? We are forcing the banks to re-negotiate mortgages because they are scared of our influence. If you know someone who is at risk of foreclosure, please have them reach out to us at www.occupyminneapolis.mn We can occupy your house, send letters to the bank and ask all our fans to call the bank and demand a negotiation. We then stay in your house until the bank is scheduled to evict you. By staying long past eviction we have been successful in getting mortgages renegotiated. We also conduct door knocking campaigns in your neighborhood to draw attention to your mortgage problem and build interneighborhood support for our efforts. Keeping neighbors in their own home is MUCH better for the neighborhood and the 99% than allowing a mean bank to evict an innocent family. Stay tuned for new announcements related to one of our occupied homes.
Yes I am aware of the success you have had with other homes/homeowners Who WANTED your help. Tell ya what, I'll call ya if I need ya.
Just an update. Our North Minneapolis occupation at Monique White's house is about to go crazy. Her eviction hearing is 3/5 and we're going to attempt to stop it at the government center. If that doesn't happen we'll be taking the fight back to her house. Any wanting to join us please attend our training and join us at the people's plaza on 3/5 to help stop hearing.
3/3 *Saturday*: *Civil Disobedience Training: 12-4pm at the Bethlehem
Community Center 2539 Pleasant Ave S*
3/5 *Monday*: Monique's court date: meet at the people's plaza at 8am (300
6th St S) [Unless we stop the hearing before that]
I bought a house and was making payments for awhile. Then I realized that my value had dropped by $60,000. Now the bank says they will foreclose because i've only paid payments equal to the value i've lost. Can you help me re-negotiate my loan so I only have a payment that is the same percentage of equity I have left? They sold my house to the sheriff 4 months ago. I think I can stay for two more months.
Here is why you need us occupying vacant homes in North Minneapolis. http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/140878333.html We can protect your properties from vandalism and theft. In fact you should consider donating to Occupy Homes we have a website https://www.wepay.com/donations/occupyHomesMN where you can donate to us and we can use the funds to feed our home occupiers who will stay in homes in the area and drop flyers and door knock.
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