This week, Ken and John talk about:

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John being a peacenik in the 1990s (OM235)

John was the target audience for late 1970s / early 1980s military adventurism, but after the invasion of Granada and the Falklands War he transitioned into a radical peacenik and was no longer excited by all this stuff. He was raged and he was protesting in the streets as one of the hippies marching around.

John’s sister’s ex-boyfriend Damian (OM235)

John’s sister’s ex-boyfriend Damian was in the Army during the United States Invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause). He was an infantryman and fired bullets and shot people, securing strategic targets, and John talked to him quite a bit about the invasion. He had later become adjacent to alternative culture enough that he had lots of things to say about it that confirmed John's worst suspicions and the cynical nature of it.

Playing Classic Rock at the Vatican embassy in Panama (OM235)

The Invasion of Panama got wrapped up in 2-3 days, which made it perfect for cable news. Their ruler Noriega eventually made it to the Vatican embassy and the next day they started cranking Classic Rock at the building in violation of Vatican II. It should have been Sadness Part II on repeat! The reason was that there were American and International news media on the balcony of a nearby motel with parabolic mics and they were afraid that tactical stuff was going to be overheard, so they started playing Steve Miller band to mask the sound.

This were the highlights from their playlist with John’s comments:

• (You’ve Got) Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest: Into it!
• Blue Collar Man - Styx: Totally into it!
• Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins: No, I want out! Three songs in and I want out!
• Dead Man’s Party - Oingo Boingo: I will hang for that!
• Don’t Look Back - Boston: For sure!
• Electric Spanking of War Babies - Funkadelic: Yes! This is a great party!
• Heaven’s On Fire - Kiss: Not the biggest Kiss fan, but that is not a bad song. The Army and the Kiss Army are now the same, the Venn diagram has overlapped. As the Army becomes more and more motivated by Metal and Country / Western, it will just end up being Kiss Army. It is just a battle of whether the Juggalos or the Kiss Army takes over the US Armed Forces first.
• If I Had A Rocket Launcher - Bruce Cockburn: Okay.
• In My Time of Dying - Led Zeppelin: Sure!
• Iron Man - Black Sabbath: Come on, this is a great playlist!
• Judgment Day - Whitesnake: No, John is back under the pillow for that.
• Jungle Love - Steve Miller: Totally into that!
• No More Mister Nice Guy - Alice Cooper: Love it!
• Paradise City - Guns & Roses
• Panama - Van Halen
• Paranoid - Black Sabbath: It is when Metal was still Heavy Metal. Today you would just hear one Slayer song after another or some Black Metal from Norway, or they would be playing Hip Hop. In Guantanamo it was a lot of ironic music, just playing the worst music. Three songs by The Wiggles and Ken would surrender to Delta Force
• Refugee - Tom Petty
• Renegade - Styx
• Run Like Hell - Pink Floyd
• The Party’s Over - Journey: They are going for funny. John was at this party in 1989, he just didn’t realize that it was a military maneuver.
• This Means War - Joan Jett
• Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
• Wanted Man - Ratt
• War Pigs - Black Sabbath
• We’re Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
• You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
• Your Time is Gonna Come - Led Zeppelin