May 13, 2015

There may be more to this derailment than meets the eye...

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150514_SEPTA_train_hit_by_projectile_before_Amtrak_crash.html

Coinkydink? Maybe...

May 10, 2015

Mother's Day Reflections:

I've often posted about my pragmatically Progressive family, my father of blessed memory was a four-year combat veteran of the Pacific Theater, my mother was a trained educator, dancer, and marionetteer who worked in the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard during WWII. They grieved when Stevenson lost twice, they marched in the Civil Rights marches, my father wearing his Purple Heart marched in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and was the greatest fund-raiser for the United Negro College Fund at his workplace, the Main 30th Street Post Office here in Philadelphia. They understood full well the march of the Industrialists and the World Economy and that in the end, it is the money which rules, even after all the perceived-as-fair-to-the-poor-and-middle-class adjudication by the Courts.

My Mother of blessed memory was a pessimist: she felt that the Earth was deteriorating societally even after it had the opportunity to ascend and achieve. She was particularly upset with Democrats who did not defend the Liberal tenets of the time. She both despised and understood the Republicans, the Conservatives, the racists and anti-Semites. But she saved her real enmity for those who ostensibly stood with the working class but betrayed them at the highest levels. (My father, on the other hand, accepted it as part of the landscape.) One of the seminal moments of my young political life was a family story about Harry Truman. The paragraph was repeated EXACTLY thus: "When Truman became President, they showed him the plans and the mission to drop the atomic bomb and told him that that was what was going to happen, and he said, 'OK'". MY mother was appalled that they hadn't dropped the first one off the coast of Japan after warning the Japanese that there would be a demonstration. But the point of the story was that Truman, in her opinion, had no control over any of the military or industrial aspects of the country. She went on to state that this was borne out by Eisenhower's Farewell address, which was quoted more often in my home than Shakespeare, and that was saying a lot. When Kennedy was assassinated, well, that was the end for her. She knew that he must have been bucking the Powers That Be, and got 'hit' for it. Reagan, Bush, and Bush-the-Lesser were just nails in the coffin.

Well, the older I get, and the more I see of what is happening with "Business" around the world, the more I believe that she was on to something before it was in fashion to be keenly aware of who and what is running the show. She would look at TPP as she looked at NAFTA at the time and said that we're sending decent jobs out of the country to sweatshops around the world and this is a patriotic thing to do according to these people.The Plan is in place and by all accounts there is no one and nothing as far as they're concerned which is going to stop or even slow the pace of implementation.

You were right, Mom. (For the most part, you were 'always' right!). Happy Mother's Day - I miss our talks and our political-conviviality as we watched the burning and the sacking of our Country.

May 9, 2015

All I'm allowed to say in this matter is that all DUers

need to take a look see at next month's MAD Magazine. I cannot say more. As far as what it's gonna be…trust me: you'll know! And it's GREAT!

April 30, 2015

Very large march just came past my window

on 16th Street here in Philly. looked like a couple thousand plus to me...could be wrong. Chanting, peaceful, mixed crowd.

April 29, 2015

In what parallel universe does a Jewish, self-described Socialist who

doesn't run a comb through his hair on a weekly basis, become President of these United States of America?

Yeah...I knocked myself out for McGovern, for Mondale, for Gore. My family sat shiva in 1952 and 1956 through about 2003 for Stevenson...

Who the Hell are you kidding? I went home while canvassing in Rochester, NY on Election Night, 1972 because a guy in a working-class neighborhood pulled out a gun and told me to leave his doorstep, because I was a Commie Hippie Bastard. And those are the words I care to type...

Go ahead: if you want Jeb, or Marco, or Ted, or Carly, then castigate Mrs. Clinton and vilify her for arising in the morning, and stay home on Election Night. At least you'll be able to chronicle the rapid rise of fascism in this country on DU - until it's shut down as being a subversive site.

April 26, 2015

This is one of the oddest stories I've read in a long time...

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150426_Hobbled_Korean_War_vet__wife__abducted_by_three_women__5_arrests_so_far.html


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If you read the whole story at the linky it goes from strange to baffling to bizarre….


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An 86-year-old Korean War veteran and his 55-year-old wife told police they were kidnapped Thursday morning by three women who forced them to open a bank account and rent two cars for them.

Shaken and unharmed but indignant, the couple on Saturday recounted the bizarre tale of their six-hour abduction ordeal. Police said five people, including one of the alleged kidnappers, have been arrested.

George Saunders and his wife, Priscilla Jones, of Southwest Philadelphia, said they were walking - with the aid of canes - to a convenience store for groceries about 11 a.m. Thursday on the 3000 block of Pennsgrove Street in West Philadelphia. Three women pulled up alongside them in a gray Chrysler Town & Country minivan and asked if they needed a ride.

The couple said they told the women no, but were pushed into the vehicle. In the backseat was a 5-month-old boy - and to Jones' dismay, the women were smoking marijuana, she said.


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150426_Hobbled_Korean_War_vet__wife__abducted_by_three_women__5_arrests_so_far.html#bQEl3UAZEvQF00Dl.99

April 23, 2015

Does anyone here have Verizon FiOS TeeVee?

Yeah, I know this is not political in the true sense but if I cannot watch political shows because my cable is effed up then it is...

I have the weirdest thing going on: I have my telephone, I have my Internet, but the TV's are doing something strange. I can get the menu and the program information at the bottom of each screen but all my channels are "Unavailable" EXCEPT, interestingly, the few public access channels (worthless). The process started with some pixellating which progressed to some channels being out and now essentially all are gone. I have rebooted everything in the house including the toaster oven, checked every single connection by separating and then reconnecting the lines and the splitters, made sure everything was tight. No one at Verizon has been able to help me by phone and it is difficult at this exact time to be home for a technician. I was hoping someone here might have an idea or two. As I said, I reset/rebooted everything...TIA!

April 21, 2015

Philly's all a'twitter about the signing of Tim Tebow

by the Eagles...

The idiot sportscasters locally don't get why so many people despise Tebow...they theorize all kinds of nonsense, but they tend to overlook the fact that he's not considered NFL material by everyone else in the League; that his sanctimony and self-proclaimed virginity is a distraction from the game as well as the commercialization - which is what it's REALLY all about; that he has been championed by the RWers who adore the fact that he's a devoutly-practicing Christian White guy who's won the Heisman, won the national football title twice, and states that he's never had intercourse with a female. In other words: he's the second-coming of Jesus himself.

We are famous here for hiring cast-offs and dirtbags from other teams, Witness Mike Vick the dog-killer/torturer, while we cast off first-class players for no obvious or stated reason, witness Desean Jackson.

This is a publicity stunt which the Eagles "do" just when baseball season starts annually. They really didn't need to do it this year because the Phillies are about as bad as it can get in the Major Leagues due to idiocy right at the top of their organization, or what passes for an organization.

April 17, 2015

Another adventure begins....

Philly's Finest:

http://mobile.philly.com/news/breaking/?wss=/philly/news/breaking&id=300211791&

April 14, 2015

Oh my God...Oh my God...I can't believe I did this..

I had a patient in my chair and I was supposed to do a filling on him but you know, the extraction forcep feels almost just like a handpiece and I accidentally took out the tooth. I was stressed by the situation and it was the "Fog of Dentistry". "In all the excitement I clean forgot" (as Clint Eastwood famously said) what I was doing! It could happen to anyone! I expect complete exoneration due to my contributions to charities involving dental work on poor people!

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I dunno...somehow this doesn't work real well...sounds a bit iffy...perhaps I should submit my narrative to the Fox News writers and see what they can do with this...