Holy shit! Am I missing something?

This sample ballot arrived at my home from the Superintendent of Elections. I’m including the part wherein registered Republicans can vote for their committee members. Note the gender separation.

I haven’t seen this since the old Help Wanted sections in the newspaper classified ads…any thoughts?? (The Democrats have no listing at all whatsoever for their Committee)

Something to ponder...

Somebody said something to me so correct, so true,

so to the point about these poor dead children and their teachers. I cannot repeat it here because it would likely be a violation of DU policies, but you can probably guess if you get mad enough.

Because you’ve got to get mad… You’ve got to get up out of your seat and go to the window open it and scream “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore”.

Gee… That sounds awfully familiar…

Pass this around...food for thought.

Well this is one way to start a Sunday morning...

As I have posted before, I’ve moved to the New Jersey shore and commute daily into Philadelphia. One of the reasons I moved down here is that it is an extremely benign area, especially off-season wherein the biggest problem the police have is shoplifting or the occasional DUI. But lo and behold this appeared on my Facebook page this morning:

My comment is only: WTAF??? …and of course he’s out on bail since he “clearly” isn’t a danger to the community. 🙄


***News Release***
Arrest Made
Date of Print: 05/28/2022 Case# 22-003725

On May 16, 2022 the Longport Police Department received a report that a resident on 36th Avenue had discovered bullet holes in their fence. The caller further reported that after viewing their home surveillance footage, they found that it was their elderly neighbor who had shot holes into the fence.

Further investigation revealed that Francis Beck, 82, of Margate, had fired two rounds from a CO2 powered handgun into the fence. The discharge of the rounds occurred in the area of South Coolidge Ave in Margate.

Upon learning this information, the Margate City Police Department was made aware of the situation, but turned over the investigation to the Longport Police Department.

On Thursday, May 26, 2022, Beck was taken into custody by Longport Police Sgt Nicholas Rettino, Patrolman Matthew Long, and Patrolman Quinton Wright where he was initially charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of weapons, and criminal mischief.

A search warrant was granted to Longport PD for Beck’s home, where a large cache of firearms were located along with a large quantity of ammunition. While conducting a search of the home, officers came across what was believed to be a homemade explosive and immediately contacted the Atlantic City and Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Bomb Squad units who confirmed multiple homemade explosive devices within the residence. These devices were seized by the bomb squad who rendered the immediate area safe. Beck was charged with possession of destructive devices following the execution of the search warrant.

Beck was charged with multiple weapons violations and other offenses by Longport PD in the City of Margate. In accordance with NJ bail reform, Beck’s charges were placed on summons and he was released after processing pending court.

Please contact Sgt Nicholas Rettino with any additional information pertaining to this case at: rettino_nicholas@longportpd.org

FOR ANY CLARIFICATION NEEDED FOR THE ABOVE NEWS RELEASE
CONTACT: SGT RAY BURGAN (Public Information Officer)
burgan_ray@longportpd.org

I have been watching the coverage of this horror since the very beginning,

And as a near-70 year old, I’m going to say a couple things that I believe I have license to say.

First of all, do you really think that these Republicans care about 20+ individuals when they sanction the deaths of over 1,000,000 by being Covid deniers, anti-VAXXERS and “liberated” non-mask wearers? It was fine for people to get sick, be put on ventilators, and die in blue states particularly, and quite frankly these assholes didn’t give a shit what state somebody was from because they had a preconceived political agenda the entire time. So I ask you, why would they care about little kids who would probably grow up to vote Democratic in any event? They wouldn’t and even if they were Republican kids, you know, towheaded kids from Kansas or Oklahoma, they still wouldn’t give a shit. Because they’re not their kids, and even then, even if they were their kids, they wouldn’t give a shit about them either because they don’t give a shit about anything or anyone except their own personal selves. The sooner Democrats realize they are not playing on the same field as these people the sooner we can retake the majority in a majority of states with relative ease. I am sick and tired of pretending that there is a moral compass for these people. There’s simply is not.

I will say that I rather pleased with the vast number of media individuals who are clearly viscerally horrified and outraged by this. At least there is some humanity dwelling beneath the prettied up exteriors of many of these folk, and other then I’m sure Fox, Newsmax, and a few others, I think the broadcast and print journalists have done a very credible job of being appropriately emotional given the pure unadulterated horror of the circumstance.

As a coda, I want to say this as someone who lived through the era: when we watched live television following the shooting and murder of President Kennedy, we heard people telling untruths, misinformed assumptions, watched weird things happen such as the fact that the Texas school book depository was not sealed off at all whatsoever and even bystanders in and some police were concerned about that fact… We watch this all unfold on TV live and knew that a lot of what they were feeding us was simply bullshit. Yes I know there are a fair number of you out there who are Warren Commission defenders, and good for you. But I will tell you that it was so clearly a whole bunch of ridiculousness even very shortly after assassination they said that there was a “known communist“ in the area and that they were searching for him. You know, they were flyers placed on windshields and telephone poles which were clearly placed by the right wing extremists calling for Kennedy’s removal from office by one horrifying method or another and all of a sudden the powers that be knew exactly who the one person could be who assassinated him, we knew at the time it was ridiculous and I was just a kid . But that’s how it works folks, these people lie and because of our advanced technology they calling these lies much more easily and much more quickly than they did in the old days, when we relied upon processing a film, or typed reports, or witness testimony which was always impeachable. Do you know all those people standing near the limousine who distinctly heard shots coming from the grassy knoll and saw smoke from the report of the rifle behind the fence were seeing things, but the people in the street who saw someone at the sixth floor window were considered right on the money and correct in their visualization without question. When they show the photo of the three spent cartridges neatly arranged and stated that was how they found them, my father burst out laughing saying that the ejection of cartridges in all the years he was in the army in combat never once had they lined up so perfectly. Remarkable…

So I suppose my point is that I’m used to the lies and the bullshit from people wearing badges and guns and Texas cowboy hats and you know what? I ain’t buying it now and I didn’t buy it then. These people are up to the tops of their cowboy boots in shit and all that tough guy crap was thrown out the window watching these people stand around afraid of an 18 year old with a gun which he apparently had never used before and allowed tiny children to be murdered in order to save their own precious souls. I never wanna hear this bullshit again about the thin blue line and all that crap . If they had just opened or blown that door open and five guys firing automatic weapons toward the one man standing with a semi automatic weapon, he would have been so shredded that they would need DNA to identify him. Yes there were risks to the peace officers but how many movies have we watched where the cop or spouse make some reference to the fact that this could be the last time they see them, and they could be any day anytime. Well, not for these cops because I said In another post:he who runs away lives. to run away another day. I don’t recall being so revolted about an issue in this fashion. I grew up with the manhandling and assassination of leftists and civil rights leaders and politicians and others, but that engendered anger and rage in me. This just turned my stomach.

I can visualize all the Texas LE types watching

Stallone in “Cobra” or Eastwood in any Dirty Harry film and swaggering around with lines like: “You’re the disease and I’m the cure…” and feeling real tough as though they’d take on a sociopath in a supermarket or three murdering thieves in a diner. Yeah…we ain’t gonna let you just walk out…Smith, Wesson, and me. Sure…

But in fact, these guys turned out to be like the other cops: the ones standing around waiting for Stallone, Eastwood, to show up. Of course, since these characters don’t exist in real life, the killer was allowed to stay in the classroom for God knows how long, undoubtedly killing more children until the official team showed up for work.

I’ve known a fair number of these cops up here in Philly, and they talk a great line but oh boy when something goes down they don’t move until about 200 of their fellow officers show up in body armor and with semi-automatic weapons alongside a few robots. Oh, and don’t forget the drones, because we ain’t taking no chances… they don’t make many movies about that crowd, do they? To quote Martin Riggs played by Mel Gibson: He who runs away lives to run away another day. At least I think that was from a Lethal Weapon movie….

Is Kerry Sanders a giant asshole or am I missing something?

He was just interviewing a Democratic state senator from Texas and sounded to me like he,Sanders, was a plant from the NRA. Every time the senator who of course is a gun owner and hunter, elucidated another one of his positions for reasonable gun control, Sanders spouted the NRA lines, extremely well rehearsed, and at the end he made sure to point out that the murderer was taken out by a border patrol officer who was schooled in the use of armaments of the military variety and appeared to me at least to be justifying its availability to the common man. It wasn’t in my opinion one of those interviews which ask the hard questions in order that the person can state his or her position clearly, it was a hostile interview it seems. But I could be wrong, anyone else see it and think differently?

Disturbing...

Yesterday, almost everyone in my office including another Doctor and I were sitting up front awaiting the next patient, and I casually looked down at my phone and saw an alert which stated that there had been a mass shooting in a school in Texas, with at least two children dead. My instant reaction was to say aloud, “Oh my God, another school shooting, this time in Texas. They’re saying two are dead but I’m sure it’s more, it’s always more.“

No one else looked up from what they were doing, and so I figured I’d spoken under my breath and I repeated exactly what I had said but a little louder, and one individual said “Oh that’s a shame” and went back to what she was doing. No one else reacted at all whatsoever.

I came to two realizations simultaneously: the first was that these people with whom I work possess very little in the way of altruism and I should always remember that in other contexts, and secondly that for a vast number of people, no matter how they claim to be “other-oriented” in their business or profession, they simply are not. I believe this is important because you need to know with whom you are dealing. There is no point in looking through rose colored glasses and pretending that most individuals truly care about your personal plight. I hate to be the cynical, but in my advancing age I have come to the realization that many if not most people are fundamentally selfish, despite their protest to the contrary.

And I simultaneously thought of something else: a few years before I was born a 28-year-old man named Howard Unruh in Camden, New Jersey, walked down the street and murdered I believe 13 people in a random act of violence. From the earliest age, his name was bandied about in the Philadelphia area as an anomaly, an extreme action which occurred once in a generation perhaps, and his name was synonymous with irrational behavior. As recently as my college and professional school career, his name would be used by lecturers as an example of what virtually never happens, and the worst thing that could possibly occur to an individual on the street.

We have clearly eclipsed this once in a generation Horror and apparently we are going to have “mass murder of the week” competitions. This society is devolving quickly and there are going to be many many casualties in this war upon humanity. I do not believe the facilitators will ever be held accountable , the NRA people, the legislators who refuse to address common sense gun control, or the gun manufacturers who also don’t care. Quite frankly, I think that for many people as long as it didn’t happen to them or their family it Just. Doesn’t. Matter. As long as they have their online gaming, free pornography, sports, and music, their lives are “complete and satisfactory”.

For your Saturday AM amusement: