October 29, 2015

And to think I thought I despised Goldwater

I had no idea what hate was. I can't decide whom I hate more in this debate. I do recall a spirited dorm room discussion in the 70's about who was the worst Nazi in WWII. I would get the old gang together but half of them are Rethugs now that they made a few bucks.

September 27, 2015

Speaking from Center City Philadelphia:

This has been a remarkable time here...it's easiest if I sum it up point by point.

1. The tenor of the place, of the visitors and the remaining residents has been fantastic: warm, friendly, exciting. I've been in town - moved in with my kid for five days to be able to get to my dental practice - and the spirit is great.

2. Which leads me to my second point: they scared everyone who lived here into leaving town because of the pending hordes of millions of people descending upon the City. People who remained stocked up on food, medications, emergency supplies, etc. all for absolutely no reason. Many stores closed...again for absolutely no reason. I'm talking about stores outside the red zone as they call it...yes we have a Red Zone and a Black Zone.

3. We have barricades all over the place: concrete barricades placed so there is no chance of vehicular disruption. This of course makes sense. We have the National Guard stationed at every corner for a huge perimeter. We have huge security checkpoints manned by nundreds of Federal Police and TSA. We have shut down the major artery, the Schuylkill Expressway all the way from the Northeast to the airport. We have literally hundreds and hundreds of emergency vehicles moving at all hours of the day and night: convoys of vehicles with flashing lights moving at very high speed on the otherwise deserted roads. The area around where the Pope is staying is like an armed fortress - it is a real show of strength from the Federal Government the likes of which I have never witnessed. There must be two thousand vehicles here with Virginia, D.C., and Maryland plates, and these people are not fooling around.

4. People are enjoying themselves. We went out last night to a very popular restaurant and bar and were among the few people in the place which normally would be overflowing. We walked around the streets and it was a real party atmosphere but sober and controlled. Tell you one thing: it was certainly a safe night to be out.

5. Hopefully Sunday will continue to be a safe and exciting event for the participants.

September 23, 2015

From the City of Brotherly Love and Martial Law I post on this Yom Kippur...

I do not believe that in the history of the United States has a major metropolitan area been so remarkably cordoned off it has been here in Philadelphia. They are not only placing high fencing in a lengthy perimeter around the Center City region, but major arterial highways are going to be closed for long stretches of time. Unless you live here you cannot imagine the extent of the disruption to literally millions of residents and thousands of businesses. I am slack-jawed at the measures which they have taken and are going to take. The preparations for security for this event have been unceasing since the announcement: thousands of personnel, cables, radiation detectors, cameras, and electronic gear which looks like George Lucas designed them for the new Star Wars film. The logistics for each of us who have to be in Center City for the next five days is staggering: the rules for walking, driving, parking, opening ones business, going to restaurants, etc. are complex beyond comprehension and changing by the moment.

This I believe is unprecedented. I wonder at the reasoning and have several hypotheses, none of which are positive.

August 9, 2015

A couple thoughts about Mr. Trump:

I was thinking this morning that Mr. Trump differs from many of the billionaires who became prominent in the tech boom era. Gates, Jobs, and others were creators of devices, of software to run those devices, of distribution companies to distribute books, computers, other hardware, and then everything else which is now available over the Intertubes.

But Donald Trump differs from these people in several ways, the most important of which is that he and his minions made him the face of wealth back in the Eighties and his wealth was from business dealings with which we were familiar with the merger and acquisition outcomes which plastered his name all over the east coast. If you think back to an emerging Atlantic City with his name in three prominent locations early on, Trump Tower in New York, the gigantic yacht moored in Florida, his presence on television and radio, you might recall that he was the face of pure capitalism back when St. Ronnie's minions were directing the show and paving the way for the Bush cabal.

Trump makes deals, earns money for himself, loses other peoples' money, is grandiose and ego-driven. He is perfect for his role: he married three beautiful women in a row, made the first two into celebrities whose names were on everyone's lips for decades, rivaling the Fisher, Reynolds, Burton, and Taylor era. This guy was the ultimate 'success' story in America.

And now he in his all-too-bare exhibitionism, threatens to torpedo the phony establishment which professes to be the Party of Business. Well, Party of Business, you have the ultimate example of alpha business malodor: coarse, crude, successful financially, successful sexually, with virtually 100% name recognition throughout the United States. He is the caricature of success and you cannot deal with the real thing. You professed to say that this was the definition of success and now you get to chew on it. And the rest of us may well have to as well, before this is over.

July 30, 2015

It happened again!!

MSNBC just did a piece on Trump from Scotland. The reporter on site had a smile plastered across her face from start to finish. The body language is uncanny: whenever Trump is a subject it's as though they're talking about Chris Rock or Louis C.K. This is all a joke. We shall see how funny this is a year from now.

July 29, 2015

Fucking dentist: as tho I didn't have enough problems

Three people came in today and jokingly asked whether I kill lions in my spare time. Har de har har.

This murderer...what manner of person goes and shoots a lion?? A miscreant.

In addition, Chaka Fattah is my Congressman. Great day all the way around.

July 26, 2015

Anyone else notice this with respect to coverage/commentary of Trumpzilla's candidacy?

There seems to be a choreographed set piece on the cable news channels which goes somewhat consistently like this:

No matter what the lead-in story is, whether it be flood, famine, or pestilence, the Anchor develops a smile on his or her face which we used to characterize as a shit-eating grin. He or she then introduces two or more "panelists", who are generally "consultants" and fit this pattern: one is a serious-looking professional politico associated with some Institute or another, always a Republican sounding one which contains words like Freedom, Independence, or Original Intent. This individual also has a phony smile etched onto the face. The second "guest" is often a lesser-light, such as CNN's Brian somebody whom they identify (oxymoronically) as a Republican Comedian, or some such moniker. He also has a smile which persists for the entire interview. If a female is involved she's smiling with the little lines around the eyes made prominent by the makeup shoveled onto all of these people. All of them are shown simultaneously all with the same smile.

And then the interview begins concerning Mr. Trump. The specifics are irrelevant: the important point is that none of them have any substantive reason as to why the candidate's popularity is not going to be helpful, stating all kinds of platitudes which are wholly nonsensical. For example, this afternoon on CNN once of these Joker-esque characters was saying that the next President was going to have to deal with all kinds of bad guys and so therefore who in their right mind would vote for Trump? As though all of the other candidates from Jeb to Carly have wide-ranging expertise and a positive track record in this regard. The implication is that they are all more qualified than Trump. That is not going to convince anyone to the Right that he's not their Man...they know better: if any of these clowns had a real political persona, he or she'd be leading the field by 40 points. But none of them are competent to even tie their own shoes. The interviews continue in the same vein with absolutely no true analysis of the voting blocks in key states, but just one riff after another on why Trump is a strikeout king waiting to swing at that high and outside pitch. When asked occasionally why his numbers just keep going up, they all say, well, so FAR, but it's early yet. Well, YES, it IS early, and their favorite sons ain't doing too well, most of them having popularity in single digits, and Trump's incredibly funny scathing remark about Lindsay Graham being on TV every week for 20 years and having a zero percent popularity is achingly true. None of these are viable, really with a RW electorate, except for Trump. It's absolutely BRILLIANT on his part, and I'll also state that if I were Trump, with a narcissistic personality disorder, virtually 100% name recognition and between 5 and 10 billion dollars, I'd run for President as well.

The MSM created this guy decades ago and he's been waiting in the wings. This may be the perfect time for him and the frozen smiles on the faces of the so-called Press and its minions are emblematic of getting busted with a trunkful of drugs. Personally, I can't stand the guy but it does not surprise me in the least that he's this popular at this stage and he's already been outrageous by Republican standards so he could cruise from now on. At the debate, they won't have the guts not to shake his hand which is a tacit acceptance that he has already defeated most of them. Refusal to shake his hand will detract from whatever (idiotic) platform that candidate has chosen to run on...some form of the Three G's no doubt.

If I weren't so nervous about his chances long-term, I'd be having a lot of fun now. Anyone who sells this guy short is asking to lose, and lose ignominiously. He's beaten the odds before and this may well be the Perfect Storm.

July 22, 2015

This made me vomit faster than a comet...

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150723_Lincoln_prof_blasts__dirty_Jewish__thugs___homo__uprising___sluts_.html

A long-time Lincoln University professor drew ire from Pennsylvania officials in 2010 when he called for the destruction of Israel and questioned whether the Holocaust ever happened.

But Kaukab Siddique, a 72-year-old associate professor of English, kept his job. Now he's mouthing off again.

"Don't be scared of these dirty Jewish Zionist White Supremacist thugs," he wrote in a Facebook post in May.

Earlier this month he wondered why it took Bill Cosby's accusers so long to come forward. Is it because: "Many women are sluts."


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150723_Lincoln_prof_blasts__dirty_Jewish__thugs___homo__uprising___sluts_.html#5R8Mflr6SLPx9jFa.99

July 20, 2015

This Trump/McCain business reminds me of something I posted many years ago

I can't stop thinking about an incident many many years ago in my practice which amazed me. I had posted on it way after the fact to prove a point but it bears repeating now methinks.

I had this guy, now deceased, who was a white guy, about 6'5", a Philadelphian by birth, who had at one time been a chef at one of the fancy Country Clubs on the Main Line. He was an Air Force veteran of low rank, had been on a first-name basis with his hero Barry Goldwater, and was as politically conservative an individual whom I've ever had the (dis)pleasure of consistently having to deal with in my life.

He was a practiced racist, bigot, and hater of all things foreign. He had failed at many good jobs because he could not work...rather WOULD not work with people, as he would call them, "of the black persuasion". His employment arc plummeted over the years and in his last job he was a school bus driver for the School District of Philadelphia and a telephone reservation individual for Amtrak. He let everyone know how much he despised people of color, leftists, foreign nationals, well, everyone to the left of George Wallace, who he thought, had not gone far enough and was a "chickenshit" especially at the end when he "renounced" his beliefs.

To my point: one day, McCain was in the news when he was running against Junior Bush. It might have been around the time that Rove and his minions were saying horrible things about McCain's family. This guy said to me, and I'm paraphrasing but not by much, "That scum McCain is no hero: he violated the Code of Military Conduct on multiple occasions and should have been court-martialed and shot. But they wouldn't do that because of his family history." So I asked him, "How did he violate it?" He replied, first, his duty when offered release was to go back immediately and report on the conditions of the POW camp and of the men held there. Second, he didn't withstand any torture: he just told them everything he knew right away."

Now I'm no fan of McCain AT ALL, but I said, "Hey, he didn't leave the men because perhaps he knew that his connection to top brass might help save their lives. And I'd start talking as would you immediately once they started on my fingernails or skin or whatever." He told me that was all bullshit and called him a "Traitor to the Flag and to the Service".

The hatred was palpable: this guy didn't talk about President Clinton with that venom. and that's when I realized how much hate these people carry around with them all the time. Frightening.

July 19, 2015

Well this is horrible...

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Dannys_adult_bookstore_worker_shot_in_Center_City.html


An adult bookstore employee was shot early Saturday by a man reportedly dissatisfied with the shop's offerings.

The incident touched off about 3:38 a.m. inside Danny's Midnight Confessions at 133 S. 13th St. in Center City.

A man walked in, looked around, and made "a negative remark" about the gay merchandise for sale, police said.

He exited but soon returned, inquiring about straight adult entertainment.As an employee was directing him toward some DVDs he'd requested, the man pulled out a silver revolver, and a struggle ensued, police said.
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Unusual in Center City....

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Dannys_adult_bookstore_worker_shot_in_Center_City.html#qBUwIhYkIkFJ8x28.99