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.

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….

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?

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”.

A gunman shot three women and two men near Temple University Wednesday night.

The five victims were on the 1500 block of North Bouvier Street at 7:25 p.m. when a gunman opened fire.

All five victims were taken to Temple University Hospital in critical condition.


No arrests have been made. The area where the shooting occurred is near Temple University's campus.



https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/gunman-shoots-3-women-2-men-near-temple-university/3244128/

I’m sorry….it’s like watching the 7:30 PM NFL coverage on Sundays in season. All these exclamations of the results made with assurances post facto. Just brilliant analysis.

Barely a mention is made of the poorly interpreted “trending candidacies” from just a day ago. I recall many years ago I heard an analysis of the coverage post-election night of the Truman-Dewey election. Apparently for hours, the NBC newsman was stating that although Truman was ahead, when the “rural precincts” reported, Dewey would prevail. I remember laughing out loud when the commentator said, in the 1990’s, they were STILL waiting for those precincts to report.

I’ve been watching this all day on three networks (never FOX of course) and you would think that the results last night were predicted by the incredible insight and intellect of the commentators on each of the networks. It reminds me of when in 1985 Villanova upset Georgetown and almost unbelievably, in the rebroadcast, CBS deleted Brent Musburger’s vilification of Villanova’s chances during the pregame show. I know this because I taped both broadcasts.

My point is, belabored though it may be, that the networks seem to now cover politics as they cover sports: they attempt to appeal to the rivalry/contest and then after the game/election is decided, refuse to acknowledge that they were…wel….WRONG about so much.

due to the intense dislike of the individual in question, but grant me a moment:

The presence of Dick Cheney standing next to his daughter on that day in Congress with virtually no other republicans present was a signal. The signal in my opinion was from the establishment oligarchy of the USA to the powers that be in the Congressional world and elsewhere that corporate fascism is fine and dandy but we are not going to counsel the tear down of the Constitutional Democracy in order to enrich a very few while it would inevitably damage the fortunes of many of the extremely wealthy. It reminded me of the scene in The Godfather Part 2 when Michael imports the brother of the man who is going to testify against Michael and it sends a signal that this isn’t going to happen.

There are many levels of pursuance ongoing. We only see a very few.

Jim and Artie, in their roles as Secret Service Agents, foil a plot by a sitting Senator to take over the federal government because he and his followers say that President Grant’s Administration is illegitimate.

Hmmm. Where have I heard this before?

By way of explanation I have recently moved to the New Jersey shore but continue to work in Pennsylvania, and after approximately 70 years think I have some feel for the Commonwealth.

See, I knew that Dr.Oz wasn’t going anywhere in this race because he isn’t from here and he’s a “furrinner”. People do not realize that you have to be a Pennsylvanian to have any hope of winning statewide office in Pennsylvania. We are a very parochial state, and I have an interesting story to prove that fact, at least anecdotally. When I was a young dentist starting out I opened in center city Philadelphia and when asked, told everyone that I was a Philadelphian and this was essentially the whole truth: my family was from here, I was born here, and although we moved to the suburbs we used Philadelphia for every resource including food shopping with few exceptions. The northeast suburbs in the 50s and early 60s were barren so you had no other choice. My mother drove me into town every Saturday for years for my music lessons and we ate at Horn and Hardart’s, Linton’s and Day’s Delicatessen. I am a diehard Eagles, Phillies, 76ers fan and have followed the teams since I was a tiny child. I love cheesesteaks, pretzels, and Tastykakes . Now my practice in the beginning was largely geriatric, but fairly well to do, and when these ladies and gentlemen would ask me where I was from and I would reply that I was from Philadelphia, they would start asking me questions to prove my bona fides. I cannot tell you the number of times I had to convince people that I was a true Philadelphian before they would accept me as a non-transplant. And by the way, this was not a trivial exercise. I actually lost a few people in the early going because they were not certain as to my credentials as a young practitioner even though I was on faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. There was an inherent distrust, especially of New Yorkers. This of course has changed over the decades, but let me tell you, it was not insignificant.

When Dick Thornburgh ran for senator against Harris Wofford the national media interpreted Thornburgh’s loss as a mandate for healthcare, which was a Wofford strong suit. The reason Thornburgh actually lost is that after he became Attorney General he preferred hanging out in the Duquesne club in Pittsburgh and with all the national hotshots rather than pay homage to the Pennsylvania republican crowd and quite frankly Democratic as well political parties and he was then seen as an outsider, whereas Wofford was a invested homegrown college president who seemed as though he had the best interests of the people of the state in mind.

So when Dr. Oz showed up I just burst out laughing and said that his candidacy was worthless here because the Republicans , and there are many very “aware” Republicans left over from the old days, had no interest in this carpet bagger lying fake phony doctor. But I will tell you one thing, when Fetterman was elected to lieutenant governor eight years ago I knew he had a tremendous future in Pennsylvania politics. This state is a combination as many have written of Appalachia and Philadelphia/Pittsburgh and their environs. Fetterman absolutely has the appeal to the rural folk: he’s a big guy, looks tough, reminds everyone of the guy you do not want to tangle with the bar, has a very pretty wife, speaks to the needs of the people as individuals (which is something the Democrats really need to learn how to do again), and is resolute in his determination to win. And I believe he is going to win and flip the seat and may well be a senator for a very long time if he so chooses to be. He will have tremendous national appeal and possibly for the first time since Senator Hugh Scott, Pennsylvania will have someone who is taken seriously on a national level by individuals of both parties whether out of fear or out of respect.

Underestimating him is a giant mistake and I think the race in the general election will not even be close. I would also add the Joshua Shapiro also has what it takes to win , he’s a different version of Adam Schiff with an authoritative and authoritarian aspect of speaking which is advantageous in running for the governor of this particular commonwealth. It worked for Rendell and I believe it will work for Shapiro. Pennsylvania on election night is going to be the “surprise“ of the night followed by all the other surprises of the night and possibly a big Democratic victory which will leave all the pundits gasping for air.

From my lips to…..