From the San Francisco Gate:

‘Am I in the bad part of town?’ Tourists shocked by what they see on San Francisco streets

It’s something many San Franciscans see on a daily basis, outside their homes or offices and during their commutes. For better or for worse, locals are used to walking by crime scenes, have seen open injection drug use, and have witnessed mental health episodes firsthand.

But when a tourist lands at SFO, guidebook in hand, that reality can be shocking.

“Is this normal or am I in a ‘bad part of town?’ Just walked past numerous homeless off their faces, screaming and running all over the sidewalk near Twitter HQ and then a murder scene. Wife is scared to leave hotel now,” wrote an Australian Reddit user Wednesday.

Some tourist from England posted this about San Francisco on Reddit.

Recently I was in SF (stayed near Union Square) for a couple of days, and I’ve been there for a few days 4 years before that. It was an easier starting/stop off point for 2 road trips. Anyway. I honestly thought it was hell on earth.  I’d been there for probably less than a day, just wandering around the center, and already seen more than enough poverty and suffering to cause me wanting to leave desperately. 

But what was more shocking to me was the amount of homeless people and beggars, and clearly VERY mentally unstable ones at that, who wondered the streets freely. I saw many people talking to themselves, or to things that weren’t there. Even in a Macy’s, and there weren’t any police officers to help them or do anything avout it. There was a man who stood in the middle of a busy street, pulled his trousers down, and began scratching/scrubbing his clearly diseased legs. A man stood by the side of the street wearing a bright orange sleeping bag zipped up to his neck with the hood on like some kind of low budget Doctor Who alien, and a woman was begging on the street with her two CHILDREN. No police in sight.

A Canadian tourist said this.

I’ve wanted to visit SF my entire life and I finally make it here and my goddddd it’s terrifying. Anyone have any advice for a tourist aside from “don’t be such a pussy.”

San Francisco sucks, I’ve documented this before.  There is human shit and needles on the street.  Homeless everywhere.

If you park a car on a San Francisco city street, it will be broken into.

All of this lead to this story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

SF tourist industry struggles to explain street misery to horrified visitors

As president of the Handlery Union Square Hotel, part of Jon Handlery’s job is to scour travel websites to find out what tourists are telling one another about his hotel and San Francisco.

He tries to respond, thanking his customers for their patronage and acknowledging their gripes. But he’s stopped even trying to explain the No. 1 complaint: the city’s miserable street scene that’s made all the more stark against the backdrop of so much wealth and luxury.

Tiffany’s and tents. Neiman Marcus and needles. Macy’s and mental illness.

Yeah, it’s a lot of the same stuff we’ve heard elsewhere.

Then came this gem, that really explains so much of the problem.

You may ask, “Who cares what some dad from a flyover state or some businessman from another country thinks of us?”

That right there.

Why should the locals of San Francisco care about a problem them have trained themselves to ignore when the people who are frightened and disgusted are just a bunch of uncultured, knuckle dragging, flyover country rubes.  I bet they even wear Crocs and cargo shorts.

Who gives a fuck what some Dad from Nebraska thinks of San Francisco.  If Omaha is so awesome why isn’t Facebook and Google there?  Fuck him and his clean streets and non-homeless in Old Market.  We’re better than him.

Any tiny bid of sympathy I’ve had for San Francisco is gone.  Let the “big one” hit.  Hopefully it will be some sort of epic Wrath of Poseidon and Sodom and Gomorrah crossover and the tidal wave that takes out the city will wash all the filth into the sea.

In Florida, one of the chief rules of the state is “don’t offend the tourists.”  It’s right up there with “you don’t mess with the Mouse.”  You will never hear a representative of Florida say “who cares what those hicks from Iowa think about Orlando, we like it this way.”  If they do, they won’t be representing Florida for very long.  Even Florida liberals stayed away from the “don’t visit the Gunshine state” anti tourism activism.

If you are so contemptuous of normal, Middle Americans that you can’t even consider their opinions when they say “your city scares us,” then to hell with you.

Several shot, one killed at Art All Night in Trenton

Art All Night in Trenton?  That sounds like a great idea.

A 24-hour celebration that showcases local artists turned into the Wild West early Sunday morning amidst a fight inside a warehouse.

At least one person was killed and numerous others were injured in a shootout that happened at the Art All Night celebration in the Roebling Market section of the city.

Early, how early?

“When we got here around 2:30, it didn’t look like we were coming to Art All Night,” city resident Franco Roberts said.

Wow, 2:30 am.  While that is technically early in the morning, that’s smack in the middle of the ‘witching hour’ of 2:00 am to 4:00 am.  For all practical purposes, the Midnight to 6:00 am is the “nothing good happens” time of day.

“It looked like we were outside of a Philadelphia club after the bar closes and people who don’t want to leave are standing around their cars smoking and drinking.”

Smoking and drinking in a parking lot in Trenton after midnight.  This will end badly.

Roberts and his girlfriend had a feeling something bad was going to happen because there were “more people outside than in the warehouse” and no music was playing inside, he said.

I have a bad feeling just reading this.

“There’s usually a lot of noise and a lot of music but there was none of that,” Robert said. “Someone told us they were shutting down the whole building. Then we turned around and saw people squaring up to fight.”

And that’s when gunshots rang out.

“I saw two punches and then heard several gunshots,” Roberts said.

Roberts said chaos ensued as people fled from the building. He and other witnesses did not know exactly how many people were shooting, but they say it sounded as if there was more than one gunman.

“Everybody ran toward the door,” he said. “And the people fighting got mixed with the crowd that was running and they went out the door shooting.”

A stampede and a fire fight at the same time.

Officials confirmed a 33-year-old male believed to be one of the shooters died, and that at least 16 people were struck by gunfire, including a 13-year-old male who is hospitalized in extremely critical condition. Three others are hospitalized in critical condition as well. A total of 20 people were taken to the hospital to treat injuries sustained during the incident.

Those are Chicago numbers.

The Roebling Market parking lot was covered in trash, broken glass and liquor bottles Sunday as police processed the scene for evidence. Regular patrons of Art All Night say the event is usually cleaner than what was seen in the aftermath of the shooting.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” a woman who asked to remain anonymous said. “This trash is surprising. It didn’t look like this last year.”

You don’t say…

Officials say no metal detectors were used to check people for weapons before entering the historic Roebling Wire Works factory building where most of the art is showcased during the event.

That seems like a great idea.

Police sources who spoke on condition of anonymity say more than 70 shell casings were found at the scene following the shooting.

To be fair to Trenton, that may not necessarily all from that night.

“This is truly a tragedy for Trenton,” Mayor Eric Jackson said at a press conference Sunday morning after the incident. “

No it’s not, it’s a totally predictable outcome for an all night event in Trenton.

All shootings, whether large or small, are a crisis. It’s a fact that our cities, as well as our suburbs, throughout America are experiencing an increase in public shootings and public unrest. This isn’t some random act of violence; this is a public health issue. We are working cooperatively and collaboratively to end this violence in the city of Trenton.”

Dude, it’s Trenton.  Don’t blame the burbs for this.  Chicago killed over 500 people in the same year that Aurora and Naperville had zero homicides.

Look, it’s simple.  Don’t hang out drinking and smoking in parking lots at 2:30 am.  Nothing good happens after midnight.

I caught this video over at Kenny’s.

That is the inside of Lockheed AC-130 gunship.

Wikipedia will give you a big spiel about the history of the AC-130.   It maybe technically correct, but that’s not how it happened.

I work as an engineer in the defense industry.  I know engineers in the defense industry.  We are not like other engineers.  We are… different.

The setting: a large conference room in Calabasas, California.

Doug: “We need to come up with another good idea to sell to the military.  Anybody have any good ideas.”

Bob: “Lets put a cannon in a plane.”

Doug: “We already have a good heavy lift aircraft capable of hauling several artillery pieces.”

Bob: “No, I was thinking that we’d put a cannon in a plane so we can shoot at people on the ground. High altitude bombing is great and all, but you can’t really see what your’re hitting from 40,000 feet.  You might as well be flying a passenger plane.  Now a plane with a cannon in it…”

Doug: “You’re serious?”

Bob: “Yes Doug.  I want to fire a cannon out of an airplane.”

Doug: “Bob, we made the F-104 and the SR-71, we run god damn Skunk Works.  We are the world’s leader in high performance, supersonic aircraft, and you want to fire a cannon out of a plane?  No.  Next.”

Steve: “I’m with Bob.  I want to shoot a cannon out of a fucking airplane.”

Doug: “We made a plane that can go more than Mach 3.  Steve, you were on project OXCART.  We’re not dicking around with a cannon.”

Mike: “Shut the fuck up Doug.  That cannon thing sounds fucking AWESOME!”

Doug: “That sounds fucking stupid.”

Mark: “Stop being such a ‘Doug’ Doug.  Haven’t you ever looked out of the window of a plane to see the people below and though to yourself ‘fuck that guy right there… with a cannon.”

Roger: “Yeah, at 2,500 feet, people look like ants.”

Mark: “They ARE ants.  Fuck ’em… with a cannon.”

Doug: “Jesus Mark.”

Everybody but Doug: (chanting) “Cannon, cannon, cannon, cannon…”

Bob: “I got a frat brother over at Rock Island, maybe he can lend us a howitzer.”

Everybody but Doug: (still chanting) “Cannon, cannon, cannon, cannon…”

Doug: “Fuck it.  I’m going to Boeing.  I hear they want to make an upgrade to the 707.”

Mark: “And when they do, we’ll stick a cannon in that thing too.”

Doug: “Jesus Mark…” 

End Scene.

That’s how it really happened.

And the weapon used was a CS tear grenade. The reports indicate that it was launched inside a packed nightclub leading to panic, stampeded, asphyxia and other trauma.

Info is still sketchy. More as I find out.

Update: Confirmed 21 victims.

Update: It is being reported that the device used was a Triple Action Grenade
CS Smoke. According to one manufacturer they “are hand thrown devices that release three separate submunitions on discharge after thrown. The submunitions will blast apart, giving a wide area of coverage per munition. The loud bang of the separation charge assists in preventing attempts at throwing back the submunitions.”

Scholastic published a children’s book on President Trump.

It is in the Rookie Biographies collection.  That collection includes one on Obama titled Barack Obama: Groundbreaking President.  Trump’s book was called just President Donald Trump.

They also did one on Hillary Clinton.  This set covers people from Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin to Taylor Swift.

They are for kids, so they are positive to the point of being anodyne.

Well, that was too much for the Social Justice crowd.  Scholastic did published a positive book about Trump and it must be destroyed.

Scholastic Tells Children: Trump is Great

President Donald Trump is anything but neutral. The book outlines Trump’s personal and professional life with a celebratory tone. It omits facts, glosses over context, and ignores opposing perspectives.

Our concern with the text is not the accuracy of the statements and events included, but rather with the extensive omissions that undermine a truthful, nuanced, and informative account. These partial truths construct a false narrative. Scrubbing away any trace of complexity or nuance from an account about an elected official stunts the quintessential democratic freedom and responsibility of questioning and critiquing those in positions of power. We find this book to be dangerous from a democratic standpoint.

Oh no, the book is dangerous because it doesn’t contain a #Resist approved rebuttal.

“[Trump] was an unusual choice because he had no experience in politics. Some people liked him because he was an outsider who was new to working in the government. Trump ran against Hillary Clinton. She had a lot more experience in politics.”

Yes, this is all true. However, there is no reference to the substance of Trump’s campaign, to the nativist, racist rhetoric of “Make America Great Again.” Perhaps words like Islamophobia, xenophobia, and misogyny are too complicated for first and second graders, but the concepts of exclusion and unfair treatment are certainly within reach.

Notably, according to The New York Times, when Mattern wrote another children’s book on Trump for a different publisher, Running Press Kids, she was given discretion to include relevant topics and chose to write a section on Trump’s proposal for a Muslim ban. She justified her decision by saying “This is a big part of Trump’s policies and a big reason he was elected. You couldn’t leave it out.” Therefore, the omission of the Muslim ban and other derogatory and inflammatory statements in the Scholastic book is even more glaring.

The only good children’s books about Trump are the ones that blame his election on America being a racist, Islamophobic nation.

First and second graders are at an age when their perspectives about social change and citizenship begin forming. In presenting a simplified, positive narrative Mattern fails to expose young readers to critical thinking practices.

You have to brainwash them in 1st or 2nd grade to really make it stick.

Furthermore, the book not only fails to visually feature people of color or those with other marginalized identities who were attacked and denigrated by Trump during the campaign, but also effectively silences their voices by repeatedly excluding their narratives and perspectives from the text.

Any book about Trump must heavily feature anti-Trumpers.

Our children deserve access to resources that equip them to develop democratic values, to think critically, and to examine their world in a truthful way. We hope that future biographies lean away from simplified and celebratory narratives and instead embrace truth, nuance, and complexity.

You mean like the book Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls Are Born to Lead.

That’s nothing but objective and factual information right there.  It doesn’t sound like “simplified and celebratory narratives.” Nope, not propaganda at all.

You know that means right?  Time to ban the Trump book.

As long as they are all books that are not critical of Trump, this is more than justified.