Oddly – because we thought uncles Lou, Mike and Joe had settled this problem once and for all back in ’43 and ’44 – we started hearing of men in quasi-matching attire bedecked with swastikas giving the hated Nazi salute to passing motorists on overpasses in Contra Costa Wednesday.
They unfurled a sheet with some of the same old words and a dot com address and appeared to be filming people reacting to them – so our tipsters said. They were on Grant Street in Concord at one point Wednesday and later on N. Main in Walnut Creek. Savvy readers who happen to disagree with everything they stand for watched – in some disbelief – as the group of CoCoCounty Red Shirts eventually disbanded and rough-stepped it over to a local Taco Bell for a post-putsch Chalupa Supreme.
Didn’t exactly seem to sync with the Ubermenschen ideation of the Glory Days before the world woke up and reduced an entire country to rubble but there you are. Some folks were asleep in history class, apparently.
There were interesting – and just as odd – happenings elsewhere in the county in recent days:
Under Pressure
Our hard-working first responders received a semi-panicked call from a motorist on I680 who had pulled off the highway after being incapacitated by a case of acute testicular pressure. We can only imagine the shared looks among those called on to deal with such scenarios before the medical wagons rolled and the call eventually came back: “Pressure relieved.”
We don’t know who the medic was who dealt with that one but they ought to give him or her a medal.
Information, Please
Also in this past week was the case of a frustrated caller requesting help from a harried Walnut Creek police dispatcher who – no matter how hard they tried – could not draw the requisite location information out of the increasingly frustrated caller.
Dispatch attempted to get the caller to pinpoint her position by looking around and describing various streets and buildings in her immediate area but to no avail as nothing seemed to match up. Eventually, with some patience and the use of some available maps, it was determined the person had mistakenly called Walnut Creek police from the city of Walnut, Calif. – which is near Los Angeles.
What Would Marty McFly Do?
It was Back to School Week in much of the county and, as expected, the young’uns among us didn’t disappoint as a flurry of First Day fights, black-top bone-snappers, reports of fire and other assorted incidents kept everyone busy and parents sweating.
Among the many, more mundane calls for service was one requesting help for a juvenile who had somehow managed to get their finger stuck in a hoverboard in Concord. We’re not exactly sure how that one was resolved but we would hope application of some soapy mixture did the trick ’cause, if not, the kid would have had a hard time explaining the hoverboard attached to his arm at dinner that night.
And that’s it for this week’s edition of – The X Files.
As Jake Elwood once said “I hate California Nazi’s”.
Firestone 11R
Well, OK. But some have said. One has said. One current candidate for the presidency has said, aloud and recorded: There are: “Some very fine people on BOTH sides.” of the issue of celebrating the Lost Cause for slavery and apparently the Third Reich as well since “Jews will not replace us” was also a popular refrain that night. So, per this candidate, not all Nazis are bad? Just misunderstood. Thank goodness there is a candidate to speak up for them (I say in jest).
Thanks for your calm measured reporting and commentary on this and other issues. You’re definitely a local treasure.
Appreciate your kind words. Thanks for reading us…
Is this the group that got itself arrested after pulling this bullshit at Auschwitz a couple of years back?
Asshats.
Proud son of Marin County.
Good one. Nazis are begging for a beat down.
When the former President mentioned “there are fine people on both sides” he was referencing the issue of removing Civil War statues. It had nothing to do with Nazis. This issue has been long clarified although the current President continues to bring it up.
In context, we believe the comments were delivered after the lethal melee in Charlottesville, and were directed at people on both sides of that demonstration, saying that counter-protesters deserved an equal amount of blame for the violence:
“What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?”
“I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me.”
“You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white
nationalists. The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”
“You also had some very fine people on both sides.”
My whole problem is that a lot of people seem to think Trump is a racist and/or Nazi. Nothing in his past indicates any such thing and I have been following him for over 40 years. Remember, Trump was hugely popular with both sides UNTIL he ran for President.
Again, we would argue the point that TFG was “hugely popular” prior to his presidential bid but we’ll defer to others…
Donald and his father Fred were never convicted for racism or Nazism!! Convicted of fraud? Why, yes! Liable for sexual assault? Why, yes! Running a fraudulent “university”? Oh, yeah! Running a fraudulent charity? Oh, yeah! Arrested at a KKK rally in 1927, why yes, Fred was.
Charged by the Nixon DOJ for refusing to even show their rentals to black people? Never proven!! Settled with agreement to say they should follow the law. TOTAL VINDICATION.
Some people say…lol…Some people say you don’t need any damn policy positions if you’ve got conviction. Well, Lordy, Lordy we know, there is a surfeit of convictions in this contest! Vote for the candidate of convictions!