Erica DeVries Fights Back

There is a seat in the New Hampshire state House of Representatives which is shared by the towns of Seabrook and Hampton New Hampshire. 

 

It is currently held by a Republican named Max Abramson who has introduced/supported legislation for New Hampshire to secede from the Union, to outlaw the teaching in public schools any mention of information which might cause white students to be ashamed of America's past (e.g. slavery) among other gems. 

Two other Republicans are challenging him in a Republican primary, a crowded field for these parts.

Mark Preston, a former Seabrook policeman whose most notable recent accomplishment has been an arrest for a driving while intoxicated incident, during which he reportedly upbraided the arresting officer for not honoring the blue code of conduct which would require he allow Preston to drive away unmolested, because Preston is a former police officer.

SEABROOK — Retired. Resigned. Some may call it semantics but the union representative of Sgt. Mark Preston wants it to be clear that the veteran Seabrook police officer of 30 years did not resign from his post.

"Sgt. Preston did not resign," said Steve Arnold, of the N.H. Police Benevolent Association. "He's retiring after 31 tears of service to the Seabrook Police Department."

His comments came after Town Manager Barry Brenner and Police Chief Patrick Manthorn issued a joint press release last week stating that Preston resigned following his July 31 drunken driving arrest in Salisbury Beach, Mass.

Police said Preston allegedly slammed into a parked car and swore at Salisbury officers for going against the "brotherhood" by not letting him go free.

Arnold said he was "bewildered" when he first heard about the press release because it's not true.

Mr. Preston has not shown up to answer questions about his candidacy at the local Hampton Democrats meetings.

If elected, Mr. Preston would have to vote in the New Hampshire House of Reps on bills to make abortion a crime, defining life as beginning at conception, allowing legislators to carry guns in the State House. How would he vote on these bills? He has not seen fit to comment for the Dems.

Looking for answers to these and other questions, Mad Dog has obtained access to Mr. Preston's Facebook page and there a picture of the man emerges in technicolor. 

In case you missed it the 1st time

Mr. Preston reportedly believes he will win the  joint seat (called the "Floterial") because the name "Preston" is famous in Hampton.  But as it looks to Mad Dog, he simply didn't want to be one of 4 candidates in the Republican primary when he could be one of two in the Democratic primary.

Alcohol Abuse as a Campaign Promise

The first thing to strike Mad Dog, one of the most recent postings was a little ditty which runs: "I hate when people ask me what I do for fun because there's no classy way to say, 'Binge Drinking.'" This is followed by a slew of responses from Mr. Preston's Facebook buddies who clearly think this is the height of humor, but, given that DWI incident, it made Mad Dog wonder.

Women As Temptresses

Then there is a photo of a woman's rear end and her face can be seen leering back at you with a provocative smile, and there is an arrow to hit to see what more might be in store, and an image of Jesus pops up saying, "I'm so disappointed in you!" As if Jesus did not much like Mary Magdalene. Apparently, Mr. Preston sees women as temptresses. He may not be alone in that, but it hardly augers well for a man who will have to vote on abortion rights in the state House of Representatives. 

Apparently, Mr. Preston was not happily married. Mad Dog infers this from a posting which announces: "Marriage: Because your shitty day doesn't have to end at work. Fuck Sensitivity."

No Proud Boy could have said it better.

Another post:  A notice on a US Postal Service card: "Please trim your bush so I can better service your box."

Presumably, this is from a male letter carrier to a female citizen, and why Mr. Preston would get this Mad Dog is still trying to figure out.

A photo of the hood of a car with the imprint of a woman's body, apparently left after having had sex on it. 

Good Ol' Boy from the Good Ol' Days

Mad Dog knew a fair number of Mark Preston's in high school and he always wondered what had become of them. Apparently, some may have had careers, perhaps shortened by alcohol fueled misadventures and they may have wound up running for public office. 

Mr. Preston certainly would compete for votes with Max Abramson: they both share felony convictions, and presumably the disaffected crowd would have a hard choice facing them. Preston thinks he knows his base in Seabrook well, if his Facebook posts are any indication, and as for Hampton, well, his name is Preston after all. As long as Hampton women don't know anything more about him than his name, he should be a shoo in.

The Seacoast View of Women

We do have a better choice in Hampton. 

Erica DeVries

Erica's Soulmate

Ectopic Pregnancy and Abortion Bans

Bills in state legislatures in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Missouri are not yet laws, but now that the question of abortion law is in the state legislatures, it is anyone's guess which legislatures and which governors will finally take that leap into the ultimate save-the-fetus oblivion.

It took some Googling to finally discern that despite impassioned arguments from Right to Life advocates in these states, no law has yet actually been signed into law, although it may only be a matter of time.

Of course, part of the problem is state legislators are often no better educated than Lauren Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene, and when you attach the word "pregnancy" to anything, they want to save it.

An ectopic pregnancy is, of course, not really a pregnancy, if you define pregnancy as the product of conception which would, if left alone, grow into a baby and be delivered as a live child.

An actual pregnancy, which has any  chance of surviving long enough to be developed enough to be delivered and possibly survive, is different from a conceptus which will grow inside the fallopian tube for a few weeks to months until it grows big enough to pop that balloon and rupture, resulting in the end of its growth and the exsanguination of the mother--exsanguinate, as in, "bleed to death." And of course, no living mother, no living "baby."

The fallopian tube is not a uterus and cannot contain, support or tolerate a fetus growing in it for long, and it explodes, like an internal hand grenade, with just as devastating results for the woman in whom it is growing.  A "ruptured ectopic" is a medical emergency and virtually 100% of the time results in the death of the mother and, if you believe the fetus is even alive at that time, the death of the fetus. 

Every medical student learns this. 

Not every legislator, apparently, learns this.

When presented with this information legislators in Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas have replied, "Oh, then, it's God's will." 

It is a revelation of the mind of the Right to Life extremist that he or she is willing to see a woman die rather than deviate from the belief that the "life" of the "child" must be preserved at all costs. 

The absolutist has to be consistent. And if you value "life," well then, you must value ALL life, including that thing, that conceptus, that thing you might call a fetus or a child, which is growing in a spot which is like a baby crawling across an eight lane freeway at rush hour--it's just not going to make it. 

But you have staked out the position that you will protect that baby no matter what, even if it means diverting all the traffic in both directions into Lake Pontchartrain. That baby cannot be sacrificed. The mother's life can be sacrificed, and with it, of course, any chance that growing mass of cells you are calling a baby will be lost, but you will not have taken any action to end the development of that conceptus. 

You have remained consistent. You will not intervene in that doomed slow motion train wreck.

Well, Justice Alito wanted the voters in state legislatures to decide questions of abortion, and now we've got that.

Down the Rabbit Hole with Wokeness

Mad Dog just got an urgent email from the head of the local Democratic Party club exhorting him to show up at Winnacunnet High School to support a group called "Seacoast Upright" which has, apparently, evinced an outraged protest from local parents concerning the "training" this group provides Winnacunnet  faculty regarding LGBT students in an effort to make them feel they have a "safe space" at school, where all faculty and students are sensitive to their needs as gender conflicted students.

Some parents of straight students have organized to object to this organization from imposing its "political" views on the public schools.

From the email, it is difficult to fathom what is really going on, but Mad Dog is going to take a wild guess that some organization of concerned citizens, eager to make gay or transgender students feel welcomed and not hated at school has, over the years,  been "teaching" teachers how to accomplish this task. Now, Mad Dog is betting, some parents have decided this organization is "advocating" for the "gay lifestyle" or something to that effect and the local Dems are rallying to the side of Seacoast Upright to show this is not at all political but simply an affirmation of treating all students, no matter what their sexual orientation or preferences, with respect and kidnness.

Of course, the very fact that it is the Democratic party rallying to this cause undermines the argument that this effort by Upright is apolitical.

Now, Mad Dog is all for treating everyone with respect and of not demeaning or harassing people on account of their sexual preferences, but really, what is this sensitivity training, actually?  Would you not like to know exactly what teachers are being "trained" to do and say?

Does this include a demand, for example for teachers to use the "proper pronouns" for transgender or gender fluid students?

When it comes to pronouns, Mad Dog is not on board. Mad Dog firmly believes we should speak the Queen's English or American English or standard English and a singular individual should never be referred to as "they" and that in doing this the left opens itself to devastating and deserved punches from the Right as being disabled by  "wokeness."

As Democrats we run a risk of splintering as a party over "cultural" issues.  The Republicans have been adroit at finding issues to divide the nation, but now they have found an issue to divide their opposition: namely the extreme requirement that all of us change the way we speak English, the way we use pronouns to accommodate a tiny minority of folks who feel "unsafe" because we refuse to refer to a single person as a "they."  Of course, it goes beyond that to how we feel about gender fluidity and beyond.

None of this is entirely new: During the Weimar Republic the avant garde in the Berlin cafes played with gender fluidity, transvestites, homosexuals in ways which scandalized the volk, the rural folks and Hitler and his boys jumped all over this to insist on a hypermasculine  party which it tied to militarism, law and order and  nationalism. 

American Democrats are at risk for following the German proponents of democracy down that rabbit hole, in pursuit of tolerance in a headlong rush toward oblivion.

Mark Preston v Erica DeVries: America in Microcosum

 

There is a seat in the New Hampshire state House of Representatives which is shared by the towns of Seabrook and Hampton New Hampshire. 

It is currently held by a Republican named Max Abramson who has introduced/supported legislation for New Hampshire to secede from the Union, to outlaw the teaching in public schools any mention of information which might cause white students to be ashamed of America's past (e.g. slavery) among other gems. 

Two other Republicans are challenging him in a Republican primary, a crowded field for these parts.

Mark Preston, a former Seabrook policeman whose most notable recent accomplishment has been an arrest for a driving while intoxicated incident, during which he reportedly upbraided the arresting officer for not honoring the blue code of conduct which would require he allow Preston to drive away unmolested, because Preston is a former police officer.

SEABROOK — Retired. Resigned. Some may call it semantics but the union representative of Sgt. Mark Preston wants it to be clear that the veteran Seabrook police officer of 30 years did not resign from his post.

"Sgt. Preston did not resign," said Steve Arnold, of the N.H. Police Benevolent Association. "He's retiring after 31 tears of service to the Seabrook Police Department."

His comments came after Town Manager Barry Brenner and Police Chief Patrick Manthorn issued a joint press release last week stating that Preston resigned following his July 31 drunken driving arrest in Salisbury Beach, Mass.

Police said Preston allegedly slammed into a parked car and swore at Salisbury officers for going against the "brotherhood" by not letting him go free.

Arnold said he was "bewildered" when he first heard about the press release because it's not true.

Mr. Preston has not shown up to answer questions about his candidacy at the local Hampton Democrats meetings. And the local Hampton Dems have many questions because Mr. Preston has a famous uncle, who has the town hall named after him, but he is also famous for switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party because he opposed legalizing abortions. Does Mr. Mark Preston take the same stance? Would he vote to make abortions illegal in New Hampshire? Does Mr. Preston support laws which make it legal for New Hampshire state legislators to pack guns inside the State House? Does Mr. Preston believe every citizen is entitled to an attack rifle?

Looking for answers to these and other questions, Mad Dog has obtained access to Mr. Preston's Facebook page and there a picture of the man emerges in technicolor. 

In case you missed it the 1st time

Mr. Preston reportedly told the Hampton Democratic chairman he was running for the joint seat (called the "Floterial") because he was sure to win Hampton owing to his name. But it looks to Mad Dog, he simply didn't want to be one of 4 candidates in the Republican primary when he could be one of two in the Democratic primary.

The first thing to strike Mad Dog, one of the most recent postings was a little ditty which runs: "I hate when people ask me what I do for fun because there's no classy way to say, 'Binge Drinking.'" This is followed by a slew of responses from Mr. Preston's Facebook buddies who clearly think this is the height of humor, but, given that DWI incident, it made Mad Dog wonder.

Then there is a photo of a woman's rear end and her face can be seen looking back at you with a provocative smile, and there is an arrow to hit to see what more might be in store, and an image of Jesus pops up saying, "I'm so disappointed in you!" As if Jesus did not much like Mary Magdalene. Apparently, Mr. Preston sees women as temptresses. He may not be alone in that, but it hardly augers well for a man who will have to vote on abortion rights in the state House of Representatives. 

Apparently, Mr. Preston was not happily married. Mad Dog infers this from a posting which announces: "Marriage: Because your shitty day doesn't have to end at work. Fuck Sensitivity."

The Proud Boys would be proud of that last lamentation.

Another post:  A notice on a US Postal Service card: "Please trim your bush so I can better service your box."

Presumably, this is from a male letter carrier to a female citizen, and why Mr. Preston would get this Mad Dog is still trying to figure out.

A photo of the hood of a car with the imprint of a woman's body, apparently left after having had sex on it. 

Mad Dog knew a fair number of Mark Preston's in high school and he always wondered what had become of them. Apparently, some may have had careers, perhaps shortened by alcohol fueled misadventures and they may have wound up running for public office. 

Mr. Preston certainly would compete for votes with Max Abramson: they both share felony convictions, and presumably the disaffected crowd would have a hard choice facing them.

But my favorite thing about Mr. Preston is his unstinting support for the Esker Road animal abuse crowd.  Living nearby his primary opponent, Erica DeVries is a family called  Beals. According to testimony at a recent town council meeting from the local public access channel, Mad Dog has learned that the Beals family owns goats, sheep and pigs. These animals do not remain in the Beals's backyard but are allowed to roam freely. Their favorite range seems to be a shared space called "the meadow" which backs onto around a dozen backyards in the Esker Road area.  Some of the neighbors don't much mind the sheep or the goats, but for others they are pests who devour their carefully planted hedges and gardens and flower beds, not to mention defecating wherever they please. In some cases the goats have got trapped by makeshift wire fences and were braying piteously as their legs were cut by the wire. 

Preston's Idea of Farmyard Animal

The Beals claim they love their goats and the censorious Ms. DeVries hates animals. Of course, this part of Hampton may once have been rural, seventy years ago, but now it is quite upscale and pricey (it's within walking distance of the ocean) and the neighbors testified they have seen rats heading toward the pig sty's.

The Beals have become a germinal center for all those "Live Free or Die" New Hampshire types who think the heavy hand of government has no business telling citizens what they can do, even if it means a public health menace from vermin attracting pigs. 

And what are goats doing wandering free? The Hurd Farm, the last actual farm in Hampton, has goats and sheep and pigs but they also have good fences, because, as any farmer will tell you, "We don't allow our animals to wander away. They'd get hit by cars, attacked by predators. We do have a free range for them to feed on, but it's our property and well fenced in. People who own animals ought to take care of them."

Erica DeVries

The Beals and Mr. Preston believe they are the victims here, not the goats, not the neighbors, because, after all, the Beals bottle fed those goats, who love them.

The Rockingham county judge who heard the case could see clearly what the town council could not and he ordered the animals removed to good care at the ASPCA, where they have not managed to jump any fences and where they have been given, presumably, three squares a day, although the Hampton Union has not sent out its reporter to interview the goats or their caretakers yet. 

Erica's Soulmate

Ms. DeVries had organized such a devastating case, witness by witness, that there was no surprise the Beals did not bother to show up to attempt a defense.

What REALLY worries Mad Dog is that Erica DeVries is exactly the type of intelligent, relentless, indomitable sort who should be representing Hampton in the State House--although why she would want that thankless job which pays $100 a year and requires thrice weekly drives up to Concord, is anyone's guess. (If she really wants a thankless, ill compensated line of work, she should run for US Congress, where at least they pay a real, if inadequate salary.)  

But, after 14 years in New Hampshire, Mad Dog has observed the really high quality candidate almost never wins. Tom Sherman is the only exception Mad Dog can bring to mind. But usually the rule is mediocrity or feckless wins the day in New Hampshire elections.

President Underwood, of "House of Cards" remarks early on in that series, "My people are a proud people. If you humble yourself before them, they will forgive you anything." Nobody plays the lowest common denominator better than Mr. Preston.

That does not bode well for Ms. DeVries. 

Faith, Democracy & Disbelief

 

Morality is doing what is right when you are told it is wrong; Religion is doing what you are told, when it is wrong. 

--H.L. Mencken

When you think about it, democracy is a leap of faith. 

It is a major leap of faith. 

When kings ruled the world, governance depended only on the power of the sword. The kings' henchmen came around with their horses and swords and told you how much of your harvest they were going to take. Simple formula. We have the power, you have something of value, and we will take what we wish from you.

You did not have to believe in anything much, except that they were stronger.

When the English started electing representatives to parliament, something new got introduced: votes got counted and tallied and the public got told of the results.  Maybe the first elections were not secret ballots. Maybe people lined up and stood by the representatives of their choice. 

But once the concept of "secret" ballot got introduced, tallying votes, by its secretive nature, became something you could justifiably doubt.

There is a lot about American life which more or less demands faith. I order something online: I give my credit card number and my credit card company has faith I'll pay them and I have faith the item will be sent. I order furniture, pay for it, wholly or in part, and await its delivery. I have faith the merchant will send the rug. He has faith the credit card company will pay him. The credit card company has faith I will pay them.

Oh, of course, there are legal remedies for breach of faith, but the only people who win there are the lawyers.

So we do a lot on faith, every day, in this country.

When Donald Trump won in 2016, I was sure in some part of my soul, that the big fix was in, that he had stolen the election with computers.

When he lost in 2020, Trumpists were sure of the big steal.

Now, we have Trumplings routinely running for office saying, right out of the gates, if they do not win, they will not accept the results, because, surely nobody but them can win any election. And any vote against them is by definition, fraudulent. It's all part of the "Big Steal."

Even during the Civil War, in 1864, there was an election by secret ballot. In some cases soldiers could vote from the battlefield, but some states required they return home to vote, which must have caused all sorts of problems, but they did and they gave Lincoln the election. But the vote was not dismissed as a big lie. Americans, in the midst of a Civil War, when all sorts of basic notions were questioned, accepted the results as the true reflection of the voters.

But do we have a republic any more, even now, before the midterms, if half the electorate accepts the premise that no vote is trustworthy, that the Democrats will cheat and steal any election?

Mad Dog would have to answer, tentatively, "No."

Which is to say, we have already lost our republic; we just haven't realized it yet. 

That lover who just went out the door will never come back. You think, "Oh, we've broken up before. She'll be back." But no, not this time. What we had is truly, sincerely, seriously dead.

Lincoln said the Civil War was about slavery, of course, but even beyond  that crucial issue was a more fundamental problem: the war tested whether any government "of the people, by the people, for the people" could continue to exist or would perish from the earth. 

America was the first republic since Rome.  Monarchists said people could not govern themselves, that the people needed a powerful leader to keep order and guide governance. The Civil War ended and the American Experiment seemed to have been saved. 

But, always, lurking there, were the words enshrined in the musical, "Hamilton" from King George III: "You'll be back." Which is to say, people cannot govern themselves. They'll fall to fighting amongst themselves. They'll clamor for a king eventually.

We thought he had proved King George wrong, but nothing on earth is fixed and beyond the winds of change. The 231 years of the American experiment has been a remarkable, if brief,  run, an interregnum. For 1,000 years before America there was no democracy or republic of any significance and democracies have often failed--as the Weimar Republic in Germany did. America has been the exception.

And one might argue the only reason the American republic lasted as long as it did was because it was a fake democracy, denying power to any racial group but whites, ensuring that only an upper crust of society actually had control of the economy and the political structure. It was a democracy of inequality, where the powerful subjugated the less powerful. So it was a monarchy without an anointed king. It still had a ruling class.

But now the barbarians are inside the city. They are not at the gates. They are among us. They are the losers in this inequitable society, the Sarah Palins, the resentful throngs who mob Trump rallies, the folks for whom no evidence is ever needed, only faith, only the statement: The election was stolen, no proof required. They believe they are as smart and worthy as any of the Soros class who rule them, but they have been cheated and that's why they lost the game and live in trailer parks, or have no better options than the Army or the police and most other options are a lot worse than that. 

The Republic is dead. Long live President-for-life Trump, and then, his successor, his Brutus,  DeSantis.