Despite his hospitalization for a stroke, during Stroke Awareness Month, Lt Gov. John Fetterman won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate with almost 60 percent of the vote.
He won because of an inept campaign by his main opponent. There may have been other factors restricting the vote totals of his other two opponents, such as homophobia and Islamaphobia.
John Fetterman
Fetterman’s main opponent, Congressman Conor Lamb (D-17), was widely expected to mount a strong challenge, but not so.
“It’s one of the worst campaigns I’ve ever seen run,” Democratic Party strategist Mike Mikus said in an interview in McClatchy DC.
Lamb received around 26 percent of the vote.
“Voters told the New York Times they saw Conor Lamb as another Joe Manchin,” said political commentator Krystal Ball.
So much for centrists.
State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-181), with 10 percent of the vote, was hoping to be the first Black man and first gay person to be a Pennsylvania senator.
His campaign promised to work towards abolishing the Electoral College and to establish a moratorium on new fracking sites. He often campaigned with his husband, Dr. Matthew Jordan Miller Kenyatta.
There’s a short documentary about Kenyatta’s previous election run called “Going Forward,” created by Seven Knots Productions.
In an interview after his loss, Kenyatta stated that “Allowing any one of these Republicans to become Pennsylvania’s senator will be the canary in the coal mine for democracy dying on our watch,” said Kenyatta in an interview after his loss.
Not quite a centrist.
The fourth and final candidate was Alex Khalil, a Jenkintown councilwoman and a long-time Democratic activist. She has electrical engineering and law degrees from Temple University, and a library and information technology degree from Drexel.
“We really didn’t have enough help for small businesses in this country,” she said regarding government aid during the pandemic. Another issue of concern to her is the inclusion of more job-training programs for students.
She mentions some really innovative ideas, including “the right to farm”, PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes), which would affect the endowments of colleges and universities, and funding for high-speed rail in Pennsylvania.
Ms. Khalil was hoping to be the first woman elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania, as well as the first Muslim senator. She is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants.
The grisly discovery of human remains at the bottom of Lake Mead is a grim reminder of the Southwest’s growing drought crisis. In early May, a family on a boating outing found, partially buried in Lake Mead National Recreation Area’s muddy banks, a four-decades-old skeleton of a man, a suspected homicide, stuffed into a rotted-out barrel. Skeletal remains were also discovered in May at nearby Callville Bay.
Asked if the victim might have been a mob hit, Geoff Schumacher, the vice president of exhibits and programs at Las Vegas’ Mob Museum, said: “I have a feeling that as this water continues to recede, we’re going to be finding more interesting things at the bottom of Lake Mead.” Schumacher may have been referring to the B-29 Superfortress wreckage found in 2015 in Lake Mead’s 130 feet of water; in 1948, when the bomber crashed, Lake Mead’s depth was 260 feet.
While Schumacher isn’t a climatologist, he like other Far West residents is aware of the inevitable and irreconcilable clash between too many people and dwindling natural resources, primarily water. Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States and part of a system that supplies water to at least 40 million people across seven states and northern Mexico. Today, it’s dropped to its lowest level since the Franklin Delano Roosevelt era.
As of August 22, 2021, Lake Mead was filled to just 35 percent of its capacity, and now is at 30 percent. The low water level comes at a time when 95 percent of nine Western states’ land is affected by some level of drought; 64 percent is considered extreme or worse. Shrinking capacity continues a 22-year megadrought that some experts consider the worst in 1,200 years. Megadroughts are defined as droughts that last two decades or longer, but they are not measured by their intensity.
Snowfall in the Rocky Mountains is Lake Mead’s primary water source. But Audubon Southwest’s policy director Haley Paul said, “Even when the Rocky Mountains get to near-normal levels of snowfall and overall precipitation, what we’ve seen in the last few years is below average river runoff.” Paul explained that drought and heat mean thirstier soils and plants that soak up more water before the precious commodity ever reaches rivers – a compounding domino effect that, because the West is on year 22 of an extended megadrought, will take 22 wet winters to climb out of the hole.
An underreported variable in Lake Mead’s water levels is the population explosion – not an exaggerated expression – in California, Arizona and Nevada. In 1950, the population of Arizona, California and Nevada were, respectively, 750,000, 10 million and 158,000. Today, Arizona, California and Nevada have 7.6 million, 39.7 million and 3.2 million residents. Their principal cities, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Las Vegas have, over the same 70-year period, grown from 221,000 to 4.7 million, from 2 millionto 12.5 million and from 35,000 to 2.8 million. Taken alone, the three states in the aggregate have about 40 million more people since 1950 bathing in, cooking with and drinking water. Housing complexes, luxury hotels, golf courses and mega-mansions are major water devourers.
No end is in sight to irresponsible water usage. The best California Gov. Gavin Newsom has come up with is a tepid, ignored suggestion that his constituents voluntarily limit everyday water consumption. The State Water Resources Conservation Board said that per-capita urban water usage rose 7 percent in March compared to last year, and rose 18.9 percent when compared to March 2020.
Although political correctness forbids identifying immigration as population growth’s major driver, Census Bureau facts confirm the reality. In their Center for Immigration Studies analysis that drew exclusively from Census Bureau data, Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler predicted that, by 2060, immigration will add 75 million people to the U.S. population. In 2017, the U.S. had 35.8 million legal and illegal immigrants. Those immigrants had 16.9 million U.S.-born children and grandchildren.
In sum, immigration added 52.7 million people to the U.S. population between 1982 and 2017, accounting for a little over 56 percent of overall population growth. A related Camarota-Zeigler study, which also drew from Current Population Survey’s monthly data, found that in November 2021, 46.2 million legal and illegal immigrants lived in the U.S., the largest number of immigrants ever recorded in a federal government survey or census dating back to 1850.
No one controls rainfall, but the federal government can help alleviate the worsening water crisis by managing immigration to levels consistent with the available natural resources. If officials continue to shirk their responsibility, then an increasing number of West Coast communities will eventually run dry, and civil disruption over water’s absence will likely ensue.
In early May, nearly 50 former U.S. officials who held prominent federal government positions sent an urgent letter to Senate Majority and Minority leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, and to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Also copied was the Bipartisan Innovation Act Conference Committee, a group that will reconcile differences in the Senate and House versions of separate bills which address America’s global competitiveness.
Included among the letter’s signatories are the former secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the Department of Navy, as well as the former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, a CIA director, their assistants and undersecretaries and a two-term U.S. representative. The letter’s tone is alarmist.
Summarized, the letter bemoaned what the writers called “immigration bottlenecks” and their “self-inflicted drag…on American competitiveness.” Their predictable solution: more immigration in the form of attracting an ever-higher number of science, technology, engineering and math students, the so-called STEM fields. The House version, America COMPETES, exempts numerical limits and country cap quotas for green cards for international students with advanced STEM degrees. Without the green card lure, the writers warned, the U.S. will be unable to attract the “best and brightest” foreign-born STEM talent and will lose its innovative edge. The House bill also would create new but unnecessary visas which translates to more immigration, including the “W,” for start-up business owners, and the EB-4 for South Korean foreign nationals.
The bombastic letter indicates that none of the DHS, CBP, CIA or U.S. representative signatories have any concern that their panic to attract international students, including Chinese nationals. China is the U.S.’s leading rival for worldwide tech superiority, and importation of more Chinese nationals could lead to more national security breaches, intellectual property theft and stolen personal data. Evidence of China’s threat is abundant. A sampling: more than 24 Chinese nationals have been convicted of spying against the U.S., and the offices of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) have been infiltrated by People’s Republic of China subversives.
International students’ path to STEM degrees begins with an F-1 visa which allows them to enroll in a U.S. university. In the academic year 2020-2021, China was the leading contributor to overall international enrollment in U.S. schools with 317,299 students, a figure that COVID-19 reduced from the previous year’s 372,532 total. Nearly 40 percent of the Chinese 2020-2021 class studied STEM disciplines. A 2020 Center for Security and Emerging Technology study found that in pre-pandemic academic year 2018-2019, an estimated 122,000 Chinese nationals were pursuing STEM undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. degrees.
How worrisome the high Chinese STEM enrollment depends on whether an analyst considers China friend or foe. President Biden has made conflicting statements about the China-U.S. relationship. On one hand, Biden called President Xi his “old friend.” On another day, however, Biden said that China believed it would eventually “own America” within 15 years.
If Biden believes China’s goal is to conquer America, then inviting thousands of Chinese nationals to study STEM at the nation’s most prestigious universities is self-defeating and would accelerate the nation’s demise. Chinese status as students gives potential agents cover, and if the PRC orders them to spy, they know that it’s in their best interest to comply.
But congressional elites are oblivious to the growing danger that Chinese international students represent to the homeland.
In 2020, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) proposed that Chinese nationals be banned from coming to the U.S. to study STEM. Cotton suggested that in the interest of world harmony, young Chinese would be better served reading Shakespeare and the Federalist papers instead of mastering skills that they could use against America. Cotton called granting foreign students STEM degrees from U.S. universities “a scandal” because they return to China “to compete for our jobs, to take our business, and ultimately to steal our property and design weapons and other devices that can be used against the American people.”
Cotton’s straight talk, ignored by his colleagues and mocked by his detractors, is irrefutable. Weaponizing the enemy is folly. Yet, the letter’s signatories, officials supposedly well-trained in homeland security and once entrusted by the electorate to protect them from harm, insist on aiding the enemy which would accelerate America’s decline.
PFIR analyst Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Ex Officials Lobby For More Foreign Stem Students Ex Officials Lobby For More Foreign Stem Students
A jump off the bed and she pads downstairs. Scratch, scratch, scratch. The sound of litter. Ah, a space. Crouching over the box, Scaredy cat does her business. She climbs out, turns and smells the long, brown log. Yes, it’s good. That means .”POO RUN”.
Nails scratching on the wood floor, she takes off to the basement. Thump, thump, thump. Downstairs. Around the carpeted floors. Reverse.
Thump, thump, thump. Up the basement stairs. Nails skidding on the wooden floor, she skids to a stop and dashes upstairs to the bedroom. Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Door! Crash! The door bangs open and she skids to a stop on the carpet. “Meow, meow, meow.” Then, she dashes back down the stairs. Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
An exasperated sigh. “Dammit. Do you have to do that all the time? Can’t you just cover that shit up.”
For immigration lawyers, these are heady times! Since January 2021, when the Biden regime moved into the White House, the Department of Homeland Security has, by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ own shameless admission, released 836,000 illegal aliens into the interior. The staggering total includes 398,861 let go since October 1, the fiscal year’s start, and also counts 80,116 admitted in March alone. Excluded are the got-aways; estimates vary, but several hundred thousand fall into that category. This astounding admissions’ total exceeds the population of each of the cities of San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Boston and Washington, D.C., and each of the states of Wyoming and Vermont.
Imagine the eager anticipation the immigration lawyer community must have when thinking of the fees those aliens might generate! At some firms, $1,000 an hour buys only a preliminary consultation. And the good times will keep on rolling! Once Biden removes Title 42, as he’s determined to do, an estimated 18,000 aliens are likely to cross into the United States daily, most in need of legal counsel.
Enterprising immigration lawyers could make a handsome living from Haitian alien applicants alone. Most Haitians, like others eagerly awaiting their post-Title 42 admissions, will apply for asylum. But a considerable percentage of Haitians who will file claims have already been granted asylum from South American nations like Chile, and have been long-time residents of those countries. But for the Haitians/Chileans, Biden’s lure to foreign nationals to live in America is irresistible. On their trip north, after reaching the bridge at Del Rio, Texas, the duplicitous Haitians/Chileans ditched their asylum documents into the river. The low-risk, but nevertheless fraudulent effort to eliminate any clue that they had already been granted asylum by a democratic, stable country may pay off one day with U.S. citizenship.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Unbeknownst to the general public, asylum fraud is one of the biggest hoaxes in a U.S. immigration system where almost anything goes. The simple words “credible fear” spoken to an immigration official can be the first step to life in the U.S. Few, however, are fleeing true persecution or life-threatening violence. They’ve been coached, often by the smugglers to whom they’ve paid thousands of dollars, to say the magic words that will bring them, figuratively speaking, the keys to the U.S. kingdom.
The harsh reality is that among the thousands assembled at the border, and the thousands more on the way, few legally qualify for asylum. They are economic migrants seeking to improve their lives, and not as the Refugee Act of 1980 spelled out, persons with a well-established fear of persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
Under the current administration, as voters head to the mid-term polling places, knowing the difference between refugees and legitimate asylum seekers is important. Refugees are – or were until Biden allowed admissions to mostly unscreened Afghans and Ukrainians – screened in depth before coming to the U.S. If found wanting, they can be denied refugee status before they step foot into this country. On the other hand, aliens who enter illegally and falsely claim “credible fear” have not been vetted or have been only superficially screened before physically entering the U.S. The current process is easily vulnerable to fraud and abuse. Fraudulent asylum cases, in addition to generous benefits given to those who may not deserve them, undermine and delay processing legitimate appeals from individuals who truly have credible fear.
The soaring numbers of migrants whether they’ve legally or illegally entered the country is a preliminary total. Once inside the U.S., chain migration – immigration’s major source – will increase the number by at least a factor of three. In 2018, The New York Times published a remarkable, but unexaggerated, story about one-single Indian immigrant who arrived in 1968 at age 23, and 50 years later, counts 90 family members who have joined him. Consider too that many of the resettled migrants will either add to their existing families or begin new ones.
Since citizens fund every penny of the migrants’ multiple and costly resettlement expenses, Americans justifiably wonder why, assuming border enforcement, they’re forced to underwrite their gradual but inevitable displacement.
PFIR analyst Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Ron Vogel Smeared Because He Wasn’t Establishment’s Choice
By Nicole Roman
Observing the political arena during the last decade I have learned politics is an industry that is ethically challenged. I believe it is fair to say many citizens have witnessed the depths of what some self-serving, motivated folks will stoop to for political gain. Due to the manipulation of personal videos, the manipulation of personal media posts and publishing of fake news there are too many immediate “rush to judgement” verdicts despite not having the facts. For example, the attacks on Nick Sandmann, the Duke Lacrosse case, the Jussie Smollett fiasco, and the despicable treatment of Judge Kavanaugh. In the end, the facts presented in court would prove to expose the accusations as wildly false.
The complete facts in Ron Vogel’s case were never fully exposed by certain high ranking members of the Republican Committee. If they were, it would have been clear to the members that certain high ranking members of the Republican Committee were building a house of cards for the sole purpose of taking down the leading candidate because he was not their “establishment” choice.
The Vogels
Accusing anybody of antisemitism, racism and sexism, is a very serious claim, especially for a public figure and one who will be representing the citizens of his district. Therefore, it is essential that the facts be completely uncovered and deeply studied to be absolutely certain that claims are accurate. This is especially true before you take the serious step to censure a candidate.
In the case against Ron Vogel, it is clear to see that the full facts as presented were not examined in total, and if they were, the full facts were not explained or considered because, if they were, if would lead to total exoneration of any accusation against Ron Vogel. Because there was a rush to judgement in this case and because the accusations clearly don’t match the full facts, the obvious conclusion is that there was a political vendetta against Ron Vogel by certain members of the executive Republican Committee that voted to censure him.
Fact: About ten years ago Ron watched a video parody, a clip from the movie Downfall, that had Hitler in it and he thought it was funny.
Full Fact: The subject matter of the video consisted entirely about a hockey playoff game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. This is one of many similar videos on YouTube and has been on there for years. Youtube monitors their site and deletes objectionable/racist videos. How can this one have been on there for a decade? Simple, it is not anti-Semitic in any way.
Under these new standards of racism, if you watch a parody with Hitler in it, you are a racist. We’ve all heard of the film Jojo Rabbit. It was a comedic film which included Hitler. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute as one of the ten best films of the year. It won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards. Millions of people saw this movie. Are we to believe that all of these people are anti-Semitic? We know that is nonsense, just as is their claim against Ron as being racist.
Fact: Ron is being accused of being racist because somebody sent him a message using an offensive word.
Full Fact: Ron DID NOT use the offensive word and it was in no way being used in any context in an offensive manner. So, if you believe the claim against Ron, the new standard is that if anybody decides to send you a message containing an offensive word, YOU are now a racist! Again, this is another nonsensical claim against Ron Vogel.
As far as the sexist claim, it is even weaker, if that is possible.
Fact: Ron posted a link to a song that he liked.
Full Fact: The artist of the song goes by a name that could be offensive to women. The lyrics of the song are not offensive. So, this new standard is that if you listen to any music from an artist who has a name that can be construed as offensive, you are now sexist. Another poorly thought out, false claim against Ron!
So when full truth is known, the whole house of cards against Ron comes tumbling down. But why was this house of cards built in the first place? Was there some sort of hidden agenda??
Consider some of the timing of the politics involved. An original date had been set for the Chester County Republican Convention. Mysteriously, the convention was rescheduled just days before that was to take place. And then, it was rescheduled yet another time. At this time there were five candidates campaigning for the position and straw polls had Ron Vogel as the leader. However, somewhere in this extended time period, Guy Ciarrocchi announced that he is terminating his failed campaign for governor and is running for the U.S. Congress Representative position in District 6. Question. Does this give the appearance that the Republican Committee changed the dates of the convention to accommodate and allow Guy Ciarrocchi the time he would need to enter the 6th District race? Did you know when the Chester County convention finally took place, Ron Vogel finished as the top candidate, beating Guy Ciarrocchi by a wide margin (190 votes to 137 votes). This must not have sat well with the “Establishment” Republicans.
In fact, Ron Vogel was the ONLY candidate to come out of both the Berks County and the Chester County Conventions with a recommendation by the Republican Party.
It’s no secret that Ron Vogel has been running as an anti-establishment “common sense” candidate and that likely stirred ire and discontent among the Republican establishment. It’s no secret Ron is not a politician. Ron has answered the call from respected citizens and leaders throughout our local communities asking for hard working non-political figures to run for office.
It’s been known in the Republican circle that the Republican establishment wants Guy Ciarrocchi to win. To what means can they tip the scale? Does the end justify the means?
Just after their Chester County Republican Executive Committee “secret” meeting to discuss these bogus claims against Ron Vogel, there was an article about it in the local newspaper the next day with “facts” that would only have been known to the participants of the “secret” meeting. Why would anybody from the Republican Executive Committee leak that info? The plausible explanation is to hurt Ron Vogel, the candidate who was the front-runner. Did they follow it up with their “hurried and “before the facts” censure to help their “chosen” candidate, establishment Guy Ciarrocchi, along? So, to them, it appears as the end does justify the means.
But, the voters will not see it that way.
Why can’t there be honest elections? Why does campaigning take such unethical turns? Why do “connected” individuals continue to win these congressional seats? Why does our community continue to wonder and ask how was this representative elected?! Common sense voters will consider all of these questions and in the end the voters will demand justice and justice is seeing their chosen candidate, Ron Vogel, being voted in as the next Representative in District 6.
Nicole Roman is a resident of Norristown.
Ron Vogel Smeared Because He Wasn’t Establishment’s Choice
Charlie Gerow is one of the nine GOP candidates running to replace Gov. Tom Wolf this November. He has been criss-crossing the state this primary season with radio and television interviews, and attending events and forums.
He finds the people at his meet and greets particularly uplifting.
“(I like) their optimism, their spirit and their spunk,” he says.
It was the policies of the Wolf administration that led Gerow to run for governor, and he was encouraged to do so by many including Congressman Glenn “G. T.” Thompson (R-PA15).
Charlie Gerow on the campaign trail
“We are in a battle for the heart and soul of America,” he says.
He says he would repeal “in a heartbeat” ACT 77 — which legalized no-excuse mail-in voting.
He would allow trans-sexual surgery for those under 18 only with parental consent.
He would sign HB 904 that would limit access to abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Gerow said that it is presumptive Democrat gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro and his fellow party members that have the radical position abortion.
He said he supports changing the law to allow the sale of “small amounts of recreational marijuana”. He said that many of his friends in law enforcement think that “now is the time”.
Wherever possible, Gerow would work to find common ground with Democrats on various issues. He says he’s been dubbed “the conservative happy warrior”.
He feels that Pennsylvania should use all its natural resources to work towards energy independence including coal, gas, solar power, and rather than being dependent upon people who hate us.
Though Gerow is polling rather low, he still sees a path to victory. He’s been running a positive campaign and feels he can beat Josh Shapiro.
He mentioned his “small-business experience” as the CEO of Quantum Communications. He shared his personal story, starting life as a impoverished child in Brazil, where he was adopted by American missionaries. He is proud to have worked on the campaign staff of President Reagan and to have been involved in the arrangements for Reagan’s funeral.
Gerow is the vice chairman of Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the American Conservative Union. He lists Newt Gingrich and Michael Reagan as among his supporters.
Twenty years ago, journalist Michelle Malkin wrote a column titled, “The Deportation Abyss: It Ain’t over ‘til the Alien Wins.” Written post-9/11, the nation yearned as it still does for a strict deportation strategy and for vigorous immigration law enforcement.
At the beginning of her commentary, Malkin quoted the late Barbara Jordan, a Texas Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration reform from 1993 to 1996. Jordan said, “The credibility of immigration policy can be measured by a simple yardstick: people who should get in, get in; people who should not enter are kept out; and people who are judged deportable should be required to leave.”
Jordan’s sensible immigration guidelines were ignored. Too many loopholes in the immigration system, too many squishy congressional representatives, too many lax immigration judges and too many spineless Board of Immigration Appeals’judges undermined legitimate deportations of criminals, including convicted murderers, sex predators, drunken drivers and aggravated felons, subverting Jordan’s sound solutions. Information on how to dodge immigration enforcement was readily available. The soup-to-nuts legal directory that advises aliens who “got trouble” is still operating 20 years later, doubtlessly thriving, and dispensing advice on how to avoid deportation.
In her worst nightmare, Jordan could not have imagined that a U.S. president would not only be inviting millions of illegal aliens from all around the world to come to American, but then rewarding them with air transportation, housing, food, mobile phones and, eventually, one of the most coveted documents that migrants seek from the instant they depart their homeland, employment authorization cards.
Biden is determined to undermine American workers with his reckless abandonment of border security, and his messaging to foreign nationals from around the globe that, despite DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ protestations to the contrary, the border is open. The odds are extremely high that foreign nationals who get to the border will gain entrance. Parole may await them. At least, it’s the administration’s coveted goal to illegally grant parole to foreign nationals that don’t qualify for what should be a rarely approved immigration status.
Since the mainstream media tosses the word parole around loosely, knowing exactly who merits the status is important to understanding the administration’s deport-no-one intentions. Writing for the Center for Immigration Studies where he’s a Senior Legal Fellow, former DHS Deputy General Counsel George Fishman, in an article “The Pernicious Perversion of Parole: the 70-year battle between Congress and the President,” explained parole’s proper place in immigration law. As Fishman’s title suggests, the decades-long battle has been mostly a lost cause for Congress and immigration restrictionists.
Parole’s history dates back to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 which contained a provision that allowed discretionary power to the Attorney General to parole into the U.S. temporarily under such conditions as the AG may prescribe for emergent reasons or for reasons deemed strictly in the public interestany alien applying for admission to the U. S. All parole grantees are issued on a case-by-case basis, and cannot be granted en masse. (Emphasis added.)
In 1956, Republican Dwight Eisenhower became the first president to violate parole regulations when he permitted Hungarian refugees to enter en masse. Prior to 1956, parole authority had been used only to benefit individual aliens. But as Professors Adam Cox of the University of Chicago Law School and Cristina Rodriguez of New York University correctly concluded, presidents have used powers expressly delegated to them by Congress to advance their own immigration agenda in a manner that accomplished personal objectives Congress almost certainly did not intend and expanding or repurposing Congress’s original design.(Emphasis added.)
Parole should be granted only under the five following conditions: 1) for a medical emergency, 2) for organ donation to a family member, 3) to visit a family member whose death is imminent, 4) for an alien who has assisted U.S. law enforcement and whose presence is needed by the government or whose life is threatened or 5) for criminal prosecution.
Biden’s flagrant use of parole to admit thousands of aliens into the U.S. proves that Malkin’s thesis – the alien always wins – is truer today than ever. Many thousands more aliens remain gathered at or on the way to the border, confident that parole will be their easy ticket into the U.S.
PFIR analyst Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org
Gale And Zama Are 2%ers In Pennsylvania Governor’s Race
By Bob Small
So now we turn to the Pennsylvania governors’ race, and only the Republicans are actually running a race. The Democratic race is already “fixed”, since Josh Shapiro is the only name on their primary ballot, May 17.
There are two GOP levels: front-runner and everyone else.
The “everyone else” are the three candidates who each have less than 2 percent support as per this April 15 poll by The Trafalgar group, which hasn’t changed all that much.
Each represents something, though. They are Joe Gale, Charlie Gerow, and Nche Zama. We will discuss Gerow in our next post.
Dr. Nche Zama
Dr. Nche Zama is a transplanted Cameroonian (as is the 76ers Joel Embid) and he would be the first Afro-American Pennsylvania governor. He is a heart surgeon, and was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer as saying, “I realized that Pennsylvania is dying and … it is very much in need of a cardiac surgeon for heart surgery.”
Joe Gale is a 32-year-old Montgomery County commissioner who is an unapologetic Trumper strongly opposed to Act 77, which allows for 50 days of no-excuse mail-in voting in this state. He is running against Doug Mastriano specifically, which doesn’t seem to be working.
Joe Gale
His brother, Sean Gale, is running for US Senate, but Galeforce Pa. Is only a mild breeze. Joe Gale served with Josh Shapiro in Montco and became the best of enemies.
Lastly, there is the issue of shakedowns of GOP gubernatorial candidates by some Republican committees.
Nche Zuma considers this practice “unethical”. Joe Gale says “it’s corrupt and I believe the public knows it”. Others have also spoken against this “pay to play” practice, in which it’s alleged you can only speak to the committee if you have paid, and the number of minutes you can speak is determined by the amount you contribute.
Jeffrey Sheridan, a senior Democratic advisor, commented, “Charging candidates to speak at events is not a practice of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.”
Surely we can believe him, can’t we?
Gale And Zama Are 2%ers In Pennsylvania Governor’s Race
Rosalie Mercurio DiMaggio, a Sicilian immigrant, bore nine children, three of whom became Major League center fielders. Since the boys’ father, San Francisco fisherman Giuseppe, considered baseball a “a bum’s game,” Rosalie covered for the Vince, Dominic and Joe Jr. so they could practice with other local boys. Then and now, the Bay Area was a hotbed of baseball talent that included Barry Bonds, Billy Martin, Keith Hernandez, Gil McDougald, seven-time All-Star Joe Cronin, and four-time AL batting champion Harry Heilmann.
Around San Francisco, scouts determined that, of the three brothers, Joe had the best bat; Dom, the best arm; and Vince, who wanted to become an opera singer, the best voice. Joe’s baseball achievements are legendary – his 56-game hitting streak, three MVP awards and his nine World Series championship rings. During the streak, the nation was obsessed with whether “Joltin’ Joe” had gotten a hit that day. An Army Air Force veteran, Joe soon became the talk of Hollywood and the national gossip sheets when he married screen starlet Marilyn Monroe.
Joe DiMaggio with parents Roaslie and Giuseppi
For years after his Yankee career ended, DiMaggio remained an icon. Paul Simon’s 1968 hit song, “Mrs. Robinson,” contained this lyric which suggested that the nation yearned for the simpler America that DiMaggio represented: “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio; a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” DiMaggio’s reaction to the song: “What the hell does it mean?”
Dom, too, is well-known in the baseball world. For a decade, he ably flanked Ted Williams in the Boston Red Sox outfield, and hit with the best of them. An effective lead-off hitter, the “Little Professor,” so called because he was 5’9”, 160 lbs. and wore rimless spectacles, batted .300 four times, led the AL in runs twice and in triples and stolen bases once each. Dom also led AL center fielders in assists three times and in putouts and double plays twice each; he tied a league record by recording 400 putouts four times, and his 1948 totals of 503 putouts and 526 total chances stood as AL records for nearly 30 years.
Post-baseball, Dom founded several small companies that eventually merged into the Delaware Valley Corporation, a family-owned business still operational today. But despite teammate Ted Williams’ vigorous lobbying, Dom’s career stats, .298 average and 1,680 hits, they haven’t gotten him elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame’s veterans’ wing.
Vince, the oldest brother, had less plate success, but was more adept with his glove. He led the National League in strikeouts six times, and set what was then a single season record, 134 Ks for the Boston Bees in 1938. Vince compiled modest 10-year NL career stats with the Pirates, Reds, Phillies Bees and Giants: .249, 125 HRs and 584 RBIs. But Vince had a cannon arm, and said, immodestly, “Joe was a better batter, but I could play rings around him as far as knowledge of the game and plays in the outfield. I could smoke those throws. If you put a dime on second base, I could hit it from the outfield.”
In 1946, after splitting the season with the Phillies and Giants, Vince hung up his spikes, and meandered from one unassuming job to another – Fuller Brush salesman, milk truck delivery driver, and waiter at the family restaurant, DiMaggio’s Grotto on Fisherman’s Wharf. At the restaurant, customers urged Vince to sing. Without hesitation, Vince broke out in his tenor voice to sing operatic arias or popular love ballads. During those happy moments when Vince crooned to his customers, he rued his decision to play baseball instead of pursuing opera.
Vince, Joe and Dom were distant brothers, and often spent years-long periods when they rarely spoke. In a late-life interview, Vince said, “When the folks were alive, we were a lot closer.”
Rosalie was the DiMaggio family’s unifying force, always looking out for her children’s best interests. In their youth, Rosalie read Bible stories and set a high standard for moral behavior. At Rosalie’s insistence, the family moved from Martinez, Calif., to San Francisco. A school teacher in Sicily, Rosalie knew that the city had better schools; she wanted her children to have good educations, a benefit she knew would pay dividends throughout their lives. As Joe’s career was peaking, Rosalie traveled by train to New York to watch the Yankees. Once, she caught reporters off guard when she complained that the city was “boring,” and offered little to do. The truth was that Rosalie missed hearth and home.
In 1986, Dom convinced estranged brothers Vince and Joe to join him at a Fenway Park Old-Timers’ Game. A few months later Vince, whose final years were spent as a born-again Christian, died from colon cancer.
Joe was never out of the limelight. He appeared on television as a pitchman for New York’s Bowery Savings Bank and Mr. Coffee. Thereafter, the Yankee Clipper made occasional appearances at celebrity golf outings, card shows and Old-Timers’ games, where the public address announcer introduced him as “Baseball’s greatest living player.” After Marilyn’s death, Joe organized her funeral to ensure that it wouldn’t be besieged by autograph hounds, or craven Hollywood types. He ordered roses placed at her crypt twice a week. Always a chain smoker, in 1999, Joe died at home of lung cancer.
Dom, in addition to his business successes, cofounded the Boston Patriots AFL football franchise, and the BoSox Club, a fan organization that brings closer contact between the Red Sox’ players and the community. Dom died at age 92 after a bout with pneumonia.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.
DiMaggios Credited Mom With Their Successes DiMaggios Credited Mom With Their Successes
