Delco Sanctuary City Nope — County Councilman John McBlain appears to have won the debate as to whether Delaware County, Pa. is a “sanctuary city” as claimed by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
The Philadelphia Field Office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sent us the below comment:
Delaware County, Pa and all police departments within Delaware County fully participate with PEP. With the implementation of the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) in July 2015, many law enforcement agencies, including some large jurisdictions, are now once again cooperating with ICE. DHS continues to make significant strides in building partnerships with local law enforcement and community leaders through PEP to ensure a common-sense approach that focuses enforcement resources on convicted criminals and individuals who threaten public safety and national security while also taking into account important community policing needs. For more information on PEP please visit www.ice.gov/pep.
CIS defines sanctuary city/county/state as a jurisdiction that does not comply with ICE detainers for jailed or incarcerated illegal aliens.
Berkeley Castle is the oldest English castle still inhabited by the family who built it. The founder of the Berkeley family was Robert Fitzharding (c. 1095–1170). He started building the present castle in 1153.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-6-16 Berkeley Castle
Dom Giordano USO Holiday Feast 2016 — The 8th Annual Dom Giordano USO Holiday Feast will be 6:30-10 p.m., Dec. 19 at Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square, 1800 Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103.
It is a feast with a cocktail reception, exotic hors d oeuvres, salads and antipasti buffets and a dinner with five actions stations with entrees ranging from turkey to steak to roast beef to risotto to salmon wellington.
There will be a variety of desserts including a hot chocolate bar.
And live music.
Honored will be the 2016 Person of the Year, the nominees of whom are State Rep. Martina White (R-170); John McNesby, long-time Philadelphia Police officer and president of FOP Lodge 5; and Media Mayor Bob McMahon. Yes Bob, you got our vote. Click here to register your choice.
Tickets are $90 or $800 for a table of 10. Proceeds benefit Liberty U.S.O, Catholic Charities and the Archbishop’s Christmas Benefit for Children.
Maureen Dowd Thanksgiving Good Humor — We are shamelessly without permission reprinting this column with an introduction by Maureen Dowd that appeared in the New York Times after Thanksgiving, and that we received by email. It perfectly illustrates to many still bruised over this last election that peace can be found and families don’t have to be broken up. Hat tip Joanne Yurchak.
WASHINGTON — First I had to deal with the president-elect scolding.
During his interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, Donald Trump chided me twice for being too tough on him.
Sitting next to our publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Trump invited everyone around the table to call him if they saw anything “where you feel that I’m wrong.”
“You can call me, Arthur can call me, I would love to hear,” he said. “The only one who can’t call me is Maureen. She treats me too rough.”
Then I had to go home for Thanksgiving and deal with my family scolding me about the media misreading the country. I went cold turkey to eat hot turkey: no therapy dog, no weaving therapy, no yoga, no acupuncture, no meditation, no cry-in.
The minute I saw my sister’s Trump champagne and a Cersei figurine as the centerpiece — my brother, Kevin, nicknamed Hillary “Cersei” during this year’s brutal game of thrones — I knew I wasn’t in a safe space.
My little basket of deplorables, as I call my conservative family, gloated with Trump toasts galore, and Kevin presented me with his annual holiday column with an extra flourish.
My colleague Paul Krugman tweeted Friday that “affluent, educated suburbanites” who voted for Trump are “fools.” What else is there to say, he asked.
Well, here is what Kevin, an affluent, educated suburbanite, has to say in his column, titled an “Election Therapy Guide for Liberals”:
Written by Kevin Dowd: “Donald Trump pulled off one of the greatest political feats in modern history by defeating Hillary Clinton and the vaunted Clinton machine.
The election was a complete repudiation of Barack Obama: his fantasy world of political correctness, the politicization of the Justice Department and the I.R.S., an out-of-control E.P.A., his neutering of the military, his nonsupport of the police and his fixation on things like transgender bathrooms. Since he became president, his party has lost 63 House seats, 10 Senate seats and 14 governorships.
Her game of thrones over, Cersei — as Kevin Dowd nicknamed Hillary Clinton — stood guard over the Dowd family Thanksgiving. Credit Kevin Dowd
The country had signaled strongly in the last two midterms that they were not happy. The Dems’ answer was to give them more of the same from a person they did not like or trust.
Preaching — and pandering — with a message of inclusion, the Democrats have instead become a party where incivility and bad manners are taken for granted, rudeness is routine, religion is mocked and there is absolutely no respect for a differing opinion. This did not go down well in the Midwest, where Trump flipped three blue states and 44 electoral votes.
The rudeness reached its peak when Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed by attendees of “Hamilton” and then pompously lectured by the cast. This may play well with the New York theater crowd but is considered boorish and unacceptable by those of us taught to respect the office of the president and vice president, if not the occupants.
Here is a short primer for the young protesters. If your preferred candidate loses, there is no need for mass hysteria, canceled midterms, safe spaces, crying rooms or group primal screams. You might understand this better if you had not received participation trophies, undeserved grades to protect your feelings or even if you had a proper understanding of civics. The Democrats are now crying that Hillary had more popular votes. That can be her participation trophy.
If any of my sons had told me they were too distraught over a national election to take an exam, I would have brought them home the next day, fearful of the instruction they were receiving. Not one of the top 50 colleges mandate one semester of Western Civilization. Maybe they should rethink that.
Mr. Trump received over 62 million votes, not all of them cast by homophobes, Islamaphobes, racists, sexists, misogynists or any other “ists.” I would caution Trump deniers that all of the crying and whining is not good preparation for the coming storm. The liberal media, both print and electronic, has lost all credibility. I am reasonably sure that none of the mainstream print media had stories prepared for a Trump victory. I watched the networks and cable stations in their midnight meltdown — embodied by Rachel Maddow explaining to viewers that they were not having a “terrible, terrible dream” and that they had not died and “gone to hell.”
The media’s criticism of Trump’s high-level picks as “not diverse enough” or “too white and male” — a day before he named two women and offered a cabinet position to an African-American — magnified this fact.
Here is a final word to my Democratic friends. The election is over. There will not be a do-over. So let me bid farewell to Al Sharpton, Ben Rhodes and the Clintons. Note to Cher, Barbra, Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham: Your plane is waiting. And to Jon Stewart, who talked about moving to another planet: Your spaceship is waiting. To Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z, Beyoncé and Katy Perry, thanks for the free concerts. And finally, to all the foreign countries that contributed to the Clinton Foundation, there will not be a payoff or a rebate.
As Eddie Murphy so eloquently stated in the movie “48 Hrs.”: “There’s a new sheriff in town.” And he is going to be here for 1,461 days. Merry Christmas.”
The great Grecian general Pyrrhus died in a street battle in Argos. An old mother whose son was fighting him threw a tile from a rooftop knocking him from his horse and breaking his spine.
Montco Trick Budget Via Community College Scam — Minority Republican commissioner Joe Gale, Dec. 1, revealed a twisted scam in Montgomery County’s 2017 budget that would sneak in a major new burden on the taxpayer by shifting funding for the county community college.
The county had been funding the college — $18 million last year — through the operating budget. Montco’s 2017 budget calls for a community college tax that would cost Montco tax payers additional $22.3 million.
The $18 million from the operating budget would go to other things.
Gale started his revelation with the taxes imposed by Democrat majority in the year since Joe won election.
“I have seen my Democrat colleagues do money grab after money grab and enough is never enough,” he said.
He noted that just before he was sworn in commissioners Valerie A. Arkoosh and Josh Shapiro passed a 9.87 percent increase on Montco property owners generating over $18 million in new revenue.
“But that wasn’t enough,” he said.
He said in February in they increased health inspection fees on Montgomery County businesses with a built in 2 percent over three consecutive years.
“But that wasn’t enough,” he said.
He said that in September they increased the vehicle registration fees on car and truck owners in Montgomery County generating $3.5 million in new revenue.
“But that wasn’t enough,” he said. “They are now doubling taxes on those visiting Montgomery County by increasing the hotel tax by 100 percent.”
Gale said that since new property taxes are off the table, due to last year’s hike, the Democrats “need to find a new way to get more of the people’s money.”
And they have with a proposed community college tax.
“Let’s be honest about what this really is, this is a trick budget,” he said. “The Democrats are doing what they always do. Increasing taxes and government spending while pretending all the money is going to our schools and students. This so-called community college tax is taking an additional $22.3 million out of the pockets of county homeowners and my Democrat colleagues will tell you that all that money is going to fund the community college but don’t be fooled.”
Gale said that less than one-fourth of the revenue generated from this tax is actually new funding for the college. He said that in previous budgets money for the college was taken from the county’s operating budget which was $18 million last year.
He said the new tax shifts money from the county to the taxpayers as a new burden.
“Meanwhile county spending increases by $18 million,” he said.
After this revelation, Gale blasted Shapiro — who recently won the office of state attorney general — calling him out on things ranging from broken campaign promises to catering to special interests and campaign donors.
He cites specifics.
Here is a video of Gale’s comments. The part regarding Shapiro starts at the 2:46 mark and is worth watching.
Massive Nevada Voter Fraud –Donald Trump lost Nevada, Nov. 8, by 26,434 votes. Maybe he didn’t lose it at all.
Did he win Nevada too?
Newsmax is reporting the U.S. Postal Service certified returned mail from 9,200 persons on the voter roll in State Assembly District 15 which is Clark County. The votes cast in the district were 17,086.
Many of returned names belonged to deceased persons or of celebrities like Edward Snowden who obviously did not live in the district.
The investigation was initiated by Republican Assembly candidate Stan Vaughan who lost his race by 6,942 votes, an ostensible landslide, unless, of course, there were 9,000 fraudulent votes for his opponent in which case Vaughan would have won.
Vaughn said a sample of 200 of the returned names showed that 185 had indeed voted.
Further Vaughan said many including himself was prohibited from voting because the poll worker claimed that he had already did.
Clark County has 42 State Assembly districts most of which were won by Democrats. If there were 9,000 bad votes cast in just one and the Republican candidates themselves were kept from voting, we can add another state to the Trump win column.
No Christopher, it was not Sean Connery who was the first James Bond but American Barry Nelson. He did it in 1954 in a television adaption of Casino Royale in which Bond was occasionally called Jimmy. Nelson died in 2007 at the age of 89 while traveling through Bucks County.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-3-16 first James Bond
Carrier Deal Crony Capitalism Not — Some — including some conservatives —are calling Donald Trump’s Carrier deal that kept about a thousand jobs from moving from Indiana to Mexico “crony capitalism.”
The deal gives Carrier about $6 million in tax credits over 10 years along with a $1 million training grant.
Since when do tax cuts upset conservatives? You say it is unfair to other businesses? We suspect any business willing to spend $16 million-plus to save a facility can drive a similar bargain.
High taxes, health care costs and regulation are why businesses flee the U.S. Any tax cut is a good thing. We fully expect that what Carrier and its employees got is what all U.S. businesses and their employees are going to get when The Donald is inaugurated.
In mid-November, Governor Wolf announced that the Department of Labor and Industry would be laying off employees. According to the Governor, this was due to the intransigence of Senate Republicans in their refusal to pass legislation funding unemployment call centers. On the other hand, Senate Republicans argue that the problem was the Governor’s unwillingness to answer their questions about funding.
Who is in the wrong?
Senator Scott Wagner makes a convincing argument in a column published by the York Daily Record:
“This project [the call centers] was fed approximately $240 million over the last four years with zero accountability. Now the senate is being pressured into throwing another $57.5 million down a black hole without any questions being asked.
“In 2006, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania signed a $106.9 million contract with IBM to be completed in 2009.
“IBM’s contract was to give the state a new computer system to track employee wages, employer taxes, handle unemployment claims, appeals, and payments.
“In July of 2013, the state terminated the contract with IBM because it was $60 million over budget. The $60 million was in addition to the $106.9 million initial contract, and it was 42 months late. What happened with this contract? Who was held accountable for the cancelled IBM contract?
“Later in 2013, the Legislature voted to allocate $60 million per year for four years, and that ends at the end of this year. This was for the same project that was contracted with IBM and then cancelled.
“So let’s recap for taxpayers – $106 million plus another $60 million for IBM. Add the last four years of $60 million per year for a total of $240 million – all for a grand total of more than $400 million in taxpayer money.”
Senator Wagner is right to question the lack of results from $400 million in taxpayer spending and this line of inquiry is long overdue. You can bet that there will be more confrontations between the Governor and the General Assembly in the coming year. According to the Independent Fiscal Office, there will be a $1.7 billion deficit in the 2017-2018 budget year. The General Assembly must take a close look at past spending in terms of amount and efficacy. If they don’t, Pennsylvanians will face higher tax bills in the future. Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.
The Philadelphia Field Office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sent us the below comment:
