News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
The first automobile was built in 1769 by French Army Captain Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot. It was meant to be used for transporting cannons. It traveled at about 2 miles per hour. One of the reasons it failed to catch on was the fire in the boiler kept going out.
The melody for “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” is from the Civil War drinking song “Johnny Fill Up the Bowl.”
Anglii was the Roman name for the place we now know as Denmark, at least the southern part. The occupants did not like it there so they sailed west and found an island to live on. The part that is called England on that island gets its name from them.
Corrupt Hillary Or How We Really Dodged A Bullet — As Democrats become ever more unhinged over President Trump’s glorious swamp draining, another revelation of Hillary Clinton’s unabashed corruption has occurred. Yes, we really dodged a bullet.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says then Secretary of State Clinton made a personal call to to pressure her to keep Muhammed Yunus as chairman of the country’s Grameen Bank.
Bangladesh law prohibits civil servants from working beyond the age of 60. Yunus was 70 in March 2011 when the call was made.
The bank’s nonprofit Grameen America, which Yunus chairs, had given between $100,000 and $250,000 to the Clinton Global Initiative. Grameen Research, also chaired by Yunus, donated between $25,000 and $50,000.
Why would a “nonprofit charity” donate to another “nonprofit charity”? The answer is when the “nonprofit charity” is not a “nonprofit charity” but a means of getting rich. A small bribe here can often garner greater lucre there.
By the way, have you seen where donations to the Clinton Foundation have dropped like a brick?
Sadistic serial killer Ted Bundy was a Rockefeller Republican. He attended the 1968 GOP convention as a delegate for Nelson Rockefeller.
Convict Mellow Wants $240 G Pension Back
By Leo Knepper
In 2012, former Senator Robert Mellow was sentenced to 16 months in prison, three years parole, and ordered to pay nearly $150,000 in fines and restitution. Now he wants his $20,000 per month pension back.
Although one lawmaker having a pension of $240,000 per year is one of the causes of the pension system’s $74 billion unfunded liability, lets focus on Mellow’s legal argument. According to Pennsylvania state law, a state employee forfeits their pension if convicted of any one of 23 specific state crimes. The law also stipulates, “no public official…shall be entitled to receive any retirement or other benefit or payment of any kind except a return of the contribution paid into any pension fund without interest, if such public official or public employee is convicted or pleads guilty or no defense to any crime related to public office or public employment.” (Emphasis added)
According to an article published by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mellow’s lawyers are arguing that since he was convicted of the federal charge of conspiracy and conspiracy is not one of the crimes listed, he should have his pension restored. According to the same Inquirer article:
“A similar argument has worked before. In 1999, Commonwealth Court reversed the pension forfeiture of a corrections officer who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of making a false declaration before a grand jury, finding that SERS was wrong to conclude the crime was “substantially the same” as the Pennsylvania crime of perjury.”
With this legal precedent in hand, Mellow’s lawyers would be negligent not to argue that he should have his pension restored. However, that doesn’t mean that they have a good case. As with most things legal, the devil is in the details. According to the press release from the FBI announcing Mellow’s sentencing:
“Mellow, in his capacity as a state senator and the Democratic Leader during 2006 through 2010, conspired with others to misuse the staff and resources of the Pennsylvania Senate for political fund-raising and campaign purposes.
“As part of the scheme, Mellow caused and knowingly permitted, through willful blindness, the submission to the chief clerk of the senate of false job classification and reclassification forms and memos for senate staff who performed political fundraising and campaign work while being compensated by the senate.
“Mellow conspired with others to misuse senate staff and resources to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for an organization known as the Friends of Bob Mellow and the Democratic State Senate Campaign Committee and to support political candidates and causes throughout Pennsylvania.”
Based on the emphasized text, it sounds like Mellow clearly violated the clause in the forfeiture law highlighting crimes “related to public office.” The state employee pension board will vote on whether or not to restore Mellow’s pension. Regardless of that decision, someone will be appealing it to the courts and judges will ultimately decide the fate of Mellow’s pension.
We will keep you posted as the process moves forward, but you should not expect a speedy resolution.
Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.
Hypocrite James Comey Fired From Swamp — Thank you President Trump. The swamp is being drained. If you really want to sow confusion, now, among the angry swamp dwellers, pardon your foe, Martha Stewart.
She is a convicted felon for doing things far less vile than last year’s Democrat presidential candidate.
And the guy who prosecuted her? That’s right, the same guy who was just peachy with Hillary Clinton’s greed, corruption and treasonous irresponsibility.
What did James Comey say about Martha’s prosecution?
“If it was Jane Doe she would have been prosecuted . . . there were 2,000 cases by the Justice Department that year for providing false statements during an investigation. I thought of my hesitation about the case due to someone being rich and famous, and how it shouldn’t be that way. I decided we had to do it.”
ROTFLMAO.
Good riddance James Comey, you swamp-dwelling hypocrite.
The large island of Madagascar is but 260 miles off the coast of Africa but was settled by east Asians. They came from Borneo in outrigger canoes about 350 years before the birth of Christ.
Paycheck Protection Simple Justice
By Rep. Bryan Cutler
During my time serving the 100th District, a handful of well-meaning residents have walked into my taxpayer-funded Lancaster County district office and requested campaign lawn signs. They have always walked out empty handed. In fact, if I tried to conduct campaign activities from my legislative office, I’d end up in jail—as other politicians have. And that’s how it should be.
Likewise, just think if I requested that the House payroll system be used to deduct voluntary campaign contributions for my re-election campaign from my staff’s paychecks. You can imagine the response: Absolutely not.
The objection would not be over the staff’s desire to contribute, or the cost of deducting the money. Instead, the request would be denied as a matter of ethics: Public resources cannot be used for politics.
That’s because taxpayer-funded government resources should not be used for politics. Unfortunately, there’s a big loophole in state law.
State and local governments across Pennsylvania regularly use public resources to collect campaign funds for a special group of political players: Government union leaders. These funds are used for lobbying and political fundraising and even given directly to candidates. And government unions are the only organizations in Pennsylvania that can use public resources to raise their political dollars.
This is an insult to Pennsylvanians who deserve better from their government.
That’s why for the past few sessions I have introduced and championed legislation called paycheck protection, which would restore the integrity of public resources by ending the use of government systems for political fundraising.
As commonsense as this reform is, some still oppose it, relying on myths and scare tactics to misrepresent what this legislation does—and does not—do.
I believe Pennsylvanians deserve the truth.
The truth is Pennsylvania government union leaders use taxpayer-funded payroll systems to collect money from public employees for three purposes:
The latter two are explicitly political.
The truth is, since 2007, Pennsylvania’s government unions have spent nearly $100 million on politics—most of which they collected via automatic deduction from workers’ paychecks using public resources.
The truth is this immoral practice, which would land any elected official in jail, has gone unchecked for years.
If we care about ethics and integrity in government, we cannot let this continue.
My bill would transition the collection of political money back where it belongs—outside the scope of public resources and into the hands of government union leaders.
These unions would still be free to use public resources to collect non-political union dues and fees used for collective bargaining and representational work. However, government unions would no longer enjoy the special privilege of using public resources to collect money used for political activity. Just like every other private organization in Pennsylvania, they would begin collecting political money directly from those who donate it, without using taxpayers as their middleman.
Opponents of this reform claim they are fighting to protect workers’ voices, but the truth is this reform will give public workers greater voice in how their money is spent on politics. Because government unions will collect their political dollars directly from members, they will be more accountable to members regarding how those dollars are spent.
Opponents also argue they are working to preserve government unions’ ability to collectively bargain, but this reform does not affect collective bargaining rights or prevent unions from engaging in political activity. It simply separates taxpayer resources and electoral politics.
The state Senate passed similar legislation in February.
It’s time my colleagues in the House also make this good government reform a priority.
The law should apply equally to everyone. Paycheck protection would be a major step toward making this principle a reality.
Rep. Cutler (R-100) is the Pennsylvania House Majority Whip.
Today is the anniversary of VE Day but it is not the 72nd Anniversary of the unconditional surrender of Germany in World War II. That would have been yesterday as the surrender was signed 2:41 p.m., May 7.
Today is the 72 Anniversary of active operations by German forces which occurred 11:01 p.m., May 8.
Actually, one German army continued fighting in Prague, Czechoslovakia until May 11.
