News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
A plan to build an aircraft carrier out of ice and sawdust was seriously considered during World War II. The substance — pykrete — is as strong as concrete and has a slow melting rate. It can be repaired with seawater.
Lunch With Joe Billie — We just finished a lunch with Joe Billie, who may be the only declared Republican candidate seeking to to replace out-going Pat Meehan in Pennsylvania’s 7th District.
Billie says a Chadds Ford man has also officially declared but we can’t find much about him.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Jan. 22 that the congressional districts established in 2010 and used for three election cycles were unconstitutional and ordered them redrawn . Today (Feb. 9) is the deadline but as of this writing the new boundaries are unknown to us. Billie is a resident of Aston, however, and it is a pretty safe bet that Aston will be included.
Billie began his campaign months ago angered by Meehan’s attitude towards veterans — Meehan was the only Republican to vote against the VA Accountability Act of 2015 — and his hypocritical disavowal of then candidate Trump two weeks before the 2016 election.
A veteran himself, Billie left classes at Delaware County Community College in 1990 to join the Navy when Operation Desert Shield began. He was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS America eventually rising to the rank of petty officer. He was involved in numerous actions in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia and Somalia.
Leaving the service in 1994, Billie returned to college pursing a degree in criminal justice. He became active in the community re-joining the Folcroft Fire Co. where he grew up. He rose to the position of chief and also became the borough’s fire marshal. He became an assistant fire marshal in Aston after moving to that town.
Billie re-enlisted in the Naval Reserve after 9/11.
He works at the Kimberly Clark paper mill in Chester and is a member of the United Steelworkers.
Billie is married to a (legal) immigrant from Portugal and has two children, one of whom will be starting college in the fall.
He describes himself as a constitutional conservative and is right on just about everything. For details see his website.
He says he understands teamwork and that working with Dems is key in the 7th District.
Governors Run Alone Notes Gale — Montco Commissioner Joe Gale who is among those running for the GOP lieutenant governor nomination in the May 15 primary, has observed that that gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango may be on the verge of announcing a lieutenant governor “running mate.”
“If so, this would be the same mistake gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner made when choosing RINO Jeff Bartos to be his so-called “running mate,” Gale says.
Gale notes that there is no such thing as a joint ticket in the Republican primary for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. These are two separate and distinct races.
“Don’t be fooled by fake tickets between now and the May 15th primary election,” he said. “I am the only Lieutenant Governor candidate that can help the eventual Republican gubernatorial nominee defeat Democrat Tom Wolf in November when there truly is a Republican ticket chosen by the Republican voters of Pennsylvania.”
Charlton Gets Primary Opponent –Regina Scheerer has announced that she will be taking on incumbent State Rep. Alex Charlton of the 165th District in the Republican Primary.
Mrs. Scheerer is a retired middle school math teacher. She has lived in Springfield for 40 years and has 12 grandchildren.
Charlton’s vote against a bill that would limit abortions in Pennsylvania to 20 weeks — the present limit is 24 weeks — was the final straw for her albeit there was much leading up to it.
Here is her statement explaining why she is running:
Dear Neighbors and Friends in Springfield—I will be challenging our State Representative Alex Charlton in the upcoming May Primary on May 15.
First I must get my name on the ballot.
In order to do that, I need 300 valid signatures of registered Republican voters in Springfield, Marple and Radnor Townships, and Morton Boro, on petitions to be circulated starting next Tuesday, February 13 and ending on Wednesday, February 28.
Since signatures on petitions may be challenged, and therefore voided, we need 600 signatures altogether.
I need volunteers to go to registered Republican voters in their neighborhoods to collect these signatures.
I will give you a list of the Republican voters in your neighborhoods along with instructions.
An alternative to going door-to-door would be to host 20 – 30 registered Republican voters at your house for an hour, I would come to speak to them and then they would sign the petition.
A combination of both may work for you also.
Why am I doing this?
The main reason is that Alex Charlton ran and was elected as a pro-life Republican. (Pro-life is a platform of the Republican Party.)
He recently voted against a bill that would have limited abortions in PA to 20 weeks (5 months) gestation, which is more than half the time of a woman’s full term pregnancy.
It would not have taken away a woman’s right to an abortion, but it would have lowered the allowable time in PA from 24 weeks to 20 weeks.
16 other states have already adopted the 20 week limit.
The bill also would have banned the barbaric practice of dismemberment abortions.
A Delaware County Republican representative has never voted against a pro-life bill.
Alex Charlton’s pro-abortion vote is incompatible with the Republican Party and incompatible with those who respect Life.
Rest assured, I will not be a one-issue candidate. There are other issues directly affecting PA taxpayers; one, that is especially impacting Springfield School District taxpayers with the building of the new high school, is the required “prevailing wage”.
Hanno was the Vatican elephant. He was white and given as a gift by King Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X in 1514. He was a favorite and featured in many processions. He became constipated, however, and was given a laxative that killed him. It was a sad time. The great artist Raphael designed the memorial fresco and the Pope himself composed the epitaph.
Hanno is buried under the Vatican courtyard.
Gay Extremist Gift Gets Wagner Grief — A $5,000 contribution by a gay extremist in 2015 to a political action committee headed by Scott Wagner is getting the GOP gubernatorial hopeful quite a bit of grief.
The money was given by Tim Gill to Reform PA PAC, which Wagner chairs. Wagner won an historic write-in special election in March 2014 to represent the York County-centered 28th District. He campaigned as a Tea Party candidate against corruption, cronyism and indifference by the Republican establishment.
He won a full term that fall.
While Wagner has been outspokenly good on certain issues such as the state’s scandalous pension system, he seems to have managed to get himself most identified with a bizarre crusade to prohibit businesses and institutions from making distinctions based on biological sex.
He has co-sponsored a series of “bathroom bills“, a term with which Wagner wrongly takes issue as there is no doubt that these bills would grant by-right access for males calling themselves female to women’s restrooms and girls’ school sports.
Wagner has said that ending privacy for women (and girls) was not his intent and that he merely wants to stop LGBQWHATEVER people from being discriminated by business.
That’s almost as bad, Scott. The elimination of the concept of “protected groups” should be the goal of decent, thinking people, not their expansion.
Being a member of a “protected group” is not helpful. Business owners — as we’d expect you to understand — base the vast majority of hiring decisions on whether the employee will make life easier. Protected group membership is something that makes business owners walk on eggshells and that is, by far, the main reason protected group members face — understandable — discrimination.
Gays, who are not yet a protected group, certainly aren’t facing economic hardship in this country and that gets us to Tim Gill.
Gill is the mega-rich gay extremist who wants to “punish” those who question his lifestyle choices. This always means stifling debate about legitimate concerns and usually means personal destruction. He is a bad, corrupting man.
The seven traditional rainbow colors, as noted by Isaac Newton, are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Most of us would call his “indigo” blue and his “blue” light blue.
SEPTA Eagles Parade Schedule — SEPTA has announced significant adjustments for service on Thursday (Feb. 8) for the Eagles Super Bowl Parade, according to State Rep. Alex Charlton (R-165). Free rides will be offered on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines, but service will be limited to select stops.
Regional Rail will board only at select stations and will service only select stations in Center City. Customers MUST have either a Weekly or Monthly TrailPass, an Independence Pass, or a pre-purchased senior/reduced fare ticket. Discounted Independence Passes will go on sale today (Feb. 6) for $10.
Please see http://www.septa.org/eagles for complete information regarding service on Thursday.
That’s great Alex but couldn’t you have told us that all stations are open on the Route 101 and the trolleys will be running every 15 minutes?
And, more relevantly, what are you doing about ending prevailing wage and shaving up to $30 million off the cost of the new Springfield High School?
The word “diamond” comes from the Greek word adamas which means unbreakable. It’s the same root for adamant.
Donna Ellingsen Persecution Back — The persecution of popular Chesco GOP Area 19 Chairwoman Donna Ellingsen has restarted.
Mrs. Ellingsen was subjected to a bizarre purge attempt by allies of County Boss Val DiGirogio in early 2016 alleging that she violated party bylaws in supporting a candidate other than the nominated one.
It was thought that her overwhelming re-election in April 2016 and her easy election as area chair in June 2017 put the matter to rest.
Oh well.
Mrs. Ellingsen announced in late December she was running for State Committee. Val’s heart must have been warmed by that bit of Christmas news. In early January, Mrs. E got a letter from the county GOP demanding she appear before a new inquisition on Feb. 19 for something or other. They weren’t exactly clear about what. She is trying to find that out but they aren’t telling her despite repeated requests.
She also got a letter from county voter services — run, certainly coincidently, by Kara Rahn who is wife of Val confident Alex Rahn and previous Area 1 chair– demanding all spending receipts going back to 2014.
Donna notes that she has chaired her area since 2017 but is not the treasurer who is responsible for record keeping and financial filings. She was nevertheless told by Chesco Voter Services not to destroy the records she doesn’t have.
Donna further notes that she will run for the Republican State Committee post whether the party establishment endorses her or not. Obviously Val wants her out. The well-connected operator won his promotion to state GOP Chairman by just two votes a year ago.
For the record, Donna happily endorses Sheriff Bunny Welsh for state committee and points out that she couldn’t run against her if she wanted to as Donna is in Republican State Committee Region 2 and Bunny is in Region 3. Rumors had been spread — who could have done that Val? — that Donna was taking on the popular sheriff.