He is survived by Stephen J. Smart (Alene) and Leslie Zavodnick (Steven); grandchildren Elizabeth Sherstad (Andrew), Jillian Zavodnick (Nicholas Gutowski), and Matthew Smart (Eilise Blessington); and six great-grandchildren. He is also survived by a sister, Ruth Wiren (the late Raymond) and nieces, nephews, and grand- and great-grand nieces and nephews.
His wife, Barbara, died in 2019. They had been married 41 years.
Truth Social Logjam Breaks — The logjam broke this morning (April 23) and the hundreds of thousands queued since February to join Truth Social are now on board, including us.
If you’re on the app you can find us @BillLawrenceOnline. Appears direct links aren’t available yet. The app is still only available for the iPhone.
Truth Social is easy to use and seems like it will be a winner.
American Workers Available Despite Labor Shortage Wailing
By Joe Guzzardi
Depending on who is asked, the Southwest border invasion represents either sovereign America’s demise or the long-awaited answer to a national crisis. For citizens who watch the nightly news and see a flood of foreign nationals pouring over the border, then released into the general public, the imagery is deeply disturbing. But for the Chamber of Commerce, some employers and the establishment media, the U.S. needs more immigration, not controlled borders. In their eyes, the arriving migrants represent a labor market boost that will end the alleged too-few-workers mantra that dominates the business news cycle.
In her op-ed titled “Democrats Are Missing the Bigger Immigration Picture,” The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell argued that more, not fewer, illegal immigrants should be President Biden’s goal. Rampell’s reasoning: the migrants “can fill critical labor market shortages.”
Not surprisingly, the economy, at least as it pertains to filling “critical labor market shortages,” is the exact opposite of how Rampell and other immigration advocates alarmingly describe the situation. The U.S. has a significant overage of potential 16-64 employment-age workers not in the labor force. The problem is that they’re sitting at home.
In their March 2022 analysis of the unemployment and labor force participation among foreign and U.S. born that drew from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey (CPS) data, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) researchers Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that the labor force participation rate, 62.4 percent in March, has been in steep, long-term decline for decades. The fourth quarter of 2021 showed that only 73.2 percent of the working, U.S.-born were in the labor force compared to 77.3 percent in 2000. If labor force participation had remained the same in 2021 as it was in 2000, the researchers concluded, nearly 7 million more U.S.-born Americans would have been in the labor force in 2021.
The labor force participation decline is especially pronounced among the U.S.-born without a bachelor’s degree. Adding mostly unskilled, undereducated migrants with limited English skills, who appear to be the majority among the arriving aliens, would represent more job competition, and ultimately more unemployment for noncollege-educated Americans, particularly already underserved blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.
For decades, working age men have been disappearing from the labor force at record rates. In 1965, the participation rate for prime-age workers ages 25-54 was 96.6 percent – almost all adult men worked. Today, the reported participation rate is about 89.3 percent which means that, based on today’s prime-age 25-54 male population of 64.5 million, only 57.6 million prime-age men are working or actively looking for work – labor force-attached in BLS terms. About 6.9 million men are, therefore, neither working nor looking for work. Conclusion: despite advocates’ hue and cry for more foreign-born labor, millions of potential domestic workers are available; employers must pay fair wages, and offer competitive employment conditions.
The side effects of such a large nonworking adult population are many; all of them bad. People need work to maintain self-esteem and to gain a sense of community involvement. Joblessness has contributed to an increase in domestic abusebetween intimate partners and to alcohol dependency. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for more than 95,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, or 261 deaths per day. These deaths shorten the lives of those who die by an average of almost 29 years or a total of 2.8 million years of potential life lost. Alcoholism is a leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.
Drug-related deaths are at a record high; unemployment is a significant drug dependency risk factor. More than 100,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses between May 2020 and April 2021, according to the CDC. This is an increase of 28 percent from the previous April 2019 to April 2020 period. Unemployment is also a variable in the rising homelessness population. If heads of households are unemployed for long periods, intergenerational poverty can become a long-term consequence. A child’s economic future is most often determined by his living circumstances until he reaches age 23.
The link between the border and U.S. jobs is inexorable. The CIS research team found that since 2000, legal and illegal immigration has added 8.8 million workers. Many in Congress advocate for more international workers even though millions of Americans are available to hire and, because they’re unemployed, are struggling financially and emotionally. Advocacy that ignores unemployment’s deadly consequences is misinformed, self-serving and dishonest.
Answer to yesterday’s William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit quote puzzle: This world of ours… must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Proud confederation of mutual trust William Lawrence Sr Cryptowit 4-23-22
Miller Revealing Aument Indifference — Mike Miller, the guy who is taking on the Republican wool-garbed wolf who represents the 36th District in the Pennsylvania Senate, attended Monday’s Elanco School Board meeting and then the one in Warwick School District the next night.
He says he was there to support the parents and learn about the controversies. He spoke at neither.
Ryan Aument, the wolf that Miller is hunting, won election to the Senate eight years ago and has quickly worked his way into a leadership role holding the position of Caucus Secretary.
Miller, a 46-year-old investment advisor from Ephrata, is a husband of 19 years and father of three.
Miller never before sought political office. He became motivated to run when he began paying attention to Aument’s actions during the two years of Covid.
Miller notes that Aument did not represent the two-to-one Republican district in the way they should expect.
Aument backed Act 77 which gave this state the disaster of mail-in voting.
“People feel there is no accountability for that,” Miller said.
Miller also points out that Aument is the only Republican sponsor of SB 99, which would make diversity rather than competency or character the primary goal in hiring teachers.
Incumbent Ryan Aument
It’s not something that helps education or Lancaster County, Miller says.
Miller says he didn’t seek endorsement from the Republican Party.
“We don’t need their blessing to be a citizen,” he said.
He expects an onslaught from the party bosses in the next month.
Surprisingly, he expects to prevail. He says the there is a lot of dissatisfaction with Aument in the community, and the more people know about him the dissatisfaction has increased.
Miller says he is getting a good response as he goes door-to-door and finds voters become his enthusiastic after he explains Aument’s positions.
And Aument has been rather indifferent to his constituents.
Candidates Coleman And Daniels Discussed In Lt. Gov Roundup
By Bob Small
And here are two more Republican candidates for lieutenant governor. The primary election is May 17. Previous stories can be found here and here and here.
Jeff Coleman has one of the most extensive websites of any of the candidates and a plethora of experience and recommendations. He has over 50 (!) recommendations from people including Matt Brouillette, Rep. Donna Oberlander, and Sam Rohrer. Rick Santorum said “In a time of division, we need leaders like Jeff who can bring people together.”
Jeff Coleman
Coleman is the son of missionaries who served in the Phillipines during the 1986 overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos.
During his time in the Pennsylvania House, he helped lead the fights against gambling expansion and higher taxes. In an unusual move, after only serving two terms, he decided to retire from the State House to devote more time to his family.
In 2005, Coleman and his wife Rebecca founded Churchill Strategies to help conservative candidates and causes. He’s a graduate of Liberty University and Rebecca is a member of the Borough Council in Lemoyne.
He is also the author of the book “With All Due Respect, Recovering the Manners and Civility of Political Content”.
Teddy Daniels wears many hats. He’s an America Firster, combat veteran, pro-Trumper, and a retired police officer. He’s a recipient of the Combat Infantry Badge and the Purple Heart. In 2002, he was named Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by a Maryland American Legion post.
Teddy Daniels
At West Virginia University, he was a starting guard for its nationally-ranked football team.
He has been a leader in the legal marijuana market and is listed as a security advisor for Cannaspire.
In the last election, Daniels served the Trump campaign as the Northeast US Director of Vets for Trump. He has aligned himself with gubernatorial candidate Douglas Mastriano.
However, Rolling Stone Magazine has posted an article that includes accusations of domestic abuse, child support arrears, suspensions from his police job, and other offenses. The Feb 16 article made it clear that Teddy Daniels had declined an interview request and refused to answer a series of written questions.
There are also other articles echoing these charges, Voters may want to review these and form their own opinions.
Candidates Coleman And Daniels Discussed In Lt. Gov Roundup
Elanco School District Nightmare Update — An Elanco contact says the school board Monday (April 18) told the irate crowd of parents and other concerned citizens that they were addressing the matters raised in this article but couldn’t explain how due to protocols involved.
Nothing in the article was disputed, our contact said.
In Congress, an inverse relationship exists between the numbers of border crossers and a discussion about how millions of new migrants will be cared for. The greater the numbers, the less is said about open borders and the resultant negative long-term population consequences.
A report from the border indicates that immigration agents stopped about 7,100 worldwide migrants each day during a recent week. Department of Homeland Security officials predict that fiscal 2022 migration totals will surpass last year’s 2 million, plus an estimated 1,000-a-day “gotaways.” Once Title 42 is eliminated, the illegal alien surge will intensify because agents won’t be allowed to return migrants to Mexico based on COVID-19 grounds.
President Biden and those who advise him have privately agreed – they wouldn’t dare make a public announcement – that open borders are okay with them. In this era of shortages in oil and affordable housing and of supply chain disruptions causing product shortages everywhere, what will happen next to the migrants and to the U.S. environment after they settle? Limits to population growth exist, but are a taboo subject in Congress. Remember also that immigrants have multiplier factors like chain migration and increasing family size or starting new family unitsthat must eventually be provided for.
Consider the most fundamental natural resource need that everyone requires: water, and the nationwide dire shortage of it. The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has created the U.S. Drought Monitor that maps nationwide drought conditions and maintains historical drought records. Ranked according to drought severity, the top seven states include four that are primary migrant destinations: Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas.
As of March, 90 percent of Texas is experiencing drought conditions with High Plains residents suffering from extreme drought. Forecasters warn that drought conditions could worsen, and some predict the possibility of unprecedented 10-year megadroughts that will bring hotter, drier and more extreme weather than normally seen. The University of Texas and its Environmental Institute analyzed the state’s water crisis and the probability of it expanding. Identified as one of the major contributors to water shortage was population growth. Texas’ population is expected to increase from today’s 29.5 million people to 51 million by 2070, with the majority residing in urban areas. Inarguably, the more people added to Texas’ population, the more difficult it becomes to overcome water shortage challenges.
The expected Texas population increase of 21 million people in less than 50 years is part of the U.S. total population growth of 70 million, to 404 million, during the same half decade. All will be daily consumers of water in multiple ways.
Those calling for increased immigration forget that growth is finite. Sir David Attenborough, the natural history filmmaker and biologist who advocated halving immigration into the United Kingdom to preserve as much of the landscape as possible once said, “I’ve never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.” Attenborough could have mentioned that water supply is an impossible-to-solve problem for any area when there are no limits to population growth.
