Trump Supporters Rally In Newtown Square — Southeast PA Republican Grassroots has posted this pix of President Trump getting shown support on West Chester Pike in Newtown Square, Pa.
Be nice if the county GOP starts showing a little enthusiasm.
Council Caves On Mental Facility For Delco Woods — Delaware County (Pa) Council announced, yesterday, June 12, that it won’t put a mental health facility in Delco Woods Park.
They said the building being considered for an “long-term structured residence” was in poor physical condition and would have cost too much to renovate.
The county acquired the 213-acre tract by from the Catholic Church in 2021 via eminent domain for $22 million with the promise that it would be used solely for recreation.
Marple Township, April 15, rezoned the entire park to open space when county’s plan to place a mental facility there and use two other buildings for offices was revealed.
The 40 acres containing the buildings had been zoned institutional with the rest zoned residential.
The county is suing the township to keep the institutional zoning for the 40 acres.
The Catholic Church is suing the county, by the way, saying the price they paid is only half of the property’s value on the open market.
There is widespread suspicion that the building’s are being used to house illegal immigrants. In fairness, council was told at their June 5 meeting that apparent jihadist graffiti has been found in one of them.
Kudos to the county for caving to the public will. Now, try and figure out how to stop the rumors of illegals. It really shouldn’t be hard.
Swarthmore Lawnmower Ban Proposal Causes Break-Out In Democracy
By Bob Small
We’re not used to an outbreak of democracy in on- party Swarthmore, Pa. but it seems to be happening. There was tremendous opposition to the condo monstrosity at 110 Park Ave., now in the process of being built.
So on Monday night, June 10, when there was an overflow crowd at the Swarthmore Council iegislative meeting, there was a bit of electricity in the air. Mostly everyone was there to comment on the proposed vote on ordinance 05-2024 CPOME which would bancombustion-powered outdoor maintenance equipment (CPOME ). Battery-powered and electric devices are allowable.
Twenty-five citizens commented on the ordinance with 60 percent against, and half of those for it demanding modifications. The British Parliament’s description of this would have been “a dog’s breakfast”.
Three of the anti-speakers were especially persuasive.
Rob M. Jordan, who chairs the Swarthmore Republican Committee, called this an ill-conceived “elitist and dictatorial policy.” He said that when this was first proposed last winter and Borough Manager Bill Webb was asked “how many complaints have come into his desk over two years about outdoor lawn equipment smell or noise he held up less than five fingers.
He add this is a “poorly drafted, unworkable resolution that is full of virtue signaling, but extremely short on quantifiable health output and beneficial effects to residents.” He facetiously, we think, said that Swarthmore might earn the title “Communist Borough of Swarthmore”.
Independent Democrat Neil Young said “The original proposed ban on yard equipment—lawnmowers, snow throwers, and more—was thankfully halted last month. But the legislation being forced through against significant public opposition remains impractical, unnecessary, and unworkable “ He added “the proposed ban is a textbook case of poor governance”.
Matt Tirpak, long-time owner of Swarthmore’s two-decade old TLC Landscape Service explained how the new law would cause his expenses to rise which would cause his charges to increase.
The room was still packed when David Boonin, who chairs the Environment Committee, declared the ordinance will be tabled.
Council’s next meeting is Monday, July 8.
The Environment Committee meeting, where this may be on the agenda, is 7 p.m., June 24. Boonin asked that Swarthmore residents with opinions on it to contact him at dboonin@swarthmorepa.org
Swarthmore Lawnmower Ban Causes Break-Out In Democracy
Canada faces an immigration crisis on multiple levels. Years of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s endorsed over-immigration into Canada have pushed housing prices into the stratosphere, sent per capita income into a tailspin, and precipitated a brain-drain to the U.S. While skilled or semi-skilled Canadians are headed south, the millions of illegal aliens who have entered the U.S. in the last three years will head north should Donald Trump win the 2024 election.
By lowering its immigration standards, Canada created insurmountable obstacles. Foreign nationals arriving on student visas are the biggest driver of Canada’s dramatic population growth. Student visa holders, many of whom obtain diplomas from uncredited schools, are eligible for a Canadian green card within 3 years; at the fourth year they can apply for citizenship assuming they have met permanent residency requirements. In 2022, Indian students, mostly Punjab, made up 54% of Canada’s international student population. Recently, Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, announced policies that include a cap on study permit applications, stricter eligibility criteria for the post-graduation work permits, and limited access to open work permits for international students’ spouses, the equivalent to the U.S.’ H-4 visa. The government’s awakening is too little too late; Canada’s current population is 42 million, with immigration the biggest contributor. From 2016 to 2021, Canada’s population grew at almost twice the pace of every other G7 country. While growth slowed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it rose again in 2021 and, from January to March 2022, it was the highest of all first quarters since 1990.
Canada is bracing for a much larger immigration-fueled population spike. Official Statistics Canada, a government agency, projected in 2022 that “the Canadian population would reach 47.7 million in 2041, and 25.0 million of them would be immigrants or children of immigrants born in Canada, accounting for 52.4% of the total population…Canada’s population may reach…between 44.9 million and 74.0 million in 2068, according to the various projection scenarios.”
Over-immigration has created a Canadian housing affordability crisis. Demand for housing far outstrips supply. An exposé published by The Canadian Press revealed that federal public employees warned government officials two years ago that large increases to immigration could negatively affect housing affordability and services. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request showed that, as it prepared its immigration targets for 2023-2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada analyzed but ignored the potential consequences immigration would have on the economy, housing and services. Canada’s population increased by more than 430,000 during the third quarter of 2023, marking the fastest pace of population growth in any quarter since 1957. Mikal Skuterud, a University of Waterloo economics professor who specializes in immigration policy, said the federal government appears to have “lost control” of temporary migration flows, a reference to the student visa holders and migrant workers influx. Immigrant-driven population growth has a direct effect on housing. A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report that focused on housing shortages concluded that “by 2023 over 22 million units will be required to achieve affordability for everyone living in Canada.” The national benchmark home price, which measures the price of a so-called typical home, was $735,900 in April 2024, a 0.8% monthly increase. In British Columbia, the benchmark price is a staggering $985,000.
Unchecked immigration and the fallout that followed in terms of increased housing prices and decreased per capita income has sent native-born and immigrants to Canada fleeing to the U.S. In 2022, a record 126,340 moved to the U.S., a 70% increase from 2012.While workers are leaving Canada in droves, former U.S. ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman told a national security conference on June 3 that if Trump wins in November, “These people [U.S. illegal immigrants] aren’t just going to sit there and wait to be rounded up.” Should Trump win, Heyman said, they will immediately begin making plans to leave, and they will not go south, but north.
Like their U.S. expansionists’ soulmates, Canadian advocates like to parrot that more immigration lifts GDP, true but deceptive, and not the major factor in quality of life. More immigrants—more people—automatically creates a larger economy but depresses per capita income. If population growth drove economic growth, then countries like Canada and Australia that have among the highest rates of immigration and resulting population growth should vastly outpace a country like Japan, which has relatively little immigration and whose population actually declined over the last decade. Canada’s GDP per capita has fallen 0.4 per cent a year since 2020, the worst rate among 50 developed economies.
Immigration has been Canada’s downfall and proves how foolish and wrong Congress’ immigration cabal consistently is. In July 2021, the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship met. Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) wailed that the U.S. urgently needs to overhaul its “failed” immigration laws or risk losing “highly skilled” employees to Canada. Countering, Ranking Member Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), more rationally said: “Canada’s pre-pandemic GDP growth was 39 percent lower than the United States; their unemployment rate 60 percent higher; and their average wages 38 percent lower.” Lofgren embarrassingly and, as an immigration lawyer, purposely tried to mislead the public. Today, three years later, Canadians flock to the U.S. where, to their disappointment, they will find widespread IT layoffs. In April alone, 50 organizations including Google, Microsoft, and Tesla laid off 21,473 tech workers.
The harsh, inescapable truth is that too much immigration—the excesses plaguing the U.S. and Canada— hurts the native-born economically and societally. becomes unaffordable, socials services are strained, education diluted, and jobs lost. In U.S. pre-election polling, immigration consistently ranks as voters’ major issue; in Canada, 63% think immigration negatively effects housing. Even though sovereign Canada and America are crushed under its burden, nothing stops both governments’ insatiable quest for more immigration.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
USAF Silent Drill Team To Great Honor Flight June 15 — The welcome for the June 15 Philadelphia Honor Flight includes a demonstration by the Air Force Silent Drill Team.
Also there will be cheerleaders, the Phillie Phanatic, Swoop and much more.
It takes place at Saints Simon and Jude Church, 8 Cavanaugh Court, West Chester, Pa. with the drill demonstration starting at 5 p.m.
It’s free and the public is encouraged to attend and help honor the veterans.
Honor Flight is a national non-profit organization founded in 2005 to give veterans a day of honor in Washington D.C.
There is no cost to the veterans.
The Philadelphia hub was started in 2011 by then Springfield resident Andrew Schiavello.
Answer to yesterday’s puzzle: Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Thomas Gray
