Category: Bob Small

Frankie Lozada Wants To Be First Hispanic President

Frankie Lozada Wants To Be First Hispanic President — Frankie Lozada wants to be our next President, the first Hispanic president.  Frankie, a New York Democrat, feels he is qualified to be the “next leader of the best country in the world”. 

He says that “poverty is the largest illness that plagues America”.

Frankie recently joined Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in addressing the Hispanic Chamber gala in Savannah,Ga..

A former firefighter, his resume can be viewed here.

He previously ran for Congrees in New York’s 5th District.

He says he wants Medicare for all and to “encourage competition among pharmaceutical firms” 

He was one of the few Democratic candidates to quote the Bible which came up during a discussion of immigration citing  Matthew 25 31-40;  “I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me”. 

“For a country that was founded on religious freedom, we have strayed away from our values when we deny our own neighbors at the border and beyond,” he said.

He also suggests a “credit forgiveness program.”

Regarding prison reform he said prisons are intended to be rehabilitation centers but have “punishment facilities that embezzle money from our government.”

“The United States has a 68 percent rate of recidivism,”he says.

See also his extensive responses on Ballotpedia’s candidate connection survey.

Now, why should anyone consider any of these lesser-known Democratic Candidates?  After all, Joe Biden is scheduled to run again. 

Well, Biden appears to have various “issues”, and there are not a plethora of well-known candidates seeking the Democrat nomination. 

RFK Jr. running as an independent, after all, and  Politics1.com has demoted Marianne Williamson to the “ other Democrats” list, which the political equivalent of the Reading Phillies.

Shades of Woodrow Wilson

Could it be time for the Democrats to look elsewhere. 

Can they?

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

By Bob Small

So we –me and Paula my wife — spent Tuesday, Nov 7, at our polling place on Rutgers Avenue, in the Cades Building in Swarthmore, Pa.  We were handing out information on behalf of two Republicans running for Borough Council. Did I really say Republicans? To paraphrase Admiral James Stockdale “Who am I and what am I doing here.?”

This started with there being a special election for Swarthmore Borough Council.

One of the candidates, Rob  M. Jordan, had contacted me and I shared my years of expertise, such as it is, from involvement with Green Party Politics.  Surprisingly, he followed my guidance, and both GOP Candidates made it on the ballot. 

This was the first time in decades that there was a contested election for Swarthmore Borough Council!  For some more perspective, see A Republican In Swarthmore.

So we spent the day and night, 8 to 8, asking people to “be part of history, vote in a Swarthmore Borough Council contested election.”

Usually, you could only vote for the Democrat.  Or not. Are elections for the Beijing City Council like this?

At any rate, several Democrats engaged with me during the campaigning. They know us from attending almost every Borough Council Meeting –we even received a citation for this — and considered Green and harmless. 

When one elected official, as part of his harangue, asked me why I would dare be doing this, I mentioned Swarthmore Council members who promised to vote against the Condo but ended up voting for it.

At least 80 percent of the public comment on this issue was against.  

Also mentioned was Council’s inability to prevent PECO doing massive replacement of trees for their new and taller electrical poles..

 Swarthmore has boasted about been a “tree city”.

Cell phone tower trees are not a replacement.

My candidates lost getting around 5 percent of the vote.

We consider it both a “new beginning” and a consciousness-raising”.

On Wednesday, I transitioned my voter registration from Green to Republican.

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

Election Day 2023 In Swarthmore Pa

4 Seek 2 Seats For Pennsylvania Superior Court

4 Seek 2 Seats For Pennsylvania Superior Court

By Bob Small

Two seats are up on Pennsylvania Superior Court  and those seeking them are Maria C. Battisa and Harry F. Smail Jr. on the Republican ticket; and Jill Beck and Timika Lane on the Democrat one.

The court was established in 1895 and is one of two statewide intermediate appellate courts. It hears appeals in criminal and most civil cases from county courts of common pleas; and matters involving children and families.

Terms are 10 years and the court is headquartered in Harrisburg.

Maria C. Battista

Maria C. Battista received her Juris Doctorate from Ohio Northern University. She has worked with the Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners and currently works for the Judge group in Wayne, Pa..

 She has been endorsed by the Pennsylvania FOP.

Jill Beck

Jill Beck is a graduate of Duquesne Law School. She has worked at Kids Voice a private nonprofit representing Allegheny County abused, at-risk, and neglected children.  At Blank Rome, she was co-chair of their working group aimed at protecting the right to protest. She worked for a decade as a clerk with Justice Christine Donahue.  She has also focused on representing “low-income criminal defendants.” Shlives in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh with “her husband, two children, and  their rescue dog”.

Timka Lane

Timika Lane has her law degree from the Rutgers University of Law-Camden. She was elected to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas  in 2013 and has also served as a chief legal counsel for the Pennsylvania Senate.  Her philosophy is that “litigants are not just names on a pleading”. 

She sees the greatest threat to the practice of law as  “ keeping up with the changes of technology and its effect on traditional methods of litigation.” 

She also worked for Habitat for Humanity during Hurricane Katrina,.

Judge Harry F. Smail Jr.

Harry F. Smail, Jr. has been a Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court judge since being appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett in 2014. He attained his Duquesne University of Law Degree while working as a full-time Probation/Parole Officer.  He has also worked for the Federal Public Defender’s Office of indigent defendants.

‘I do not legislate from the bench; rather, I apply and enforce the law as intended as the third branch of government providing the checks and balances that make our government functional,” he said.

He is a member of The Federalist Society 

He states his opinions “have a 97 percent affirmation rate.”

He said that his decisions about setting aside ballots without the required dates were affirmed by Commonwealth Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

He lives in Westmoreland County with his wife and  two daughters. 

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

By Bob Small

We went to the Peace and Conflict Studies Speaker Series on Oct. 24, at Lang Performing Arts Center at Swarthmore College. 

There was conflict, though, and it was not peaceful.

The topic was Israeli Security Policy.   The attempted speaker was Dr. Barak Mendelsohn from Haverford  College and the Israeli IDF

However at the beginning, members of various protest groups  left en masse chanting loudly. though not always in sync. Then continued chanting outside of the auditorium.

They did not have identification on their handouts.  It’s not like we did it in the sixties, eighties, or even this century. The chants were incomprehensible but they made speaker in comprehensible too.

We worried about Jewish students in the audience, who might of felt fearful.

We learned some background from the Swarthmore College Phoenix;

The three listed organizing groups for and Oct. 12 event, and we assume, the Oct. 24 event were Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP); The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) which is the campus section of Democratic Socialists of America; and Swarthmore African-American Student Society (SASS)

 There were three other unlisted groups implied.

Dr Sa’ed Atshan, the chair of Peace and Conflict series responded by e-mail, to my query about the disruption.

“Thank you so much for being present and for this feedback. We’d love to have you with us again in the future,” he wrote.

He was not present during this event. Frankly, we didn’t see any Swarthmore Public Security either albeit we were later told that they were there.

Now, being nothing if not thorough, I emailed Visualizing Palestine, which was named on the sign expressing my concerns. Visualizing Palestine. The conversation led to a contact with Visualizing Impact.

The best way to explain Visualizing Impact is that they provide the signs for Visualizing Palestine and would equally provide signs for a visualizing Israel group.  They seem not to have any agenda except profit.  For one of many critiques of this kind of group, see Pros & Cons of Data Visualization: the Good, Bad, & Ugly 

Lastly, read  Our Protests Should Be More Thoughtful in The Phoenix.

This said everything that I felt.  Including “ But working to silence someone is never an avenue towards justice.”

I  wanted to hear the questions to Dr. Mendelsohnn from the  protesting group.

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker

Winds of change in Swarthmore?

Winds of change in Swarthmore?

By Bob Small

We attended a  “meet and greet”, Oct. 19, for the two GOP Candidates in the Swarthmore Borough Special Election, Nov. 7. 

This election was necessitated by the resignation of two Democratic Borough Council members, Sarah Graden and Francine Halderman.

It’s been many years since the Republican Party has meant anything in Swarthmore. There was an enthusiastic audience, despite the Phillies playing in the NCLS.

The Republicans are Rob M. Jordan and Bill Pearce.  They explained why they were running in a letter published  in the Oct. 20 Swarthmorean.

“Our Council’s financial decisions are causing great concern.  Overspending, a draw down  of reserves, and the Mayor’s ominous warning of a looming budget crisis have left us burdened with a 9 percent tax hike in 2022 and a 10 percent tax hike this year – with an even higher jump possibly to come shortly.”

They also mentioned  “the erosion of civility and accountability in leadership”.

They noted that the GOP is not merely the “party of grievance”. The candidates said they want to “preserve our cherished Tree Canopy from PECO Deception”.

They said they also want to“increase the exceptional quality of  life that defines our community,” and to embrace “intelligent zoning and forward thinking planning.”

They said at the event they feared Swarthmore would turn into Lansdowne if the current board’s agenda was not checked.

Rob Jordan is a Villanova University Economics Graduate and has worked as a senior healthcare executive.  He is a member of the Don Guanella Park Master Plan Advisory Committee and is president of the Board of Directors of Saint Joseph Family Hope emergency housing center.

Bill Pearce is a graduate of Drexel in Chemical Engineering. He also has a masters of education from Rutgers, and an MBA from Tulane.

After a 35 year career in what he describes as “global business development”, he moved to Swarthmore.  At the time of COVID, he joined the Widener University SBDC(Small Business Development Center) where he is a business consultant and international trade specialist. 

He recently joined the Goldman Sachs 10 K Small Business Program at Community College of Philadelphia.

We’ve had two decades of one-party rule in Swarthmore.  As long as there’s only one choice, whether Democrat or Republican, this  feels more like dictatorship than democracy.

Winds of change in Swarthmore?
Bill Pearce and Rob Jordan,

MSG IS Anti-Left Democrat From Connecticut

MSG IS Anti-Left Democrat From Connecticut

By Bob Small

Mark Stewart Greenstein (MSG) is a Connecticut Democrat who posits himself as an “anti-left” Democrat. On his web site, he lists reasons for Republicans to vote for him, including, but not limited to the following: “elimination of the income tax, faster dismantling of Obamacare, faster immigration reform, and forced socialism”.

But he also lists reasons that Democrats should vote for him, such as his dislike of the two-party system, the fact that he “likes Bernie but prefers he stays in the Senate” and the fact that he is “not enamored with any of the staged candidates”. 

Lastly, he seeks the Independent vote as well, stating that he’s a candidate “who prefers small government” and “who wants to return to Constitutional governance”.

MSG IS Anti-Left Democrat From Connecticut
Mark Stewart Greenstein

It’s pretty evident that his stances — only a quarter of which are stated above –are fairly contradictory. Many, for example, would say Bernie Sanders stands for “forced socialism”.

MSG takes so many contradictory stances that he could probably debate himself.

In an insanely long meet-the-candidate article from his run for the Connecticut State Senate — 26 pages printed out; take on a train ride to read — we learn that MSG is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley School of Law. He founded and currently runs Ivy Bound, a company that helps prepare students for the ACT and SAT college-entrance exams and does academic tutoring.

During this state senate campaign, one of MSG’s goals was to bring an NHL team back to Hartford, Connecticut — previous home of the Hartford Whalers, as you no doubt knew — and the slogan was “Make Connecticut SKATE again”.

 Greenstein was the first Democratic candidate for the presidency to file in New Hampshire.

RFKJ Is Breath Of Hope

RFKJ Is Breath Of Hope

By Bob Small

Most of the time, I read about history, but a week ago, Oct. 9, I was at the National Constitution Center as history unfolded.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  generated excitement among the highly diverse crowd in attendance, many, like me, returning to Philadelphia for the first time in many years. It felt like a combination of rock music, politics, and sports. It was a time to let hope overcome fear and regain belief. It was a new time feeling like some old times.

We may think we know about this Kennedy but on his website, you will discover how many times he has fought big corporations  including Ford, Mitsubishi, Mobil, along with various departments of our own US government, while representing the under-served American Indians, family farmers, Mexican fisherman, and migrant workers.

A film that highlight one of these batttles is Mann V. Ford (TV Movie 2010) – IMDb 

One part of his philosophy is to disengage from empire building. 

“We have to stop seeing the world in terms of enemies and adversaries,” his website says. “As John Quincy Adams wrote, ‘Americans go not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.'”

RFK Jr. will revive a lost thread of American foreign policy thinking, the one championed by his uncle, John F. Kennedy who, over his 1000 days in office, had become a firm anti-imperialist. “

The speech was a good hour long and we spent almost two hours standing, cheering, singing, talking, listening, and hoping.  When was the last time a candidate spoke and gave you hope?

Mostly, people vote for better than, the “lesser of two evils”, “he won’t start a nuclear war”.

There was a saying among us Greens “vote your hopes, not you fears”, knowing that Ralph Nader, etc. could never win but we wanted to hope.  

Now here was a candidate that giveas us hope and whom we think, just maybe, could win.

This is not to say that he doesn’t have some negatives, but we’ll leave that for the Democrats, and  Republicans to point out. 

Just for now, for one bright shining hour, hope is allowed.

RFKJ Is Breath Of Hope

RFKJ Is Breath Of Hope

Separate League Is Latest Transoversy

Separate League Is Latest Transoversy

By Bob Small

The latest transoversy: Should there be separate leagues for transexuals engaged in amateur athletics.?

One reason for this is purely statistical.  Shouldn’t we have four lanes for stats;  i.e., men. women, MTF and FTM, or do the numbers really matter?

Well, even amateur sports declare a champion and winners of individual meets, so, rightly or wrongly, most societies emphasize winning, and, mostly, in what is considered a “fair” manner, without any performance enhancing drugs or operations, etc .

“If you go through male puberty you should not be able to take away medals away from females,” said Trans Activist Caitlin Jenner. At the same time “Trans women who transitioned before male puberty do not have a performance advantage”.  

My addition to this is that, however you do it, it should be post op transexuals.

TheWorld Boxing Council believes this also.

Two of many dissenting views are Trans Girls Belong on Girls’ Sports Teams – Scientific American  and Myths About Transgender Girls in Sports | ACLU of Iowa 

Note “The Olympics have had trans-inclusive policies since 2004, but a single openly transexual athlete has yet to qualify.

Another voice for separate competitions is Let Trans Athletes Have Their Own Sport Competitions 

“What about male transsexuals? Are they to have no competitive arenas of their own? Due to their use of estrogen, they are weaker and less competitive than otherwise would have been the case, but still far stronger than undrugged girls. And their female to male counterparts are stronger and thus more competitive than they were before, thanks to doses of testosterone, but still nowhere near the level of males. No, they should not be banished from sports rivalry. They, too, deserve to experience the joys of competition. They should be allowed to organize their own events, whether in high school, college or the Olympics. We already have the Paralympic Games. Why not also organize athletic games for transsexuals? 

However, there have been some FTM exceptions (see below)

https://podtail.com/en/podcast/dear-schuyler/

https://us.srichinmoyraces.org/archives/1989/24hours/Whiting

Ethics Explainer: The Other – THE ETHICS CENTRE 

One more voice;

An 8th Grade Girl Explains Why Male Athletes Should Not Be Allowed in … 

In March of this year, the WAC (World Athletics Council) voted to exclude male athletes who have undergone male puberty from female World Ranking competition”.

Lastly, can we advance to the place where we are no longer “otherizing” Transexuals, athletes or not, once we’ve found agreement on the above issues.

Separate League Is Latest Transoversy

Separate League Is Latest Transoversy

A Friend From Carolina

A Friend From Carolina

By Bob Small

If we’re looking for a bald Republican candidate for president, look no further than Brian Friend of North Carolina, whose slogan is “America Reborn 24;”

Friend moved to Kure Beach, NC in 1987 and received his bachelor’s in accounting from UNC-Wilmington, while washing truks for $4.50 hour.  

He also has a masters degree from the former Jones International University in Forensic Accounting/Advanced Taxation.

He heads Port City Insurance which he started in 2003.

In some ways, his campaign is boiler plate GOP, describing it as

Pro God,
Pro Military,
Pro Law Enforcement,
Pro 2nd Amendment

And he adds the statement that “America needs to be baptized”.

However, he sees the need for other changes.  He is for affordable housing, choice for vaccination, school choice, cutting healthcare costs and trade schools

He also wants Americans “stranded in Afghanistan and Yemen” to be returned.

He is also anti-digital currency and defends bail bonds saying, “it is essential to . . . to keep dangerous criminals off the street, but also to let criminals that are not dangerous  the opportunity for release.”

See also  Brian Friend – Ballotpedia 

A Friend From Carolina

A Friend From Carolina

Alternatives For DVD Fans With Netflix DVD’s Passing

Alternatives For DVD Fans With Netflix DVD’s Passing

By Bob Small

Since Netflix DVD has ceased to exist as of, today, Sept. 29, we have begun to investigate alternatives.

These are two of the mail-order alternatives; one is Scarecrow Video of Seattle. It offers a humongous list of titles.

Then there’s Cafe DVD, for which you can even pay for your DVD’d by check if you want to be really old-school.

Scarecrow and Cafe are two of the most recent listings of alternatives to Netflix.

Here are some lists of others.

7 Alternatives to Netflix for Renting DVDs – MUO

Five DVD Subscription Services to Replace Netflix – How-To Geek

With all of these alternatives, it may be helpful to check out CNET or another site that presents aggregate reviews. For the next month, many of these services will probably get a rush of customers and will have to learn to adjust.

If you’re ready to travel within Delaware County, there is a great old-timey store called Goodies that offers DVDs and even unopened videotapes for sale. Of course, stores such as Goodies also offer the opportunity for socialization. Many of us have been inside too long and would welcome the chance to meet and talk to other people who are also interested in movies.

There are also various thrift stores that offer DVDs and videotapes.

Here are some links:

THE BEST 10 Thrift Stores in Delaware County, PA – Yelp

Family Thrift Shoppe – 1011 Macdade Blvd – Foursquare and 

NANA’S ATTIC – 23 Photos & 16 Reviews – Yelp

Dollar stores sometimes sell DVD’s, although my friend Peggy observes that “you can’t buy anything there any more for a dollar!”

Then there is the Delaware County Library System, which has the added advantage of letting you search online before you go to the library.

Of course, there’s always Redbox, possibly the least social option for finding movies to watch.

Alternatives For DVD Fans With Netflix DVD's Passing

Alternatives For DVD Fans With Netflix DVD’s Passing