Category: Bob Small

The Un Vax Tax Happening Throughout The World

By Bob Small

My Philly friend, one Scott Normal Rosenthal, relocated to Vermont where he sends me blasts of e-mails on a daily basis.  One of these, though in an adjacent country.

The Premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, proposes that those adults who refuse to get vaccinated, must now pay a fine.  He wants these “refuseniks” to pay what he considers the increased cost on the health care system caused by thse unvaccinated.

It should be noted, that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among others, has questions about this “tax”.  

Among other examples, a Quebecois father is being prevented from seeing his minor son due to being unvaccinated.  It should be noted that“Although nearly 90 percent of Quebec are vaccinated, they make up nearly a third of all hospital cases”.

According to Bloomburg News, these worrying sanctions are occuring throughout Europe;

Austria is planning mandatory vaccinations as of next month, with fines as high as 7,200 Euros ($8,151).

Greece is imposing a 100 Euro ($113) monthly fine on those unvaccinated and over 60.  In November, for example, only 60,00 among 580,000 of this population were jabbed.

Other countries, such as Finland and Slovakia,  are offering the carrot rather than the stick.  Slovakia is giving out 500 Euros ($573) to those over 60 recalcitrants.

Lastly Lithuania does both, requiring Covid immunityu for any indoor venue.  However, they are also offering 100 Euros ($114.50) to anyone over 75 who gets a booster before March 31^st.  For further examples, see These Countries Are Slapping the Unvaccinated With Fines …

Luckily, we live in these United States where neither the Federal Government would dare to dream of such a “Unvax Tax”.  And if they did surely it would go to a Court to be stopped while both online and offline writers fulminated, and tv and radio hosts spoke out against this.  Surely this would happen.  And anyway, don’t we trust the average American to know what a dictatorship is approaching, a “Faucism” to invent a combination word, and how to do non-violent resistance of whatever source they choose.  Surely, surely, surely.

As both Frank Zappa and Sinclair Lewis opined

“It can’t happen here”

The Un Vax Tax Happening Throughout The World

Activism Looms For 2022

By Bob Small

2022 will be the year of the Citizen-Activist, but with a twist. They will not be tied to the right or the left or to a political party. They will encompass the whole range of beliefs.

Let us start with an underreported phonomenon in Pennsylvania.  In 2020 there were a number of write-in Candidacies, as there always are, especially for local School Boards.  However, this time there were a number of winners.  Many of these candidates have tried, in some form of vain, to have their voices heard about what their children are being taught.  They waged grassroots non-violent campaigns and now Justin Wimer, and many others will have a chance to try and influence educational policy.   

 An example from Lancaster courtesy of LancasterOnline: Lancaster judge accepts write-in misspellings in Manheim …https://lancasteronline.com › news › politics › lancaster-ju..

In Chester County, two community members, a scientist and a nurse, committed civil disobedience to stop construction on the Mariner East Pipeline.  In October 2021, the state Attorney General’s announced 4! criminal charges for environmental crimes against the operators albeit the \ DEP  later approved new permits!  See #HaltMarinerNow  and also Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety – Home | Facebook and Activists Arrested While Halting Construction on Sunoco …

https://www.democracynow.org › headlines › activists_…

Remaining in Chester County (Willistown Township) a citizens group has formed to Save Rock Hill Farm and it’s open space.  This, like one of the cases in Swarthmore, is a scenario where developers see open space and translate it into dollar signs. 

A long fight in Delaware County appears resolved when the Don Guanella property, adjacent to Cardinal O’Hara with the approval of Delaware County Council, to make it a County Park. https://www.delcotimes.com › 2021/11/17 › delco-conti…

Lastly, Swarthmore’s Tree owners battle with PECO continues.  In this case, use DuckDuckGo for searches as Google seems to have an issue with showing this website. Info can also be found at Stop!The Tree Chop Swarthmore!,easement study, under www.americandreamdigital.com. Trust a Swarthmore Citizens group to make it as complicated as possible to locate them.

Activism Looms For 2022

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Chipping Away At Freedom

By Bob Small

If you have to carry a card in your pocket (or pass on your phone) proving you injected a drug into your body to gain access to grocery stores, receive medical care or to freely move about society than you no longer live in a free country and you are no longer sovereign over your own body-And that should concern everyone-regardless of political party or medical choices.
Venessa Leianne

This even enters into the magical world of sports, and Flyers and Sixers fans will need proof of COVID-19 vaccination.

The average Philly Sports fan has a deservedly confrontative reputation. Would either of these fan-groups meekly agree to provide this information? Well, we humans have a way of rationalizing behavior to achieve certain
ends, and this means we’ll use whatever means we need for our ends.

Taking this a step further, would we agree to implanting a Flyers or Sixers “chip”, especially if this included free Flyers or Sixers merchandise. Surely no one would agree to this, surely.

In 1997, former 76ers basketball player Charles Barkley became infamous, for throwing a man through a bar window. When asked by a Philly sports radio show host why he threw him through the first floor window, he allegedly said “Because I wasn’t on the damn second floor.”

Even though he was no longer playing in Philly, we all supported him for being a “Philly guy”.

I’ve had the two vaccines so I have the card. However, I can’t think of any activity which is that important that I would give up my private information just so I could- So I’ll miss going to concerts, Poetry Readings, restaurants, sports, when not zoomable. And I will miss some of this.

Also, I’ve decided not to get a booster after inhaling the Robert Kennedy, Jr, book via my wife, who quoted from every chapter. (I’m busy reading Finks by
Joel Whitney about writers who were seduced by the CIA. This way I’ll know which mid-century writers not to read.)

Chipping of humans is either happening or being proposed in France, Mexico, Sweden, the UK, and numerous other countries. My favorite article, from October 2017 is Don’t Trust the Chinese to Make Microchips for the Military.

Chipping Away At Freedom

Medical-Industrial Complex Makes Finding Right Door A Problem

By Bob Small

For those of us trapped in old norms,  we have to rethink,  go to different ways of acting, thinking and speaking.  My previous norm was that there were males (including drag queens) and females.  There was Bi, Gay, and straight. There was the occasional adult Transexual and, to my shame, I never considered what bathrooom , of the two available possibilities, he/she would use.

Now the times and tides have changed.  It seems there are numerous High school Transexuals (more about that later), which has caused “issues:”

In Philadelphia, according to the Billy Penn Newsletter,  all schools must have an accessible gender neutral Bathroom (as of August) but not all do.

The great state of Illinois passed “The Equitable Restrooms Act with vote being unanimous in the Senate and 109-5 in the House. It was signed by Gov. J. B. Pritzker on July 29, 2019, which caused the Chicago Public Schools to announce on Twitter  that “all restrooms have been made mixed-sex to be “more inclusive” of students and staff who wish to use “facilities that align with their gender identity.   www.womanarehuman.com/all-chicago-public-school-restrooms-now-mixed-sex/

This is affecting Arizona, California, New York,  the UK,  etc. The Communist Party of the USA,  notes that “the forcible sex segregation of bathrooms is the newest struggle for transgender rights and gender expression.” in their diatribe under www.cpusa.org/article/the-trans-equality-struggle.  The Socialist Party of The UK has my favorite Headline “  Tories Tout Toilet Tensions” (see www.socialistparty.org.uk)

There are a half dozen more articles on this issue, but many high school students are transitioning, which leads me to the last topic;

Aetna Medical in their Requirements for Genital Reconstructive Surgery lists numerous criteria, prime of which is a person being 18 years or older.   They, and other Pennsylvania medical providers, generally agree on this, though  also saying they review  on a “case-by-case basis” . So why are there  so many Transitioning High School students?  My leftist paranoia brings up the phrase “medical-industrial complex”, with all the attendent industries that feed off of Transexuals. 

Three questions, then:

 One must be 18 to vote in Pa. and 18 to enlist (17 with parental consent), but younger to change your gender? 

 Why are there so many more transitioning teenagers in 2021 then ever before ?

 Is this a positive or negative development?  

Medical-Industrial Complex Makes Finding Right Door A Problem

Division Trumps Truth For Corporate Media

By Bob Small

Who are the “useful idiots” in Kyle’s case

It began when one of my favorite Swarthmore Socialists sent me a podcast on Substack by Glenn Greenwald titled Kyle Rittenhouse Acquitted on All Charges

Glenn Greenwald, a favorite reporter, is lefter than left, having founded the Intercept, which he later left, as he did the practice of Law. He currently lives in Brazil with his husband.

An early supporter of Edward Snowden, he recently opined on Kyle Rittenhouse.

Among the many points he made, and you should really listen to all 45 minutes, he pointed out that most of the media, surprise, listed inaccurate “facts”,
such as not mentioning that the persons shot were white not black.

He agrees that Kyle is pro-gun, pro-police and pro-Trump but does not see how that makes him a Racist. Rather the corporate Media is working side one of a political civil war, and is “stoking this cauldron of politcal hatred.”

A Radical friend, now in exile in Vermont, sent me an article by Jesse Singal , who has written for The Atlantic, New York Magazine and The New York Times. The Rittenhouse Verdict Shouldn’t Have Been a Surprise.

He points out “The fact that so many people were so confused about this case” blaming the Corporate Media, going on to say that the Left also has it’s “fake news” problem, I. e. ” partisan news coverage and punditry on the left is becoming a serious problem in it’s own right”.

Again, you should read the whole article.

Lastly, you should also read Matt Taibbi’s article The Rittenhouse Verdict is Only Shocking if You Followed the last year of Terrible Reporting

According to Democracy Now, the parents of Anthony Huber are suing the Kenosha Police Department, County Sheriff’s Dept. and the Sheriff and Police Chief for failing to do their job and monitor the crowd.

They mentioned that their son, Anthony Huber, unlike Kyle Rittnhouse, “did not get a trial”.

My conclusion is that the corporate media, have become the “useful idiots” of 2021, and stooges for the established class, at least in this case.

And one more thing. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Kyle said “I support the BLM movement. I support peaceful demonstrations”, and added “I believe there needs to be change”.

Wonder if we’ll hear this anywhere else.

Composting Blows Blowing Away Regarding Leaves

By Bob Small

So The New York Crimes, I mean Times, had a long-winded opinion piece entitled “The First Thing We Do Let’s Kill All the Leaf Blowers” by a Margaret Renkl. One of my Swarthmore neighbors, John B, hand-delivered it to me –that’s how they do things in Swarthmore — and insisted I write about it. John is anti Leaf Blowers (hereafter LB).

Now, living in Swarthmore, and Delco, the melodic tones of the gas-powered LB reigns supreme at many hours, which leads to outrage in some quarters, though, unless it’s before 7 a.m., it’s kinda legal.

Now there are not any Pennsylvania State Regulations about Gas LB’s (and here you thought there were Pennsylvania State Regulations about everything), but 15 States, including neighboring states, New Jersey and New York, have municipal regulations on this. These municipalities include Princeton and Southampton.

Now we have never used a LB because we refuse to surrender our leaves to the Borough. Instead, our leaves become mulch for our winter vegetables and other plants, and end up in our chicken coop. The leaves make the ground much richer for nature and, by growing and eating our own fruit, as long as we are still allowed to do this, we feel we may be, in our own small way, disrupting this whole notion of the Global supply chain.

At least we hope so.

A rake has advantages over any LB. First, raking does not affect the environment. It is also this thing they call exercise which many married men try to avoid, and it puts you right out there with nature, rather than beyond it.

Which gets us to lawnmowers. We have neighbors using lawnmowers daily, or paying someone. My question has always been Why! Of all the activities I could find (and did as an adolescent), I find daily mowing much less useful than composting (in my house I’m “King of the Compost Pile”), digging for plants, trees, providing for our chickens, etc. However, if this daily mowing keeps our neighbors off the Swarthmore streets, it’s probably useful.

Let’s end with a quote from a former Eagles Player Ricky Waters “For who, for what”. Though I guess if it’s a choice between watching the Fall 2021 Eagles or mowing, then mowing sounds good.

Composting Blows Blowing Away Regarding Leaves

Right To Bear Fruit Established In Maine

By Bob Small

I had almost forgotten my previous days with a community garden in Philly (she was a blonde, too) when my wife (#3 but who’s counting) decided that now that we’re retired we can start a vegetable garden, along with some fruit trees. Borough Swarthmore fought us on the fruit trees but went down to defeat.

This brings us to Nov. 2 in the state of Maine, a secessionist state –from Massachusetts in 1820– which recently passed Question 3 by 60 percent of the vote. Briefly, this gives individuals “the right to produce, harvest, and consume their own food.”

State Rep William Faulkingham (R-136) give a rather long-winded support of this. Jumping ahead 25 to 30 years into the future, could we see our government creating roadblocks and restrictions to the peoples right to food?

Will Monsanto own all the seeds?

Opoosition ranged from valid concerns to well….

While Katie Hansberry (Maine State Director of the Humane Society) brought up the possibility of lifestock cruelty unlimited by animal cruelty laws, Janelle D. Tirrell (Maine Veterinary Medical Association) queried “Does this mean I can keep a cow in my Portland Apartment? Can I slaughter pigs in my front yard?”

While Maine chose to constitutionalize these rights, only a handful of other states have these rights, Pennsylvania not being one. Thus cities and municipalities can try and determine what you can and cannot grow, Of course you can always appeal this but who has the time and money to take the long way around just to grow apples and tomatoes, etc.

Further, Pennsylvania does not grant a Constitutional right to hunt or fish, as half our states do, but the state does sell fishing ($22,90) and hunting ($20.97) licenses.

I seem to remember that the Pennsylvania Legislature unofficially closed on the first day of hunting season.

You can also continue to purchase raw milk in Pennsylvania — until big Farma prevents that.

So, in Pennsylvania, you may grow and consume your own fruit and vegetables
but you do this at your own risk of legal ramifications.

And Monsanto may be watching.

Right To Bear Fruit Established In Maine