Category: Bob Small

New Keystone Party Has 3 State-wide Candidates

New Keystone Party Has 3 State-wide Candidates

By Bob Small

The brand new The Keystone Party of Pennsylvania has on this year’s ballot candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, senator, and State House 93rd District. 

Joe Soloski, one of the founders, is the gubernatorial candidate. 

“I did not leave the Libertarian Party, the Libertarian Party left me,” Soloski said. 

The breakup  occurred at The Libertarian Party Convention in March. 

“The Libertarian Party became anything but an inclusive organization promoting personal liberty”, he said. “. . .Keystone was formed to promote the ideals of personal liberty, human rights,  and to be a potential new home for those independent voters that have not been able to feel at home with any party”

Their platform includes alternative currency, ending qualified immunity, an independent redistricting commission, jury nullification,  a part-time legislature, reduction of non elected and overreaching authority, and term limits and gun rights.

There has been some opposition to their formation from within their former party, The Libertarians.

“They’re a small  group of disgruntled Libertarians who ran the party for the last few years but were handily tossed out of power at the 2022 State Convention, ” said Libertarian Ken Krawchuk. “The Keystoners were more interested in playing political shenanigans on fellow libertarians than on the old party candidates.”

Krawchuk did see a bright side though.

“There are now TWO  political parties in  Pennsylvania that are pushing the Libertarian agenda,” he said.

The Keystone Party of Pennsylvania is not to be confused with Keystone United, a skinhead group.

New Keystone Party Has 3 State-wide Candidates
New Keystone Party Has 3 State-wide Candidates

Nicole Missino Takes On Incumbent Jen O’Mara In 165th

Nicole Missino Takes On Incumbent Jen O’Mara In 165th

By Bob Small

Nichole Missino is the Republican taking on Democrat incumbent Jennifer O’Mara to represent the 165th District in the Pennsylvania House.

The district has been reconfigured to include Swarthmore that had been part of the 161st District represented by Democrat Leanne Kruger, and Media Borough, which had been part of the 168th District represented by Republican Christopher Quinn.

Mrs. Missino got on the ballot in an uncontested primary write-in campaign. .

Nicole Missino Takes On Incumbent Jen O'Mara In 165th

Pennsylvania election law allows candidates to win an uncontested campaign if he or she receives a number of write-ins on Primary Election Day equal to the number of signatures required by that party.

This policy would mean that a Republican running for the office of Mayor of Swarthmore would need only 10 signatures.

Maybe I should switch parties and consider a run myself!

Mrs. Missino, by the way, got 2,300 write-ins above the required number

Mrs. Missinio is the co-owner of Giovanni’s Barber Shop in Media, which got in the news two years ago when it reopened in defiance of Gov. Tom Wolf’s extremist order for businesses to stay shut down. In hindsight, she was right. She explains her reasoning in this CBS interview from May 2020.

Mrs. Missinio says she recognizes everyone’s humanity and has flown a rainbow flag in front of their barber shop at various times.

She lives in Springfield with her husband Johnny and her son Giovanni.  Her platform is freedom.

Nichole said in regard to pending Pennsylvania Constitutional Amendments that she would would definitely back 2021-2, which would extend the duration of prosecution for those found guilty of child abuse but still needs to review some of the sections of 2022-1. She ays she would definitely support election audits and limits on abortion funding.

Nicole Missino Takes On Incumbent Jen O’Mara In 165th

2 New Alternative Parties For Election Day 2022

2 New Alternative Parties For Election Day 2022

By Bob Small

For many years in Pennsylvania the three active alternative parties were the Constitution Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party.  All presented alternative views, from left to right.  All would frequently be challenged by either Democrat of Republican parties, so the years where three alternative gubernatorial, lieutenant gubernatorial, and senatorial candidates were on the ballot were rare but did happen.  During those years, Greens (including myself) might also help the Libertarians in their challenges while Libertarians might also help the Greens, and the Constitution Party would be in there also.

This year, there are four alternatives on the ballot albeit the Constitution Party is not one of them as they are in the process of reforming. 

So joining the Greens and the Libertarians are the Keystone Party and the Socialist Worker Party, formed by expelled Trotskyites in 1938.   

In the states adjacent to Pennsylvania, only Republicans and Democrats are seeking major statewide offices in Delaware, New Jersey, and New York albeit the New York Dems have the support of their minor league team, the Working Families Party; an SWP senate candidate is on the ballot in Ohio while Maryland has Greens, Libertarians, and Working Class Party candidates on their ballots. Lastly, the Americans Coming Together (ACT) Party has a Candidate on their ballot in West Virginia. The ACT website quotes Plato “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of government, then you are doomed to  live under the rule of fools”.  Luckily, we live in Pennsylvania.

 See Politics1.com for the other 43 state wide candidate listings.

The phrase “vote your hopes, not your fears”, comes into play here.  During the last election, my Swarthmore Democratic neighbors told me I had to vote against Donald Trump because Trump will (fill in the blank here).  However Joe Biden and his “machine”, and his family, also scared me.   As I’ve previously posted, there were policies where Donald Trump would have done no worse, and sometimes better, than the Delawarean now in office.  The Afghan withdrawal is one prime example.

In future articles we will discuss the alternative candidates, none of whom have a snowball’s chance in Hades, of winning in Pennsylvania.

2 New Alternative Parties For Election Day 2022
2 New Alternative Parties For Election Day 2022

Religion An Issue In Pennsylvania Races

Religion An Issue In Pennsylvania Races

By Bob Small

On June 14, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the law  adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.   This aligns with the widely held belief –backed up by history — that most of the Founding Fathers were Christians. They led the first successful rebellion of a colony against the British Empire.

Christianity aside, the Founders were fallible. They were adulterers, duelists, slave owners, and you name it. Most though professed to being Christians even those who didn’t believe in Jesus’ divinity.

Religion is playing a huge role in Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial and senatorial Races. Both Doug Mastriano (Christianity) and Josh Shapiro (Judaism) have included their religion in their campaign ads.

Neither John Fetterman nor Dr. Oz have made his Muslimism a feature of their campaigns, though I expect the Democrats to enter that territory at some point.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) was founded in 1978. Their purpose is to promote “the constitutional separation of church and state”.  According to the June-July 2022 issue of their publication, Free Thought Today,  they try to do this through legal challenges and pointing out the crimes of various religions. See the publication’s “Black Collar Crime” section.  

If you search under DuckDuckGo — or use any  search engine but Google — with Freedom from Religion Foundation, there are six pages of links.

Free Thought Today reaches 30 pages and there’s a lot in there to read and agree and disagree with.

For arguments against, a good place to start is Conservapedia.

Religion An Issue In Pennsylvania Races

Amendments Would Limit Abortion Funding, Extend Statute Of Limitation For Child Abusers, Other Things

Amendments Would Limit Abortion Funding, Extend Statute Of Limitation For Child Abusers, Other Things

By Bob Small

Recently the local Town Talk newspaper carried a full pager to inform citizens about the status of two proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution.  We should explain that if these two resolutions are approved for a second time during the 2023-4 Legislative session, then they will graduate to ballot questions.  The resolutions are 2021-2 and 2022-1.  One might want to ask the various State Representative and State Senate Candidates for their stance on these issues in order to consider that for your decision on voting.

Resolution 2021-2 basically extends the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse by two years. Institutions which have a historic history of sheltering child abusers may try to sidetrack this bill.

Whether there should even be a statue of limitations in these cases, which if not murder, are a form of soul murder, is another question entirely.

There are four separate issues on Resolution 2022-1. 

Firstly,  “This constitution does not grant the right to taxpayer-funded abortion or any other right to abortion”.   Obviously, this would be the most contentious issue of all those mentioned.

The second issue would be that the gubernatorial candidates who win the primary –assuming they mean the two major party candidates — will choose the lieutenant governor running mate.  This would eliminate the current system, where the lieutenant governor candidates have their own primary.  The current system has helped to generate many candidates with many voices.

The third issue is a discussion of voter ID for both in-person and mail-in ballots.  The question of what qualifies as valid Voter ID would need to be clarified.

Lastly, and I’ll just quote here:

The General Assembly shall by statue provide for the auditing of elections and election results by the Auditor General.  In years when the Auditor General stands for election to any office, an Independent Auditor shall conduct the audit.

Again, we would want our elected officials to “vote with their conscience” on these issues.

Amendments Would Limit Abortion Funding, Extend Statute Of Limitation For Child Abusers, Other Things
Amendments Would Limit Abortion Funding, Extend Statute Of Limitation For Child Abusers, Other Things

Charles Murray And Freedom Of Speech In Vermont

Charles Murray And Freedom Of Speech In Vermont

By Bob Small

I’m not sure where to start, as much of the following is interconnected: Middlebury College, Charles Murray, Scott Norman Rosenthal, the First Amendment, The Bell Curve, and pro-Palestinian poetry.

Scott Norman Rosenthal is an expatriate Philadelphian now living in Vermont. (“Expatriate” sounds better than “exiled”). We’ve been friends for 40 years. A disability rights activist, Scott’s pro-Palestinian poetry has gotten him attacked on the streets of Philadelphia and accused of being “a self-hating Jew”.

This is one of the dozen or so e-mailed articles he has been writing and sending me on an almost daily basis. In it, he regrets his participation in the March 2, 2017, attack on Charles Murray at Middlebury College to prevent Murray from speaking. (Regretting what he has done is not something Scott does often.)

Charles Murray And Freedom Of Speech In Vermont
Charles Murry at Middlebury College in 2017

“Simply labeling what you criticize as hate speech doesn’t give an excuse to violently suppress dissenting voices.”

Vermont seems to have occasional acts of violence, but probably no more than Philadelphia. 

Though I was familiar with The Bell Curve, I knew very little about Charles Murray. An easier read than The Bell Curve is “Thomas Jefferson Goes East” in the National Review.

Here are some other opinions on the 2017 Middlebury incident. (It should be pointed out that Murrary spoke there in other years without any violent incidents.)

Charles Murray: My Free Speech Ordeal at Middlebury

Murray and Middlebury: What Happened, and What Should Be Done?

Post-2020, college students see speech as less secure, and …

Students call for strike of Charles Murray visit to Middlebury

The Bill of Rights says “Congress shall make no law…..or abridging the Freedom of Speech”.

My feeling is that we should  never prevent speech, no matter how much we disagree with the speaker and his or her ideas. Rather, we should attend the talk and challenge the speaker during the Question-and-Answer portion of the event.  Charles Murray is a rather complicated individual whose conclusions are sometimes correct (i.e., that the welfare state does not eliminate poverty), but whose solutions — well, that’s where we part company.

I was going to shoehorn into this article more information on Charles Murray and his relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), but realized that that is too broad a topic. So I will discuss it in a future post.

Charles Murray And Freedom Of Speech In Vermont

No Vax ID Got Me Flagged At Door

No Vax ID Got Me Flagged At Door


By Bob Small

It had been over three decades since I had been”flagged” from anyplace –getting sober then may have been a factor –but all lucky streaks must come to an end.

Briefly, I had registered online to attend a live forum on gun violence on Tuesday, July 19.  I registered while multi-tasking as one does. One of the participants was our own Swarthmore Police Chief, Raymond C. Stufflett.

However, upon arrival at the site, Ohev Shalom, I was told that I needed to provide my ID.  By the way, when I had attended for previous Biblical Lectures, this was almost never asked. “Which one?” I asked, “Driver’s licence or … “

No, they wanted my proof of vaccination! Since I didn’t have it with me, and since it wasn’t on my smartphone, which was at home anyway, like any good smartphone should be, there was nothing to be provided. Rather than being escorted out –who knows what those vaccination zealots are capable of?–, it was exit stage left for me.

I was vaccinated twice before I decided against further jabs, and there any many ID’s not carried around. And in further rebellion against the surveillance state, I only carry a dumb old cell phone, which maybe just barely graduated high school.

In my defense, none of the print information about the event in The Swarthmorean or elsewhere listed the ID requirement, but it was on the online registration form.

No Vax ID Got Me Flagged At Door

I did not argue that I had already had Covid-19, and that with the aid of Ivermectin and other protocols I had recovered (to be discussed in a future post).  Nor did I mention that there was not any boosting after I stopped seeing Dr. Fauci as my guru and switched over to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  (Whose body! My body!)

Currently, neither the Kimmel Center, Swarthmore College, nor the Wells Fargo Center requires their customers or visitors to provide proof of vaccination. Most other venues do not either.

Recently, our honored leader has developed a case of Covid. (I had wanted a president who was at least five years older than me, and here we are.) I hope he has access to Ivervectin and the  supplements I took.

By the way, the forum on gun violence seems to have been a lively affair, with Delaware County DA Jack Stollsteimer stating that the homicides and nonfatal shootings in Chester had dropped from 122 in 2020 to 80 in 2021 as a result of implementing practices imported from Boston Ceasefire.  

For what happened at the forum, see this article from The Daily Times.

No Vax ID Got Me Flagged At Door

Bathroom Bills In Britain

Bathroom Bills In Britain

By Bob Small

The issue of male-to-female transexuals visiting women’s bathrooms is controversial not only in Pennsylvania but apparently in the U.K. 

In Britain, the issue of access to women’s bathrooms for male-to-female transexuals has even cropped up in the question of who will replace disgraced Prime Minister Boris Johnson.  

In the British system, the party in power — the Tories — nominates candidates to replace a resigning Prime Minister. A series of elections among the Tory Members of Parliament reduces the number of candidates to two, and then all the Tories vote and choose the winner.  The Tories are closest to the Republicans in the USA, with political positions ranging from liberalism to Jacob Rees-Mogg, who’s been dubbed “the member of Parliament for the 18th Century”.

Bathroom Bills In Britain

In the first TV debate, when the race had been reduced to five, the three remaining female candidates debated the concept of transexual self-identification: that is, the concept that if a male-to-female transexual says they are a woman, they then should be allowed access to a women’s restroom. 

Earlier in July, Equalities Minister Kim Badenoch –one of the five — had announced that “single-sex toilets [were] to be mandatory in all new public buildings”.

What has not yet been determined in any country is this: in the absence of self-identification, who then exactly decides who is a woman. Would there be inspectors?  How would they be chosen and vetted?  Any ideas?

How would I feel if a pre-operation transexual who is wearing a dress stood in the adjacent water closet. If it were in Philly, I’d just assume it was a local drag queen and not need to think about it further.

Bathroom Bills In Britain

Dealing With Bathroom Bills

Dealing With Bathroom Bills

By Bob Small

Let us start by agreeing that transexuals, whether female-to-male or male-to-female, remain human beings and should retain the rights of all human beings. Not a radical concept, one would think.

However, all human beings, as children say many times “need to go bathroom”. Here is where the controversy begins, both here and internationally.  The British and other controversies  be covered later.

According to 34 Pa Code section 41.21: “The entrances of all retiring rooms for women shall be clearly marked. Men are not permitted to use or frequent a retiring room assigned to women …

This seems fairly clear-cut, except for this question: where does a male-to-female transexual fit in, especially one who is pre-op?

Dealing With Bathroom Bills

Well, we now have PA Senate Bill 613 and PA House Bill 613, which, it is to be hoped, will clear this up.  While they don’t specifically use the term “bathroom”, both of these bills discuss “facilities” and “privilege”. The term “facilities” has been interpreted elsewhere to include restrooms; indeed, what else would it mean?

This information comes from PAfamily.org, which opposes men at any stage of transition entering women’s’ rest rooms.

It has occurred to me that I might be standing next to a female-to-male in the next stall, but I wouldn’t expect any problem, nor would I even know.

At any rate, this situation never seems to be addressed, probably because there’s not a power imbalance between men and other men.

Another observer to whom I was referred said, “The point is, these men were able to gain access to these spaces because of the idea that a man becomes a woman the instant he says, “I’m a woman”.

Regarding male-to-female transexuals, another viewpoint states that “We want the exact same thing that most of the other women want”. I urge you to read this article.

The following quotes are from people whom I know well, who want to remain anonymous, so fiery is the topic:

From a Springfield conservative on HB 300:

“Its proponents want to assign protections enjoyed by people with immutable characteristics (such as race, color, sex, national origin, handicap, or disability) to people with changeable behaviors and mental states”.

This seemed to be the best summation I ever heard of the conservative view.

A transexual friend now living in Vermont merely asks me to imagine having to avoid using bathrooms in public, due to fear of choosing the “wrong” one.

I just have to find one marked “men”. My life is simple by comparison.

Dealing With Bathroom Bills

Jarett Coleman Flew To Upset Win Over Pat Browne In 16th District

Jarett Coleman Flew To Upset Win Over Pat Browne In 16th District

By Bob Small

Jarett Coleman, a professional pilot, was flying high in his upset GOP primary victory over long-term Lehigh County State Senator Pat Browne of the 16th District. The most recent count, as of June 3, was 17,041 to 17,022.

The 16th Senatorial District consists of Allentown and along with Alburtis, Coopersburg, Heidelberg Township, Lower Macungie Township, Lower Milford Township, Lowhill Township, Lynn Township, Macungie, North Whitehall Township, Slatington, South Whitehall Township, Upper Macungie Township, Upper Milford Township, Upper Saucon Township, Washington Township, Weisenberg Township,

Pat Browne served almost three decades in the Pennsylvania House and Senate. At the time of this election, he was the Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman, a post he had held since 2014. Having spent a decade in the State House representing the 131st District, he was elected to the State Senate in 2005.

Jarett Coleman Flew To Upset Win Over Pat Browne In 16th District
Jarrett Coleman

Among Browne’s accomplishments was his role as the founding Chairman of the Arts and Culture Caucus and the author of laws encouraging businesses to hire citizens with disabilities. 

Jarrett Coleman serves on the Parkland School Board where he works against CRT (Critical Race Theory) and mask mandates, and for greater transparency by the schools to parents in terms of the school curriculum.

During the campaign, Coleman pledged that he would decline pension and perks, support term limits, and oppose tax hikes. It will be interesting to follow his progress regarding these pledges.

He lives in Breinigsville with his wife, two children and three dogs.

After nearly three decades serving as a Lehigh Valley lawmaker, State Senator Pat Browne has a short answer when asked, “What’s next?” 

“I have no idea,” he said in an interview with WLVR.

Jarett Coleman Flew To Upset Win Over Pat Browne In 16th District