Category: Bob Small

GOP Look To Become Even Weaker In Philly

GOP Look To Become Even Weaker In Philly

By Bob Small

The Guv throws a spanner in the works. Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has thrust himself into this November’s City Council Election in Philadelphia.

He endorsed the current City Council at-Large incumbent, from the Working Families Party, one Kendra Brooks.  She is also a member of the leftish DSA (Democratic Socialist).

Bob Brady, former Democratic Representative and current chair of the Democratic Party of Philadelphia, commented on this.  He’s stated that Shapiro’s endorsement of a non-Democrat probably violates state party rules.  It was unclear what their response could be.

On the other hand, Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Sharif Street said  “He can support who he chooses”, so this may be a tempest in a teapot.

Ms. Brooks was elected in 2019, the first non-Republican or non-Democrat to win an at=large seat in over 70 years. It probably helped that she was endorsed by Larry Krasner and Elizabeth Warren.

Ms. Brooks’ campaign  says they are planning a fundraiser with the Governor.

Ms. Brooks and Shapiro have worked together before, including a campaign ad last year..

Ms. Brooks has said she doesn’t believe the Republicans deserve governing power in Philadelphia.

This may hurt the GOP more than the Democrats for two reasons.  First, the WFP is closer to the Dems than the GOP.  Secondly, and more importantly, there are seven at large City Council seats, with two reserved for the minority party.  Both the GOP and the WFP have two candidates.  Since 9 of the 10 District Council seats don’t have a Republican opposition, the only other Republican who can win, and probably will, is District 10 incumbent Brian O’Neill.

For information about the Philadelphia Republican Party, such as it is, and their at-large candidates, see  Republican Party of Philadelphia | PhillyGOP | United States 

The Philadelphia GOP has not responded to phone and/or email requests for comment on this issue.

GOP Look To Become Even Weaker In Philly

GOP Look To Become Even Weaker In Philly

Tiny Homes For Homeless?

Tiny Homes For Homeless?

By Bob Small

In the ’90s when I finished my degree at Neumann (Night School), one of their “causes” was “Books for the Homeless”.  Other groups collected clothes, food, offered donations of haircuts, healthcare, raincoats, shaves, shoes, and etc.

Now, someone has come up with a fairly radical solution, homes for the homeless.

The Tiny Homes Community Collaborative (THCC) Facebook page explains the alternative therapeutic farm at Penny Lane is just one part of the project.  Each tiny home can be produced for $50,000 through a public/private partnership through XDS, inc. and the UNC School of Social Work

Their first goal is 15 tiny homes with five of those prioritized for veterans with chronic health conditions.

The engine behind this is Thava Mahadevan,who is a clinical addiction specialist and director of operations at the UNC center for Excellence in Mental Health. He began his journey as a Tamil in Sri Lanka and then fled to India where he experienced homelessness. Mahadevan expects these houses to rent for $250 per month.

Alaina Money-Garman, the founder and CEO of Garman Homes, says she believes private and public partnership are key to addressing affordable housing challenges.

Not everyone is thrilled with this concept.

“We don’t want this here,” Robert Wilson of Charlotte said.  We don’t think it’s the right place for it here. We feel like it’s going to hurt our property values.”

Tiny Homes For Homeless?

Tiny Home Industry Association is a website dedicated to the latest in tiny homes.

Some of these proposals even include tiny homes on wheels! 

There are even tiny homes TV shows.

Some of these, by the way, are not for persons with mental problems, but for people with tiny incomes.

This is happening throughout the country.

Is Delaware County next?

Tiny Homes For Homeless?

Tiny Homes For Homeless coming?

Fear Of A Dem Pro-Life Candidate

Fear Of A Dem Pro-Life Candidate

By Bob Small

Having been arrested at anti-government demonstrations, I have nothing but respect — never mind the cause — for those willing to be arrested for a belief. 

The would include Terrisa Bukovinac. She is among those seeking the Democratic nomination for president 

Ms. Bukovinac is the founder of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) which she says is a “liberal pro-life group”.  She says that The Progressive case against abortion “is inconsistent with the noon-violent instincts of feminism to tie the liberation of women to the elimination of any group of human beings”.

The Christian Post notes Ms. Bukovinac’s group includes pro-life activists who have been convicted of federal charges — and face 11 year sentences — in connection with a 2020 lockdown” of a D.C. abortion clinic.

Ms. Bukovinac has been rallying to their defense.

Ms. Bukovinac was also among those outside the federal prosecutor’s office, last October, protesting the persecution of Mark Houck

She talks about the need to bring back the concept of “ rescue”.  Rescue is a PAAU tactic that involves “entering abortion facilities to pass out roses with pregnancy help information attached to abortion-minded patients.”

She has also served on the boards of Democrats for Life of  America and Rehumanize International

The loyal Democrats of Swarthmore had never mentioned either to me.

In this Minimise interview, she simply says “I want to change the way that humanity views unborn life.”

In this CRUX interview, she asks the question, as an atheist, “if we only get one life to live and there’s no God to bring about justice in the end , how could abortion be just?”.

She believes we need “a willingness to disrupt the status quo.”

“No social justice movements are won without critical nonviolent direct action,” she says.

She is a co-leader of Secular Pro Life and serves on the board of Let them Live.

Here is an update regarding the D.C. Abortion Blockade trial.

Most of the updates, for some reason, seem to be from The Christian Post.

My arrests for civil disobedience also had to do with disagreements about US Government Policy.

My time in jail was hours, however, not years.

Fear Of A Dem Pro-Life Candidate
Terrisa Bukovinac supporting Mark Houck, Oct 7., 2022 in Philadelphia

Fear Of A Dem Pro-Life Candidate

The Radical History of Labor Day

The Radical History of Labor Day

By Bob Small

When my wife and I worked as State of Pennsylvania drones, one of us usually marched in the Philly Labor Day parade, to show solidarity with our union, the Pennsylvania Social Services Union a.k.a PSSU.

Exactly how did all this Labor Day marching get started?

Matthew Maguire and Peter Mcguire conspired to create Labor Day, and the first Labor Day parade was held in New York City in 1882.

Theses articles, here and here, point to Matthew Maguire not being granted “Father of Labor Day” status due to his strong socialist leanings, including being the Socialist Party candidate for president in 1896.

Grover Cleveland made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1896, hoping to make amends for sending in the military to squash the Pullman Railway strike.

Grover Cleveland did not become the first president to serve three non-consecutive term However, Grover Cleveland remains the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms. That could change next year.

 Grover Cleveland jailed socialist Eugene Debs, who then ran for president from jail.

Eugene Debs: The Socialist Who Ran for President From Prison – Men

Both of the purported founders of Labor Day are buried in New Jersey. The Peter J. Mcguire Memorial and Gravesite lies in Pennsauken.

The Matthew Maguire gravesite, sans museum, lies in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totawa.

The Department of Labor was founded on March 4, 1913, by President William Howard Taft, on his last day of office.

For a more philosophical discussion of Labor Day and the new socialism from an Austrian perspective, see this article from the Mises Institute.

 The author proposes that “over the past thirty years, international bureaucracies have played a growing role in making the world a better place for socialism.”

Nowadays, rather than discuss the Pullman strike of 1894, we discuss Labor Day sales and barbecues, and we no longer march. One might say capitalism has won.

The Radical History of Labor Day

The Radical History of Labor Day

Clapping For Walter Clapp

Clapping For Walter Clapp

By Bob Small

We couldn’t clap for Walter Clapp last Wednesday (Aug. 23) t as he wasn’t on stage.  Along with the horde of lesser-known GOP presidential candidates — the Dems have just as many — he did not have a place on the stage, nor, truth be told, any chance of getting there.

This is a shame because Walter D. Clapp, a Montana attorney and a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, is also “one of the first Rural Incubator Project for Lawyers to serve middle class Montanans”.

He believes social issues are “best left to the states”.  He also believes “Every day we fight a battle that rages between our ears.  It’s a war between  love and hate, good and evil, truth and untruth. My message is that the Republican Party stands for good, for truth, and yes, for love.”

Clapping For Walter Clapp

Among other projects he plans, that none of the other candidates will do, is “setting out on a cross-country trip driving a team of horses and a wagon this fall.” 

Can’t we see Chris Christie joining him with his New Jersey horses?

He also pledges to “Uncap the House”, “Amend the Constitution” so as to be able to call a convention of the states, and promote exploration in space for “Americans to mine minerals in space”.

Maybe Vivek could be part of that first group in outer space.

For the latest on this aspect, see  A horse-drawn POTUS hopeful hits the road – Montana Free Press 

He’s also involved with Honor Coin Law, which has to do with cryptocurrency, though I found their whole explanation cryptic, as I often do.

See also Walter Clapp – Presidential Candidate – Clapp 2024 | LinkedIn 

Lastly, he’s not the only presidential candidate this cycle from Montana.

Clapping For Walter Clapp

Rich Men North Right Or Left?

Rich Men North Right Or Left?

By Bob Small

Must we see Rich Men North as left or right

The first time Rich Men North of Richmond played on the headphones, there were echoes of Billy Bragg, of Woody Guthrie, in the song written and sung by Oliver Anthony

“I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day, overtime hours for bullshit pay”.

The whole song felt very left to me but Rolling Stone tried to disabuse me of that notion.  Yet in this same article, they quoted Oliver Anthony “it seems like both sides serve the same master-and that master is not someone of any good to the people of this country.” 

Tell me how that’s left or right.

Fox and The Seattle Times insist on this opinion.

Bryan Chai of the Western Journal, takes a more nuanced approach saying “Men like Aldean and Anthony are clearly sick of  (Flyover Country) that being a pejorative and want Americans to know that whether you’re suffering in Farmville or Silicon Valley, they hear you and feel you”.

See also

Music sensation Oliver Anthony gets record offer as ‘Rich Men North o 

and from overseas

The protest song that’s taken America by storm hits … – The Guardian 

When Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut dared to say  “I think Progressives should listen to this”iliberals piled on him.

Even after adding “all problems the left has better solutions to than the right,” attacks continued.

As to the “obese milking welfare” lines in the song, that should not be seen as racist, more as frustration about a government system that rarely works as it should.

Here is a recent quote from Anthony that has angered some of those on the right:

“I mean, we are the melting pot of the world, and that’s what makes us strong, is our diversity, and we need to learn to harness that and appreciate it, and not use it as a political tool to keep everyone separate from each other you know?” 

Rich Men North Right Or Left?

Confucius Classrooms Confusing US Kids

Confucius Classrooms Confusing US Kids

By Bob Small

Recently Scott in Vermont alerted me to the “Confucius Classrooms” aka Confucius Institutes, sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This sounded like conspiracy theory.

This is not a conspiracy theory and is occuring nationally.

According to Newsweek, these “Confucius Classrooms are funded by the CCP’s Propaganda Department of the CCP” and that “nobody in Washington warned the school districts not to accept the freebie”

Yes, these programs were supported by the State Department.

Then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the Confucius Institute as “a foreign mission” in 2020 leaving open the question of what it was before then.

The Daily Beast sees it as a “China Conspiracy Theory”.

This article, all 20 pages of it, is the most extensive on this phenomenon, listing all schools in Pennsylvania and 32 other states where this program is operating.

Germantown Academy in Ft. Washington, Pa boasts being the first Confucius Classroom in Pennsylvania.

Note that there are five other Pennsylvania school sistricts involved, including the School District of Philadelphia.

Here are my questions;

  1. Shouldn’t there be a reciprocal program with schools in China?
  2. Is there any oversight on what is taught by the Confucius Classrooms?
  3. Should we be allowing these classes to be taught by the CCP in the first place?
  4. What officials have been aware of this?

Let me also say that our schools need to have lessons taught by persons from other cultures, but one wonders if the CCP, which views Nepal and Taiwan differently than our official government policy, is exactly whom we need to be doing this.

Confucius Classrooms Confusing US Kids

Confucius Classrooms Confusing US Kids

Castro For President?

Castro For President?

By Bob Small

Texan John Anthony Castro is running for President while suing the most recent ex-President.  He is a Republican with a history as a union organizer, who launched a successful living wage campaign.

At the onset of the Iraqui invasion, he resigned from West Point in protest of the “illegal” invasion believing Iraq was not involved in 911.

His anti-corruption efforts helped to bring arrests in Laredo. 

The graduate from Georgetown Law School has a wife and two children.

In his Plan for America he believes we must teach “the best of the best in every field from both a conservative worldview and a liberal worldview”. He would include civics and social studies taught by Noam Chomsky (my ital).

In another part, he asks “Why are we not feeding America’s students?”    His solution includes expanding “the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to cover our nation’s college students”

There’s also a Topic Heading entitled  “Universal Pre-K for Working Parents”

Reading all this, one has to remember he is a Republican.

Castro began his lawsuit against Donald Trump on Friday, Jan. 6th “asking a judge to declare Trump constitutionally ineligible to hold Office” under the 14th Amendment., which states that “No person”  ..”shall be a President” who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion “ 

Castro gives his rationale in this Newsweek article 

“Now we have this contest of who can be the most extreme, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. And it’s icing out the moderates, which actually make up the vast majority of the Republican Party. And then they wonder why they keep losing.” 

To see the docket report: Castro v. Trump 9:2023cv80015 – Justia Dockets & Filings 

Not everyone thinks Castro should be suing Trump

Castro holds enough interesting opinions that one hopes he somehow is included in some of the 2024 discussions.

Castro For President?

Marple Battle Continues To Rage With PECO

Marple Battle Continues To Rage With PECO

By Bob Small

Marple residents have been battling PECO since November 2020 concerning the power company’s plans to build a natural gas “reliability station” in the township.  There’s been a number of twists and turns. The Marple Safety Coalition (MSC) is the group leading the opposition.

If the anti-PECO signage seen as one drives through Marple is any indication, the MSC has a great deal of support.

WHYY has extensive  coverage of this dispute.

“What’s happening now in this community is beautiful. People are really stepping up.  All of our local and regional elected officials are supporting us,” said Julie Baker of MSC.

This includes Democrat State Representative Jennifer O’Mara and State Senator Tim Kearney.

PECO hasn’t helped itself by refusing to answer expected and reasonable questions.

“It’s against PECO’s policy, and industry standards, for utilities to share the locations of their facilities,” said the company.

For the record, the facility will be a Sproul and Cedar Grove roads.

PECO is part of Exelon Corp. and not, as many think, a public utility.

And thus, not held to the standards of a public utility.

Exelon is the nation’s largest energy delivery company.

In March of 2022, the Pennsylvania Utilities Commission in March 2022 gave PECO a special exemption to the neighborhood zoning code,

“(This) reinforces a precedent that energy companies can basically do as  they please, anywhere they want, because they have the upper hand in telling the PUC what they think is reasonable and in the interests of the public,” says Greg Fat of MSC.

The MSC says the proposed gas expansion plant is not related to natural gas production but to increase in residential gas consumption,”

Only Texas produces more natural gas than Pennsylvania though this may change soon.

Meanwhile Nether Providence and Swarthmore are battling PECO to save some historic trees.

That’s only 3 of the entities in Delaware County that have current disputes with PECO.

Are there more to come?

Marple Battle Continues To Rage With PECO

Special Election 7 For 2023

Special Election 7 For 2023

By Bob Small

In what will be the seventh special legislative election in Pennsylvania this year, the new state representative in the historically Democratic 21st District will be decided on Sept. 19.

Sara Innamorato resigned her House seat to prepare for her run against the GOP candidate, Joe Rockey, for the newly-created position of Allegheny County executive.

Lindsay Powell is the chosen candidate of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee to replace her. She is the director of workforce strategy at InnovatePGH and is a member of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh.

She would be the first African-American female to represent the 21st.

Erin Connolly Autenreith is the GOP nominee. She is a realtor who chairs the Shaler Township Republican Committee.

Her father, Thomas Connolly, was the Mayor of McKees Rocks (1982-86), and her mother, Olga, was on the Mckees Rocks Council for 30 years.

@qburgh • Allegheny County Republicans chose Erin Connolly Autenreith

Ms. Autenreith’s social media accounts indicate her participation in the January 6th demonstration, according to this claim, and other “extreme positions”.

GOP picks nominee for special election to replace Innamorato in 21st …

Ms. Autenreith says that certain issues, such as abortion, be decided through a referendum. She spoke against political polarization.

The 21st District includes parts of Pittsburgh as well as the adjacent suburbs of Etna, Millvale, Reserve and Shaler.

There has never been a GOP representative for the 21st District. Frank J. Pistella, a Democrat, served the longest, for 27 years from 1979 through 2006, and Dom Costa served for a decade, from 2009 to 2019.

An argument could be made for term limits, given all of this.

Special Election 7 For 2023