Speaking about the oath he took when he joined the Marines, Scott Ritter said “Not that I will defend the President no matter what, but that I will defend the Constitution.”
Ritter was one of the many speakers, Sunday, Oct. 8 in D.C. front of the Department of Justice.
Whether this is now the Department of Injustice is a topic for another discussion.
We, the audience and the speakers, and the still independent media were here to show support for Julian Assange — the rally was named Hands Off Assange after all– and to defend what we have left of a free press.
Three of us had driven from Swarthmore, Pa to Washington, DC and attended our first DC rally in however many years.
We had attending many rallies getting both arrested and even injured for various causes.
When I could no longer find grace in going to these events, it seemed like there was no real reason to go.
So why return? There are many reasons including defending the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
The very blog you’re reading is covered by this, as are all blogs in the USA no matter how much with them you may disagree.
Britain is only now about enshrine free speech in a Bill of Rights.
Boris Johnson first proposed it and became a good argument for it.
If we are not activists for the rights in our Bill of Rights, they revert to only being words.
As to the rally itself, most of the hundred or so people remained till the end encouraged, no doubt, by the free ice cream provided by one of the speakers, Ben Cohen who is the Ben in Ben and Jerrys.
For the last several presidential election cycles, media messaging has been consistent: candidates who capture the Hispanic vote will win. The suggestion, often unstated, was that GOP candidates need to promote an illegal alien amnesty, pledge to curtail interior enforcement and promote expanded immigration. In 2022, however, Hispanics could indeed hold the key to a GOP victory, but not because they endorse amnesty. Hispanics, realizing that an open border creates job competition, classroom chaos and disrupts their communities, oppose President Biden’s immigration agenda.
The Hispanic shift toward Republicans has been slowly, but steadily building. In 2004 and 2016, Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump scored well among Hispanics, 40 percent and 38 percent, respectively. Trump’s 2020 total was almost 10 points higher than his 2016 tally. But in the 20 months since Biden’s inauguration, the White House’s open borders agenda has accelerated the Hispanic shift to the GOP. Remember that Hispanics who vote are U.S. citizens, and their hopes and concerns are largely identical to other Americans.
In his new book, “Political Migrants: Hispanic Voters on the Move,” Jim Robb wrote that Biden’s refusal to enforce border laws, and instead to opt for catch-and-release, has been disastrous for all Americans, but especially legal immigrants and the 40-plus million American-born Hispanics.
This fall, indications are that Hispanics will vote Republican at a higher rate than they did in 2020: 41 percent plan to vote Republican against 45 percent who will support Democrats, with others undecided. Since only 29 percent of Hispanics voted Republican in the 2018 mid-term election, 41 percent would be a significant GOP move toward capturing an important demographic. In fact, 41 percent would be the highest mid-term election share Republicans have ever received from Hispanics.
On important life-affecting issues, Hispanics side with the GOP. Among likely Hispanic voters, 52 percent believe the government is doing “too little to reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays.” Only 15 percent believe the government is doing “too much.” Hispanic voters overwhelmingly agree that chain migration should be limited to spouses and minor children, that Congress should mandate E-Verify which helps assure that only citizens and lawfully present foreign nationals can hold jobs, that businesses should raise wages to attract American workers before hiring foreign nationals, and that legal immigration should be reduced from its current 1 million-plus annually inflow.
Other poll findings may vary, but tangible evidence exists that the Hispanic shift to the GOP is real and may represent the difference in November. In a special June election to determine who would represent Texas’ 34th congressional district in the illegal immigration-besieged Rio Grande Valley, Mayra Flores defeated Democrat Dan Sanchez. A citizen since age 14 and married to a border patrol officer, Flores represents a burgeoning breed of Hispanic officeholders who promote strict border enforcement. Flores is the first Republican to represent her historically blue district in 150 years, and the first woman born in Mexico ever elected to Congress. Just weeks after her victory, Flores called on her colleagues to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his abject failures to enforce immigration laws which have caused the ongoing border crisis.
Texas gubernatorial challenger Robert O’Rourke, trailing Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, explained why Hispanics have abandoned Democrats. O’Rourke, harkening back to 2020, blamed Biden who “…didn’t spend a dime or day in the Rio Grande Valley or really anywhere in Texas….”
Flores will be on the November ballot when she’ll face Democrat Vicente Gonzales who has consistently voted to support Biden’s open borders policy. Political forecasters maintain that the 34th still leans blue. But a Flores victory would confirm that the Hispanic trend to red is real.
Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
We can be pretty sure that Nov. 8 won’t begat Libertarian Governor Matt Hackenberg.
Pennsylvania’s next governor will either be Republican Doug Mastriano or Democratic Josh Shapiro and few, if any of Hackenberg’s Libertarian positions will be adopted.
So here is a chance to see them.
All quotes from his campaign tweets.
Matt Hackenberg
As long as you’re not hurting anyone, you have the right to choose how you live.
In Pennsylvania, even if you own your house, you’re still always renting from the State.
As parents know best how to raise our kids, and the State shouldn’t come between us.
We must end the theft of taxation and restore our prosperity.
We are not free if we don’t have bodily autonomy.
(I) don’t want to see our men and women sent overseas to die.
(I) won’t stand for our kids being muzzled and abused”.
And more than anything, he wants individuals be the ones that decide how (they) live our lives.
Matt describes himself as “a veteran against war”, married to “a nurse against medical tyranny”.
He is a computer engineer.
Matt will not be our next governor but, hopefully, like many of those we have profiled this fall, some of his ideas will be heard beyond the rarefied walls of Alternative Party politics.
Stop Proselytizing About Climate Change And Start Fixing It
By Maria Fotopoulos
Type in “climate change” in Google, and about 1,730,000,000 results are delivered in 0.72 seconds. Probably the only people on the planet who don’t know the term (in English or their native languages) from changement climatique (France) to cambiamento climatico (Italy) and изменение климата (Russia) are probably … well, is there anyone on the planet who doesn’t know the term at this point?
Climate change messaging is at mass saturation. Those who believe that burning coal, oil and gas for energy are changing weather patterns and temperatures, and causing wildfires in California, are convinced – too many, cultists and true believers – to the point of practicing climate change as a religion. And those who don’t hold that position likely never will. So the time for nonproductive stunts to draw attention to the issue is well past. The lines are drawn; minds committed one way or the other. Climate change activists who vandalize pipelines; glue themselves to famous works of art – a Botticelli, a da Vinci or McCulloch – and to roads and tankers; take over Trafalgar Square or vandalize in other “creative” ways (often using oil-based products in their stunts, an irony perhaps lost on them) need to just stop. Fortunately, on the “stolen childhood” end, the Friday climate change protests of Greta Thunberg and the entire Greta phenomenon seem to have faded, as has, on the octogenarian end, Jane Fonda’s “Fire Drill Fridays” to “stop the climate crisis.”
These new iterations of pseudo environmental activists are the successors to eco-terrorist groups such as ELF and ALF, who thought setting SUVs on fire at dealerships and burning down new construction were good ways to stop environmental destruction, and destroying university labs was a way to save animals, respectively. If today’s faux green activists continue on their path, if they’re not already, they will be today’s eco-terrorists. Of course, they’ve been useful tools in a political agenda, so, like the ANTIFA and BLM radicals, probably nothing will happen to them, even if they ramp up their terrorism, uh, activism.
A less polarizing and destructive path, and a more productive one, would be to actually do something positive that contributes to a sustainable world. What a concept!
In the documentary, “8 Billion Angels,” Terry Spahr, filmmaker and founder of Earth Overshoot, explores a multitude of problems created by humanity, problems mostly a result of there being too many of us. The “8 billion” is the number of humans on the planet now – a number expected to grow to 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100, according to the United Nations. Looking at oceans, land, air and rivers, and population, a wide range of thoughtful people from academics to those working on the issues via the nonprofit world to businesspeople who care deeply about environmental issues and the kind of planet we will leave for future generations are featured in the film.
“One of the things my mother always taught me, when you borrow something, you give it back in better condition, and we’re not doing that,” says Bill Mook, who tells his story in the film. His Mook Sea Farm in Maine produces about 125 million “oysters on land” each year. The oyster hatchery of Mook, who has been in business for more than 30 years, grew out of seeing increasing water quality degradation and resultant diseases that wiped out oyster populations. With the devastation of oyster beds, Mook says oystermen started to see the value of figuring out “how to do the early stages of oysters on land” and then seeding the natural environment for the oysters to develop. Mook’s oyster hatchery sells to growers from North Carolina to Maine. The small business owner calls this providing environmental services.
Bill Mook with worker at his oyster hatchery.
Not just a tasty treat with a bit of lemon and horseradish, “Oysters in the wild take up a lot of excess nitrogen,” says Mook. “And we’re putting more and more nitrogen in our water; oysters combat the degradation of the water.”
In his free time, Mook works to educate his friends and neighbors to understand the issues. “What I’d like to see are other businesses, whose livelihoods depend on a healthy environment, make the case that having a healthy environment and a thriving, vibrant economy are not mutually exclusive; they are vital to each other.”
Mook’s story is a great example of a direct and positive response to address an environmental issue that helps people, biodiversity and the planet. We need more people like Mook. To have real change, a majority of individuals and businesses will have to work together to have the best practices for living and working to tread lightly on our planet, and ensure the safety and security of biodiversity, ultimately leading to lifestyles and work processes that don’t infringe on individual rights but provide a good quality of life for all.
It’s essential to know what the core problem is as well. Climate change is a symptom. Underpinning our environmental problems are too many people on the planet. We know our numbers can be reduced over the next generations in noncoercive ways by educating and empowering youth, creating better economic opportunities and by ensuring there is contraception education and availability, including in the many areas where there currently are unmet needs.
The pipeline vandals, “just stop oil” folks and other so-called environmental activists who want to destroy the village to save it might take a pause to watch “8 Billion Angels” as a starting point to charting a better path forward. We need solutions, not destructive PR stunts.
Maria Fotopoulos writes about the connection between overpopulation and biodiversity loss, and from time to time other topics that confound her. On FB @BetheChangeforAnimals.
Stop Proselytizing About Climate Change And Start Fixing It
A federal jury in Chicago recently found Chinese national Ji Chaoqun, 31, a member of the U.S. Army reserves, guilty of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. The jury also found Chaoqun guilty of one count of making false statements to the U.S. Army during his application process. Ji enlisted in 2016 via the controversial Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program (MAVNI) – an initiative allowing U.S. military offices to hire legal aliens deemed sufficiently useful for service. In light of Ji’s conviction, the MAVNI program should be re-evaluated.
In a statement, the Department of Justice said that Chaoqun worked for intelligence agents that operated within the Chinese government. In that capacity, he attempted to recruit engineers and scientists on behalf of the Chinese Intelligence Ministry.
Ji arrived in the U.S. on an F-1 student visa to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology which had forged ties with Chinese universities and colleges. During academic year 2020/2021, 317,299 Chinese students were enrolled in U.S. academic institutions. China is the major sender of international students to U.S. college campuses. Among all international graduates, more than a million have remained in the U.S. and work as part of the Optional Practical Training Program. They have displaced American information technology employees or aspiring college degree holders looking for jobs.
Chaoqun’s conviction is the latest in a growing list of Chinese nationals who have infiltrated, with little difficulty, the federal government, academia and U.S. corporations. Because of the victims’ high profiles, the two most well-known Chinese spy cases are Fang Fang, California U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s mistress, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s chauffer and aide for two decades. At the time, Feinstein was the Senate Intelligence Committee chair. When the FBI investigations heated up, the two Chinese operatives fled the country and returned home. No further information about them has been gleaned. The conclusion is, however, that if two low-level Chinese spies can access the U.S. Congress, then infiltration must be a snap.
If China represents the biggest threat to the U.S., as FBI Director Christopher Wray and others insist, then tighter oversight on arriving Chinese nationals is paramount. Wray said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has implemented a multi-layered, generational campaign with the goal to become the world’s economic and technological leader. Wray listed economic espionage, data hacking, intellectual property theft, bribery, blackmail and other coercive attempts “to sway our government’s policies, distort our country’s public discourse, and undermine confidence in our democratic processes and values.” The FBI director could have pointed to Swalwell and Feinstein as examples to drive his point home. In June 2015, Chinese hackers stole the personal data of 145 million Americans when they accessed the Office of Personnel Management’s servers.
With a warning from Wray, a top-ranking law enforcement officer, and documented case history to support his concerns, the federal government should, at a minimum, be on high alert to China’s efforts to undermine the government. Instead, the Biden administration proceeds blasély on its existing course, and may accelerate Chinese nationals’ admissions and their path to citizenship.
In February, the President’s Advisory Commission of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) held its first-ever meeting. Biden established the commission through a 2021 executive order and appointed Health and Human Services Secretary and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai to co-chair. The 25 individual commissioners have extensive involvement in diversity and equity issues. Six subcommittees were formed to advance equity, justice and opportunity, including a subcommittee to address immigration and citizenship. Whenever the Biden administration talks about immigration in the same breath with equity, justice and opportunity, the takeaway is more immigration which in turn means more employment permits granted to immigrants and fewer jobs for Americans.
AANHPI is toiling in obscurity and will be disbanded when a new Congress takes over in January 2023. But the commission reflects Biden’s mindset; equity for all except working Americans, and specifically border city residents whose communities migrants have overrun, and whose lifestyles have been altered, possibly forever, by the president’s unshakeable commitment to open borders.
Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Richard Weiss is an attorney who has the Green Party nod for Pennsylvania’s U.S. senate seat. He ran before for attorney general and a judge.
He has a number of issues for which he proposes green solutions.
One solution he proposes for the Covid controversy is that “we could have hours of operation for those who want masking”. Further on, he proposes that we could have “mask-only buses and mask optional buses”.
These may or may not be practical solutions, but they’re at least possible solutions.
He believes that we should seek to negotiate peace in the Ukraine and revoke the authorization for use of military force (AUMF) instituted on Sept. 18, 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks.
He wants to reduce overseas bases to pre-911 levels, bring troops home and spend that (my italics) money at home. He supports the Stop Arming Terrorists Bill proposed by Tulsi Gabbard”, and wants to free Julian Assange.
He wants to end civil asset forfeiture and qualified immunity, and ban fracking
During an extensive electronic interview he said supports approval voting which he says would eliminate any spoiler effect, backed criminal justice reform and single payer healthcare, and explained why he is running as a Green.
“The Green Party is in favor of ending forever wars, closing oversea bases, and bringing troops back home,” he said.
As worldwide migrants continue to pour across the Southwest border, the financial and emotional toll on communities directly affected mounts.
In El Paso, officials reported that, during September, up to 1,500 illegal immigrants, mostly Venezuelans but also Cubans and Central Americans, arrive daily. Providing for the migrants’ needs has overwhelmed El Paso. Unable to keep up, El Paso created its own Migrant Support Services Center and authorized staff to negotiate a $6.9 million contract with a Virginia-based nonprofit that will manage the facility.
Humanely caring for the migrants and accommodating the illegal border crossers will require El Paso to spend $300,000 daily, or nearly $10 million, in September alone. The fiscal outlay that El Paso makes on the migrants’ behalf means that funds normally allocated for police and fire departments as well as other social services that the city routinely makes available to its residents are nearly depleted.
In a letter to Mayor Oscar Leeser, city council members implored him to issue a Disaster Declaration to help keep El Paso’s residents and its newly arrived migrant population safe. The council members’ letter noted that the current inflow is “unsustainable” and “simply unfair to our community.” A disaster declaration shifts the responsibility for the aliens away from El Paso and to the state and federal governments. In the end, however, whether funds come from municipalities, Texas or the federal government, taxpayers are on the hook for the bulk of the migrants’ resettlement costs. The Federation for American Immigration Reform calculated that the migrants’ resettlement will cost taxpayers $20 billion annually in education, healthcare, welfare, justice and law enforcement. Including got-aways, an estimated 5 million migrants have illegally crossed the border since Biden took the White House. Many have been relocated, also at taxpayer expense, into the interior.
The border crisis, and its inevitable fallout, will soon become apparent to parents with school-age children. Because the 1982 Supreme Court Plyer v. Doe ruled that public schools are legally required to enroll students regardless of their immigration status, K-12 classrooms nationwide, and the many teachers responsible for educating the children, will be overwhelmed.
In April, at the Austin Independent School District, teachers protested the 400-plus student influx of Central American students at two high school campuses. The educators complained that they had to give their lessons in hallways and conference rooms. Keep in mind that many of those students don’t speak English and may not speak Spanish either. While Spanish is the most common language, ten other languages are spoken throughout Central America, including Mayan dialects. For teachers, effective communication can be difficult.
Austin’s frustrated teachers have plenty of company. Los Angeles County, Florida’s Miami-Dade County, Texas’ Harris County and New York enrolled 4,579, 2,306, 7,170 and 11,000 migrants, respectively. Teachers will have to brace for more students, many unfamiliar with classroom learning. A Health and Human Services report showed that through July, 107,742 unaccompanied minors were released into their sponsors’ custody. The report is understated since it includes only cities that relocated 50 or more UACs (unaccompanied alien children), and would also exclude migrants not placed with families. In all, over the last four years, an estimated 2 million non-English speaking students have been added to the nation’s public schools, a costly and burdensome obligation with which teachers, school officials, parents and communities must grapple.
In the months immediately ahead, more illegal immigration will lead to greater pressure on school districts. And more illegal immigration is absolutely on the way – some estimates project a 7 million total by the time Biden’s term ends. Under oath, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, a Biden appointee with three decades of dedicated law enforcement, testified that he believes illegal border crossings will increase at an exponential rate.
The reason for Ortiz’s grim forecast is that there are “no consequences” imposed by the Biden administration on illegal aliens who break U.S. immigration law. But for sovereign America, the short- and long-term consequences of unchecked illegal immigration are many and irreversible. School districts’ immigration-spawned predicament is one example from many which exposes the contempt that the Biden administration has for America and her citizens.
Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a 10-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Immigration Crisis Should Give GOP Upper Hand But Will They Act?
By Joe Guzzardi
With seven weeks remaining before the 2022 mid-term election, Republicans and Democrats have drawn their battle lines, and staked out what each party considers their opponents’ political vulnerabilities.
Last week, the GOP released what it called a “Commitment to America” that included many oft-made, unfulfilled promises to its base. GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) vowed to fund border enforcement, end catch-and-release and mandate E-Verify, the online program that confirms whether a newly hired employee is legally authorized to work in the U.S.
President Biden swiftly rebutted. Speaking to the teachers’ union in Philadelphia, Biden called the “Commitment to America” thin gruel, and chided McCarthy for omitting references to issues that, in his view, voters most care about like a woman’s right to choose, Medicare, Social Security, gun violence and LGBT discrimination.
Enforcing immigration laws may help give Republicans a winning hand – border patrol agents have apprehended an estimated 4.9 million illegal immigrants during the 20 months since Biden’s inauguration. The variable in the November election is whether the GOP can unify behind its promises, traditionally a huge problem for Republicans, and press their advantages into a congressional majority against what will be solidly determined, no defectors allowed, Democrats.
Key to the Commitment to America is E-Verify. At first glance, the program should have universal congressional support – no one from either party can intelligently argue that citizens and lawfully present immigrants shouldn’t be protected against illegal immigrant employment. But the donor-base wants illegal immigrant employees, cheaper and more subservient. And because the corporate elites are so influential with U.S. representatives and senators, E-Verify has hit a congressional brick wall for nearly 30 years. Thus, E-Verify has never had the benefit of a full floor vote.
Sadly, the Biden administration has moved dramatically away from E-Verify’s intention. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ October 12, 2021 memo prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting worksite enforcement raids that might turn up employed illegal aliens. Mayorkas’ memo is an administrative subversion of immigration law, and an open invitation for employers, penalty-free, to hire illegal aliens who will also be protected from enforcement consequences. Under existing but ignored law, employed illegal immigrants could be deported.
Despite insistence from immigration advocates that Americans won’t do most of the jobs that aliens are hired to do, the evidence proves the contrary. In 2017, ICE audited an industrial bakery in Chicago which forced the employer, Cloverhill Bakery, to fire 800 illegal aliens. The terminated employees were quickly replaced by mostly black Americans. Similar ICE cases targeted illegal employment at Mississippi chicken plants, at a trailer manufacturer in Texas and a meatpacker in Tennessee. Not only were hundreds of Americans hired to fill the now-vacant jobs, but the government indicted some directly involved managers. The cases’ common denominators were the aliens’ presence in the labor market, a problem that E-Verify would have averted.
The Commitment to America is encouraging, but skeptics wonder if there’s muscle behind it or if it’s more GOP smoke and mirrors. McCarthy, Scalise and Stefanik have what’s generously described as tepid voting records on reducing illegal presence and jobs. In the same illegal presence and jobs category, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell scored a zero. About a week ago on the Senate floor, McConnell delivered a squishy speech about immigration’s importance; his tone didn’t reverberate with the Commitment to America theme.
During the campaigning, certain to be contentious, GOP leaders may have an awakening, and persuade undecided voters that American jobs and sovereignty must be saved. Time is short. At Biden’s current pace of admitting the world – including got-aways – the U.S. could have more than 7 million illegal aliens added to its population by 2024, an unsustainable total that will adversely affect every aspect of Americans’ lives.
Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Immigration Crisis Should Give GOP Upper Hand But Will They Act?
Caroline Avery is a Libertarian who is running for the US House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District. The incumbent is Republican Brian Fitzpatrick. The Democrat candidate is Ashley Ehasz.
Caroline, like too many independent Democrats and Republicans, had her petitions challenged in court, and was not permitted to run as a Republican. However, she secured the Libertarian endorsement to continue her battle against Fitzpatrick.
She is strongly endorsed by the Gun Owners of America (GOA).
“Caroline earned GOA’s support because of her high marks during her rigorous candidate endorsement process, and she earned a 100-percent score on our 2022 gun-rights candidates’ survey,” says the GOA.
And she enthusiastically accepts the endorsement.
“In a time of skyrocketing lawlessness and crime, the far left calls for defunding the police and attacks the rights of law-abiding gun owners. As a strong supporter of our Constitution and the Second Amendment, I won’t stand for it, and I’m proud to be endorsed by Gun Owners of America,” she says.
Gun rights are not her only issue. In a fiery posting on Facebook, she issues a challenge to Covid treatment orthodoxy, discussing how friends in Australia and Finland were punished for denying this orthodoxy.
On her website, she describes herself as a “world explorer , not a vacationer” and claims to have been in every state except Alaska. She says she is “the daughter of a mastery Gunnery Sergeant who served in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam”. She goes on to say “I am my father’s daughter” and “I’ve lived a big life”. She cites here work experience as including bartender, a forklift driver, a sales representative for gold and silver smithing industries, and a worker in various jobs in the equine industry.
Her current job is a “buyer of fine antiques and artifacts.”
She and her longtime husband, Joe, live in Bucks County.
The first man to hold the seat was Federalist Thomas Fitzsimmons, one of the signers of the Constitution, in 1789.
Democratic godfathers Bob Brady and Tom Foglietta served the 1st District when it included South Philadelphia and the Delaware County waterfront.
Of course, so did Michael “Ozzie” Myers of Abscam infamy, (no relation to the slasher in the “Halloween” films), who was one of the few to actually be expelled from Congress.
He was also quoted saying “money talks and bullshit walks” but appears to have stolen that line, too.
Also the representing the district was the fictional and hapless Peter Russo, who was suicided by Kevin Spacey in the first season of the House of Cards.
Captain Hank Greenberg, A Rosh Hashanah Remembrance
By Joe Guzzardi
Simply put, Hank Greenberg is the most prodigious Jewish Major League Baseball slugger ever. Greenberg’s .313 career batting average, four AL home runs and four RBI titles plus two MVP awards earned the 12-year Detroit Tigers’ first baseman a Hall of Fame plaque in 1956 as the first Jew to enter Cooperstown. Had Greenberg not lost the entire 1942-1944 seasons, about 2,000 at bats missed during his peak performance years, Hank’s totals would have been loftier.
Few sacrificed a larger percentage of their careers to serve and protect their country than Greenberg. Hank played for nine and a half seasons, and was in uniform for four and a half years. Had Greenberg played during those war years, Sabermetrics indicates that he would have ended his career with 525 homers and 550 RBIs, instead of 331 and 1,274.
Greenberg always excelled athletically. At the Bronx’s James Madison High School, the 6’4” Greenberg dominated in baseball, basketball and soccer. After a year at New York University, in 1929 Greenberg signed with the Tigers for $9,000. Hank quickly worked his way through the minors with stops in Hartford, Evansville and Beaumont.
By September 1930, Greenberg was up for a cup of coffee with the Tigers, then hit .301 in his 1931 rookie season. By 1935, he was the American League’s MVP, helping steer the Tigers to the World Series title. In 1938, Greenberg’s 58 home runs were just two shy of Babe Ruth’s then-record. Greenberg achieved his diamond feats even though once outside the heavily Jewish Bronx, he was targeted for anti-Semitic, Jew-baiting slurs. Few were more vociferous than Detroit’s Henry Ford who blamed Jews for problems in the U.S. and Europe.
Throughout his career, Greenberg played baseball on the Sabbath, but never on the High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But in 1934, with the Tigers clinging to a narrow lead over the surging New York Yankees, a crucial game fell on Rosh Hashanah. Torn between his faith and his teammates, Greenberg, after consulting a rabbi, chose to play. Hank socked two homers to lead the Tigers to a 2-1 victory.
While Greenberg may have been conflicted about playing ball on High Holy Days, he had no reservations about enlisting to defend his country. In his book “Baseball in Wartime,” Gary Bedingfield wrote that after Greenberg was drafted in 1941, he was honorably discharged when Congress released servicemen age 28 years and older. After Pearl Harbor, Sergeant Greenberg volunteered to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. “We are in trouble,” Greenberg told The Sporting News, “and there is only one thing for me to do – return to the service.” Greenberg predicted, incorrectly, that his enlistment meant the end of his baseball days, and that he was leaving the game with a “pang.” Assigned to the first Boeing B-29 Superfortresses’ group to go overseas, Greenberg spent 1944 flying in the India-China-Burma theater.
On July 1, 1945, Greenberg returned to Detroit’s starting lineup, and before 47,729 fans, homered to lead the Tigers over the Philadelphia A’s, 9-5. Greenberg’s presence in the daily lineup propelled the Tigers to a come-from-behind A.L. pennant. Greenberg kept on slugging. In 1946, he led the league with 44 home runs and 127 RBIs. After a contract dispute, Greenberg spent his final 1947 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After his retirement, Greenberg inexplicably fell short for Hall of Fame induction for nine consecutive years until Cooperstown elected him in 1956.
In 1986, at age 75, Greenberg, an American patriot, baseball superstar and inspiration to Christians and Jews alike, died from liver cancer. Before Greenberg passed, he wrote his wife Mary Jo a love letter that he stored in a safe deposit box for her to read after his death. When Mary Jo gathered the emotional strength to open Hank’s letter, she read his words of thankfulness to God that for 25 years he had been blessed with her devoted companionship, and of his gratitude for his Detroit Tigers’ heyday. Greenberg left Mary Jo this message: “Shed no tear for me…I’ve had a wonderful life, filled with personal success, and good health.”
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.
