Tag Archives: #Pennsylvania

Posted on by

Governor Tom Wolf dances to avoid a court ruling He's going to end mask mandate in January, hoping to get the lawsuits against the state dismissed as moot.

Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) will, thankfully, be gone in a year, but he’s anxious to protect what executive authority he can while he remains in office.

As the Delta variant spread, Governor Wolf initially stated that he would leave mask mandate decisions up to local school boards. Then, when many of those school boards didn’t decide the way he wanted them to decide, the Governor got acting Secretary of Health Allison Beam to issue a public health order requiring masks indoors in the Commonwealth’s schools, public and private alike, as well as early learning and child-care facilities.

We noted, last June, that the Governor scheduled an end to the state’s mask mandate just a day after the state legislature slapped him down over it. Now, he’s doing it again!

Pa. mask mandate for public and private schools expected to end in January, Wolf says

Gov. Tom Wolf’s update to the school mask mandate comes as vaccinations have expanded to children ages 5-11. The mandate will remain in early learning and child care centers.

by Jamie Martines | Monday, November 8, 2021

HARRISBURG — A statewide order mandating students, staff, and visitors to public and private K-12 schools to wear a mask while indoors is expected to be lifted Jan. 17, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday.

At that point, local school officials will be allowed to decide what mitigation efforts to implement.

Part of the order that applies to early learning programs and child care centers will remain in effect until further notice, Wolf said in a statement. . . . .

“Now, we are in a different place than we were in September, and it is time to prepare for a transition back to a more normal setting,” Wolf said in a statement Monday. “Unfortunately, the COVID-19 virus is now a part of our daily lives, but with the knowledge we’ve gained over the past 20 months and critical tools like the vaccine at our disposal, we must take the next step forward in our recovery.”

There’s more at the original, but part of the answer is clear: the masking order has been challenged in court, and if the order is ended on January 17th, just 2¼ months from now, given the long delays in the court system, the lawsuits can be dismissed as moot, because the order will have ended. That would leave the method used by the Governor and his minions in place, in case they wanted to use it again.

The plaintiff’s attorney has stated that the lawsuits will proceed anyway, because the order will be kept in place for younger children and day care facilities, and that not challenging the order in court leaves the mechanism available if the Governor wants to use it again.

We had noted the vast assumption of power by the petty dictators in the executive branch. Then-Secretary of Health Richard Levine[1]Dr Levine is a male who is so delusional that he thinks he is female, and goes by the name ‘Rachel.’ In their continuing mission to normalize transgenderism, the credentialed media always refer … Continue reading even ordered Pennsylvanians to wear masks in their own homes, if they had non-household members present.

Of course, the mask mandate might not end in Philadelphia, because Mayor Jim Kenney and acting Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole just love to exercise authoritarian power.

References

References
↑1 Dr Levine is a male who is so delusional that he thinks he is female, and goes by the name ‘Rachel.’ In their continuing mission to normalize transgenderism, the credentialed media always refer to him as ‘Rachel,’ and no longer note that he is ‘transgender. The First Street Journal, in accordance with its Stylebook, does not go along with such stupidity, and always refers to people by their biological sex and proper name.
Posted on by

It ain’t just them unedumacated rednecks from eastern Kentucky who oppose #MaskMandates

There are a lot of people in the Bluegrass State who claim that it was only them unedumacated rednecks who are opposed to mask mandates in the public schools. Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) first recommended that local school boards impose masking requirements, but after they declined, with two-thirds voting against them, the Governor decided to make it an order, an order subsequently rescinded when the state Supreme Court sided against him.

But then I saw this in The Philadelphia Inquirer: Continue reading →

Posted on by

We can’t have a solar park there; it’ll shut down the drive-in theater!

You can’t have your solar park when it’s going to drive out a drive in theater!

When I spotted this on The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website, I was tempted to just forward it to William Teach, since this is more his kind of story than mine. But one photo in there prompted me to use it myself.

Joe Farruggio, the owner of the land that the Mahoning Drive-In sits on, says he believes Greenskies was unfairly bullied away from its plan to build a solar farm on the four-acre property. Photo by Steven M Falk, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Photographer

Judging by that photo, maybe Greyskies would have been a better name than Greenskies! 🙂

Here’s the story:

A beloved Poconos drive-in theater was set to become a solar-panel farm. Then the fans stepped in.

Hundreds of die-hard fans of the Mahoning Drive-In banded together to convince a green-energy company to withdraw its plan.

By Vinny Vella | July 25, 2021

Virgil Cardamone couldn’t sleep July 13. He obsessed over how to relay the message that everything he and his friends had built over the last six years on a grassy lot in rural Carbon County was in jeopardy.

The next morning, it dawned on him: He would, as he put it “tear his heart open” in a smartphone video broadcast over social media, pleading with hundreds of the regulars at the Mahoning Drive-In to help save the institution.

In the six-minute video, Cardamone laid out the scenario: A green-energy company out of Connecticut had paid to option the land the theater sat on for a solar-panel farm. The local zoning board was going to vote in a few weeks, and the 38-year-old was rallying fans of ‘80s classics, forgotten B-movies, and films everywhere to plead with Greenskies Clean Energy LLC to change its mind.

“The drive-in will never die,” Cardamone said in his sign-off, flicking tears out of his eyes with his thumb. “Mark my words.”

I moved away from what Vinny Vella, the article author, called “tourist darling Jim Thorpe” on July 1, 2017, roughly ten miles from the Mahoning Drive-In, and back to the Bluegrass State, but I’d certainly passed the place, on state route 443, many times. While my wife had taken our kids to see a few movies there, I hadn’t gone myself. Still, it was a local-to-me story; we lived in Jim Thorpe for fifteen years!

Two days and hundreds of emails, Facebook posts, and phone calls later, he posted a second video, announcing, almost in disbelief, that the grassroots campaign had been successful. Greenskies had agreed to pull their plan, and the theater’s landlord had expressed a willingness to sell the four-acre property to Cardamone and his business partners.

“To have the whole entire culture rise up and let them know how much it means to them, for me, I feel this business is invincible, even with all the madness going on,” Cardamone said in an interview last week. “This place is an escape for people, and it’s a celebration of a simpler time.”

So, the drive-in has been saved, at least for now.

I’m not sure just how much electricity a four-acre solar park would generate. The Nesquehoning Solar Park, off of state route 54 between Nesquehoning and Lake Hauto, for which I supplied some, but not all, of the concrete during its construction, covers, according to its website, 100 acres, and “will generate enough electricity to power 1,450 homes.” At the same efficiency, a four-acre solar park would power roughly 58 homes.

Regardless of that, some drive-in and old film buffs have managed to save the Mahoning Drive-In. What, I have to ask, will the global warming climate change emergency activists say about that? One thing is certain: in the push for ‘renewable’ energy sources, primarily solar and wind power, a lot of acreage is going to have to be taken up for solar panels and windmills, and there will always be pushback from those who don’t want the land used that way, and who object to having their scenic views taken up.

As it happens, we have more than four acres on the farm, and good, sunny, southwestern exposure; it would be perfect for a solar farm. But our best view is to the southwest as well, and there’s no way Mrs Pico would ever consent to spoil it with solar panels.

Photo taken on June 17th, while baling our second crop of hay for the season. The near tree line begins the downslope to the Kentucky River.

Posted on by

The Supreme Court bitch-slaps a small school district in Pennsylvania Mahanoy Area School District should never have appealed the initial decision in the first place.

Have you ever been to Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania? It’s a bit more than a wide spot in the road, but only a bit, having an area of 0.5 mi² and a population of 3,944 people. Located in the Keystone State’s old anthracite coal mining region, it has fallen on hard times as the demand for coal has greatly waned. I have driven through Mahanoy City several times, as it was on Pennsylvania Route 54 just a mile from Exit 131 onto Interstate 81; that was my shortest route from our previous home in Jim Thorpe and the farm in the Bluegrass State.

I can’t say that I was impressed.

There have been a lot of people who’ve yelled, in anger, “I’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court.” Well, taking something all the way to the Supreme Court costs money, lots of money, something Mahanoy City, and the Mahanoy Area School District do not have in abundance. From Wikipedia:

Mahanoy Area School District serves the borough and Mahanoy Township. The district operates: Mahanoy Area Elementary School (K-4), Mahanoy Area Middle School (5th-8th) and Mahanoy Area High School (9th-12). The district has provided full day kindergarten since 2004. In 2015, the Mahanoy Area School District’s enrollment declined to 1,004 students.[16] Mahanoy Area School District was ranked 433rd out of 493 Pennsylvania school districts, in 2015, by the Pittsburgh Business Times.[17] Mahanoy Area High School has been listed on the Commonwealth’s annual lowest achieving schools list.[18] In 2015, Mahanoy Area School District’s graduation rate was 91%. In 2012, Mahanoy Area School District declined to Warning Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status, due to a low graduation rate and lagging student academic achievement.[19]

Brandi Levy. Photo from tweet by WNEP.

Near the end of the 2016-17 school year, Brandi Levy,[1]Though the courts continued to refer to Miss Levy by her initials, they specify her father’s last name in the decision title, and her name is in the public domain on the Associated Press. I am … Continue reading who had tried out for the school’s varsity cheerleading squad, posted two angry messages, one of which was profane, on SnapChat; Miss Levy was not on school grounds, nor was school in session at the time she posted the messages. One of the SnapChat recipients, a cheerleader herself, took offense, and made a screencap of the self-deleting SnapChat message, and showed it around.[2]Justice Alito, in his concurrent opinion, made the greatest ‘Karen’ criticism of all: “(Miss Levy) did not send the messages to the school or to any administrator, teacher, or … Continue reading The school responded by suspending Miss Levy from participating in the junior varsity cheerleading squad for one year. Her parents filed a lawsuit on her behalf in federal court, arguing that the district had unconstitutionally punished her for speech made completely outside of the school that did not pose a risk of disruption.

Miss Levy won both a preliminary injunction, preventing the school from suspending her from cheerleading,[3]Preliminary injunction granted to plaintiff, B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District, 289 F. Supp. 3d 607 (M.D. Pa., 2017). and then her case.[4]Summary judgment granted in favor of plaintiff, B.L. v. Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist., 376 F. Supp. 3d 429 (M.D. Pa. 2019).

At that point, the Mahanoy Area School District appealed the decision. The judgement for Miss Levy had been in the whopping sum of $1.00, so it’s not as though the School District had lost a bunch of money. The School District lost again in the Court of Appeals for the Third District.

But, because the Third District’s ruling clashed with other rulings from other district Courts of Appeals, there was a justiciable split that the Supreme Court could, and did, address.

And so we come to Mahanoy Area School District v. B. L., a minor, by and through her father, Levy, et al., 594 U. S. ____ (2021). In the case, the 8-1 majority held that Miss Levy’s First Amendment rights had been violated by the School District, though the justices did not go as far as the Third District; the Court allowed that public schools had some authority over student speech, even if off of school grounds, such as when students are transiting to and from school, given that school attendance is compulsory. Justice Breyer concluded:

It might be tempting to dismiss B. L.’s words as unworthy of the robust First Amendment protections discussed herein. But sometimes it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary. See Tyson & Brother v. Banton, 273 U. S. 418, 447 (1927) (Holmes, J., dissenting). “We cannot lose sight of the fact that, in what otherwise might seem a trifling and annoying instance of individual distasteful abuse of a privilege, these fundamental societal values are truly implicated.” Cohen, 403 U. S., at 25.

This, to me, is important, because it states that even the most trivial of speech is protected by the Constitution, and that officious little pricks have no authority to impose state punishment just because they don’t like what someone else has said.

Our representative democracy only works if we protect the “marketplace of ideas.” This free exchange facilitates an informed public opinion, which, when transmitted to lawmakers, helps produce laws that reflect the People’s will. That protection must include the protection of unpopular ideas, for popular ideas have less need for protection.

In his concurring opinion, Justice Samuel Alito, with Justice Neil Gorsuch agreeing, wrote:

public school students, like all other Americans, have the right to express “unpopular” ideas on public issues, even when those ideas are expressed in language that some find “‘inappropriate ’” or “‘hurtful’”.

and:

But it is a “bedrock principle” that speech may not be suppressed simply because it expresses ideas that are “offensive or disagreeable.” Texas v. Johnson, 491 U. S. 397, 414 (1989); see also Matal v. Tam, 582 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2017) (slip op., at 1–2) (“Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend”); FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U. S. 726, 745 (1978) (opinion of Stevens, J.) (“[T]he fact that society may find speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it”); Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., 427 U. S 50, 63–64 (1976) (plurality opinion) (“Nor may speech be curtailed because it invites dispute, creates dissatisfaction with conditions the way they are, or even stirs people to anger”); Street v. New York, 394 U. S. 576, 592 (1969) (“It is firmly settled that under our Constitution the public expression of ideas may not be prohibited merely because the ideas are themselves offensive to some of their hearers”).

The Court, in my opinion, gave less protection to Miss Levy’s speech than it should have. The justices reasoned that, though schools have a right to control some of what students say, such as not being allowed to be disruptive in class, what Miss Levy SnapChatted was be protected not because it was off campus — though they did allow that most off-campus speech did not fall under the school’s authority — but because it did no identifiable harm. It would have been far better to have stated simply that, once the student is out of school and off-campus, and not involved in any school-sanctioned event, his speech was protected, period.

More importantly, the freedom of speech must be protected, period. The left are doing everything they can to censor speech by conservatives, and though they are using mostly ‘private’ methods — if Twitter and Facebook can really be considered private entities anymore — we have reported on how even The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, are now opposed to freedom of speech. The city of New York even has compulsory speech requirements. If these things are not fought, the freedom of speech will be lost.

The School District attempted to put lipstick on the pig of having lost:

The Mahanoy Area School District is pleased with and vindicated by today’s Supreme Court decision. The School District unanimously won the issue upon which it sought Supreme Court review: all 9 Justices rejected the Third Circuit’s conclusion that school districts lack authority to regulate off-campus speech. The Supreme Court held that it does “not agree with the reasoning of the Third Circuit.” The Supreme Court instead enumerated many examples of situations when school districts can regulate off-campus speech and made it clear that its list was not exclusive. So, although the Court upheld the $1 judgment in favor of Ms. Levy, we are very pleased that the Court agreed with our arguments about schools’ authority to address off-campus speech under a wide variety of situations. This decision is an important vindication of schools’ authority to protect students and staff and to fulfill schools’ educational missions.

https://i0.wp.com/www.thepiratescove.us/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_yahoo.gif?w=612&ssl=1 The School District could have had that much had they simply not appealed the initial summary judgement. Instead they wasted scads of money, and wound up with eight Supreme Court Justices rhetorically bitch-slapping them for their rotten judgement.

I am amused. 🙂

References

References
↑1 Though the courts continued to refer to Miss Levy by her initials, they specify her father’s last name in the decision title, and her name is in the public domain on the Associated Press. I am not somehow ‘outing’ Miss Levy by the use of her name.
↑2 Justice Alito, in his concurrent opinion, made the greatest ‘Karen’ criticism of all: “(Miss Levy) did not send the messages to the school or to any administrator, teacher, or coach, and no member of the school staff would have even known about the messages if some of B. L.’s “friends” had not taken it upon themselves to spread the word”.
↑3 Preliminary injunction granted to plaintiff, B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District, 289 F. Supp. 3d 607 (M.D. Pa., 2017).
↑4 Summary judgment granted in favor of plaintiff, B.L. v. Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist., 376 F. Supp. 3d 429 (M.D. Pa. 2019).
Posted on by

The Pennsylvania state legislature slaps down Governor Tom Wolf

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Legislature votes to immediately end Pa.’s coronavirus disaster declaration while keeping waivers in place

Republicans said terminating the emergency order was what Pennsylvanians demanded when they granted the legislative branch new powers during the May primary.

by Sarah Anne Hughes | June 10, 2021 | 12:29 PM EDT

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania legislature has voted to immediately end Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus disaster declaration using a new power granted to the legislative branch by primary voters, while also keeping in place certain regulatory waivers.

Republicans who advanced the resolution said terminating the emergency order was what Pennsylvanians demanded when they approved two constitutional amendments last month in what was widely seen as a referendum on the administration’s pandemic response.

Due to the wording of the constitutional amendments, this resolution is not subject to a veto by the Governor. And it should be pointed out that the people of the Keystone State voted against the Governor on this.

“What happened to tyranny, guys?” Rep. Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) asked his Republican colleagues sarcastically. He called the vote to end the emergency order “political theater,” as all mitigation orders, save for a universal masking requirement, are no longer in place.

The mask mandate is the most visible symbol of the tyranny, and the most hated one.

That the tyranny of Governor Wolf, as well as that of Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY), was almost over, as those governors have gradually pulled back on their illegal and unconstitutional orders, does not mean that tyranny should not be fought, that those who support our constitutional rights should somehow forgive the tyrants, and leave things in place for the tyrants to use again.

Philadelphia was scheduled to end its mask mandate tomorrow.

Posted on by

Governor Tom Wolf to lift all #COVID19 restrictions . . . except the one which pisses off people the most

The most visible symbol of compliance with State orders is the facemask, and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania doesn’t want to let go of that!

Pennsylvania will fully reopen on Memorial Day, lifting COVID-19 rules. Philadelphia won’t follow suit — yet.

Masking requirements will remain in place until 70% of the state’s 18-and-older population is vaccinated. Philadelphia said it will review the policy.

by Erin McCarthy and Justine McDaniel | May 4, 2021

Pennsylvania will lift its coronavirus mitigation measures on Memorial Day, state officials announced Tuesday, marking a milestone in the pandemic recovery and freeing businesses and patrons to prepare to fill restaurants, bars, and stores for the first time in more than a year.

Philadelphia, however, was not yet set to follow suit: The city will said it will review the state’s policy but retain its own restrictions. Officials are working on the city’s reopening plans.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health announcement keeps in place the requirement for Pennsylvanians to wear masks in compliance with state and CDC guidelines. It also gives residents an incentive to get COVID-19 shots: Masking will be required until 70% of the state’s 18-and-older population is vaccinated.

Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, called the announcement “the long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel and a return to sense of ‘normalcy.’”

What, I have to ask, is so magical about Memorial Day that the restrictions can be lifted then, but not on, say, May 19th, or even today? Saying that the restrictions can be lifted on May 31st but not now, when we cannot know what the conditions will be on that day, means that the the decision was driven by politics, not science. Given that Memorial Day is the end of a three-day holiday weekend, why is Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) waiting until the last day of those three, rather than Saturday, May 29th instead? How will conditions be different enough on the 31st from those on the 29th to justify ruining two of the three days of the holiday?

Of course, the Governor is keeping the most hated restriction in place, the mask mandate, with the threat promise that it will be lifted once 70% of the Commonwealth’s adult population has been vaccinated. He is trying to use the police power of the state to force people to take the vaccine.[1]Full disclosure: I am not an anti-vaxxer by any means, and received my second dose on Cinco de Mayo. But having chosen to take the vaccine myself does not mean that I believe that others should be … Continue reading

The state is trying to use Penn State head football coach James Franklin to push getting vaccinated, having him say, “I encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated. The more people who are vaccinated, the better chance we have to get back to 107,000 strong here in Beaver Stadium.”

But the Commonwealth and the credentialed media are making it political, making it a Democrats vs Republicans issue:

As Pennsylvania pivots to a new phase of its coronavirus vaccination campaign, and focuses on persuading reluctant residents to get their shots, there’s one group that will be especially tough to win over — the scores of Republicans who say they don’t plan to ever get immunized.

Communications and public health experts say these skeptics need reassurance from the Republican elected officials they trust the most. But in Pennsylvania, all but a few GOP lawmakers are keeping quiet about the vaccine, and some of the ones speaking up are spreading misinformation or sending mixed messages about its safety and efficacy.

State Rep. Russ Diamond (R., Lebanon) falsely called the vaccine poison on social media and vowed not to get one. State Rep. Dawn Keefer (R., York) introduced legislation that would ban businesses or sports venues from requiring proof of vaccination. And State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) wants to block employers from forcing their workers to get the shot.

Doctors say this rhetoric could have deadly consequences.

How, I have to ask, is attempting to protect workers’ rights and individual rights, from having to carry proof of vaccination, a wrong thing?[2]After getting my second dose of the Moderna vaccine, the Estill County Health Department gave me a card, complete with the same type of plastic holder in which a lot of people get their automobile … Continue reading

At every turn, the political left have been trying to force compliance with Government Orders. Instead of asking people to wear masks, Governors across the nation, sadly including Republicans as well as Democrats, have issued orders to people to do so, and issuing orders is the surest way of which I can think to get pushback from people who will not be sheeple.

Despite the claims of the ‘experts,’ the empirical evidence is that the mask mandates do not make any difference.

The facemask is the most visible symbol of compliance, and thus is the one that Governors such as Tom Wolf and Andy Beshear (D-KY) want to keep in place the longest. But Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, lifted the state’s mask mandate on March 10th, and despite the gloom-and-doom predictions of the experts, the number of cases in the Lone Star State have fallen dramatically. We noted, a month ago:

Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) eliminated the mandatory mask order in the Lone Star State, effective on March 10th; on that date, Texas’ seven-day moving average of daily new cases stood at 4,909. As of April 5th, that number was down to 3,007. The New York Times noted that while the moving average was down by 19% over the past fourteen days, the number of daily tests had increased by 8%. More tests, yet far fewer cases; how about that. Hospitalizations were also down, by 18%, and COVID-19 fatalities were down 38%.

Since then, cases have continued to decline. As of May 5th, the moving seven-day average of new cases in Texas is 2,830, the lowest it has been since June 18th of last year. Pennsylvania, which has also seen cases drop, has a moving seven-day average of 2,882, higher than Texas, despite having just 43% of Texas population.[3]Texas = 29.15 million; Pennsylvania = 12.78 million.

Despite the proclamations of the ‘experts,’ the empirical evidence is that the wearing of facemasks does not make a difference. Governor Beshear, in his latest (illegal) executive order, stated that the CDC “conducted a study of all 3,141 counties in the United States and found that those counties with mask mandates experienced a statistically significant decrease in daily COVID-19 cases,” but the evidence given in real life, in current data, so not show that. Texas, with its wide open status, is showing a greater decrease than half-way-closed Pennsylvania, and, in the Bluegrass State, cases have risen slightly.[4]To be fair, in my small, rural county, I have seen a couple of businesses clearly not going along with the mask mandates. I will not disclose which businesses they are, to keep the Commonwealth from … Continue reading

The mask mandates do not help, but Democratic governors just love to exert their authority, and the continuing mask mandates are the visible symbol to them that the sheeple have complied.

References

References
↑1 Full disclosure: I am not an anti-vaxxer by any means, and received my second dose on Cinco de Mayo. But having chosen to take the vaccine myself does not mean that I believe that others should be compelled to do so.
↑2 After getting my second dose of the Moderna vaccine, the Estill County Health Department gave me a card, complete with the same type of plastic holder in which a lot of people get their automobile proof of insurance cards, and the very cute nurse told me to keep it on my person. I will not comply with vaccine ‘passport’ ideas, and removed that card from my wallet when I returned home.
↑3 Texas = 29.15 million; Pennsylvania = 12.78 million.
↑4 To be fair, in my small, rural county, I have seen a couple of businesses clearly not going along with the mask mandates. I will not disclose which businesses they are, to keep the Commonwealth from trying to take action against them.
Posted on by

He’s out of office now, but #TrumpDerangementSyndrome still rules the minds of so many

Me, snowblowing the front sidewalk in Jim Thorpe, PA, December 29, 2012. Click to enlarge.

When I lived in the Keystone State, my neighbor, Pete, and I used to clear the snow from sidewalks down the entire block. Why? Well, the home to my right was unoccupied for a couple years, and the next two down were occupied by people far more elderly than me. (I was 63 when we moved away.; Pete was in his fifties.)

If it was only a couple of inches of snow, I’d shovel. More than that, and I’d use the snowblower.

I do not know for whom my block neighbors voted. President Trump carried Carbon County in both elections, 65.13% to 31.05% in 2016, and 65.37% to 33.34% in 2020, so the odds are that they voted the right way, but I have no way of knowing for certain. All that I knew, at the time, was that the snow needed to be removed, even though I’m an evil reich-wing conservative, and President Trump was in office my last winter there!.

“Journalist” Virginia Hefferman, however, had a problem with supporters of President Trump being kind to her. Hat tip to William Teach for the article.

Column: What can you do about the Trumpites next door?

By Virginia Heffernan | February 5, 2021 | 3:00 AM PST

Virginia Heffernan

Oh, heck no. The Trumpites next door to our pandemic getaway, who seem as devoted to the ex-president as you can get without being Q fans, just plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job.

How am I going to resist demands for unity in the face of this act of aggressive niceness?

Of course, on some level, I realize I owe them thanks — and, man, it really looks like the guy back-dragged the driveway like a pro — but how much thanks?

These neighbors are staunch partisans of blue lives, and there aren’t a lot of anything other than white lives in neighborhood.

This is also kind of weird. Back in the city, people don’t sweep other people’s walkways for nothing.

Well, maybe that’s the problem: perhaps Miss Heffernan is so used to the discourtesies of city life, that she just can’t comprehend that life in a small town or rural area is different. One of the verses in Rocky Top goes:

I’ve had years of cramped-up city life
Trapped like a duck in a pen
All I know is it’s a pity life
Can’t be simple again.

When Pete and I took care of our neighbors’ sidewalks, we weren’t asking for money. We just did it because it needed to be done, and we were in better shape than some of the other people living there.

Maybe it’s like what Eddie Murphy discovered in that old “Saturday Night Live” sketch “White Like Me.” He goes undercover in white makeup and finds that when white people are among their own, they pop free champagne and live the high life. As Murphy puts it: “Slowly I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other. For free.”

Well, one thing about Miss Heffernan’s paragraph is correct: the people for whom we cleaned the sidewalks were all white. Jim Thorpe is 95.7% non-Hispanic white, with another 2.35% Hispanic white. But had any of my neighbors been black, I wouldn’t have somehow just skipped doing their sidewalks and driveways.

Miss Heffernan continues with a few paragraphs about how ‘nice’ Hezbollah are to the people they like, and even how ‘polite’ the Nazis were to people they liked in Occupied France.

So when I accept generosity from my pandemic neighbors, acknowledging the legitimate kindness with a wave or a plate of cookies, am I also sealing us in as fellow travelers who are very polis to each other but not so much to “them”?

Loving your neighbor is evidently much easier when your neighborhood is full of people just like you.

Donald Trump lives on, living rent free in the heads of the left

Really? Her statement assumes that we wouldn’t be polite to neighbors who weren’t just like us.

The other side of my duplex had a sort of checkered history. In 2010, it was bought by a young lesbian couple from Philadelphia, as a vacation home. People who know me know that I strongly believe the Biblical law concerning homosexuality, but, shockingly enough, I didn’t picket their house, I didn’t give them the stink-eye when I saw them, didn’t treat them anything other than politely.[1]On July 4, 2010, I needed to paint the fence between our two yards, something which involved me going into their back yard. When I knocked on the door, to ask permission, with white paint obvious on … Continue reading

What do we do about the Trumpites around us? Like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who spoke eloquently this week about her terrifying experience during the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Americans are expected to forgive and forget before we’ve even stitched up our wounds. Or gotten our vaccines against the pandemic that former President Trump utterly failed to mitigate.

Did she mean the “terrifying experience” about which Miss Ocasio-Cortez lied? The one in which she was in an entirely different building?

My neighbors supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans. They kept him in business with their support.

But the plowing.

On Jan. 6, after the insurrection, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) issued an aw-shucks plea for all Americans to love their neighbors. The United States, he said, “isn’t Hatfields and McCoys, this blood feud forever.” And, he added, “You can’t hate someone who shovels your driveway.”

At the time, I seethed; the Capitol had just been desecrated. But maybe my neighbor heard Sasse and was determined to make a bid for reconciliation.

Well, who knows if her neighbors heard what Senator Sasse said? It seems that Miss Heffernan heard it, but really, really, really wants to ignore it.

So here’s my response to my plowed driveway, for now. Politely, but not profusely, I’ll acknowledge the Sassian move. With a wave and a thanks, a minimal start on building back trust. I’m not ready to knock on the door with a covered dish yet.

I also can’t give my neighbors absolution; it’s not mine to give. Free driveway work, as nice as it is, is just not the same currency as justice and truth. To pretend it is would be to lie, and they probably aren’t looking for absolution anyway.

Bitter much? Miss Heffernan’s article was published on February 5th, after President Trump lost his bid for re-election, and after he left office, yet she is still tremendously pissed off that her neighbors supported, and presumably voted for, Mr Trump, so bitter than she cannot just accept a neighborly act as being, well, neighborly!

But I can offer a standing invitation to make amends. Not with a snowplow but by recognizing the truth about the Trump administration and, more important, by working for justice for all those whom the administration harmed. Only when we work shoulder to shoulder to repair the damage of the last four years will we even begin to dig out of this storm.

So, she is considering ‘thanking’ her neighbors by lecturing to them that they were oh-so-wrong to have supported President Trump, and she thinks that will somehow get them to see everything her way, and move into sweetness and light?

It never seems to occur to her that her Trump-supporting neighbors might see the next four years as what will lead to damage, not the previous four.

Her neighbors do something nice for her, and her proposed response is to piss on their legs, but then politely tell them that it’s just raining. Her neighbors just did something nice for her, and she thinks she should take them some nice brownies . . . made with Ex-lax.

Conservatives have called it #TrumpDerangementSyndrome, and Miss Heffernan certainly seems to have it. Donald Trump is gone now, out of office, and unlikely to ever return; even if he wants to run again in 2024, he’ll be 78 years old.

But Mr Trump lives on, living rent free in the heads of the left. The Democrats have gone ahead and impeached a President who is already out of office, and pushing ahead even while knowing that there will not be enough votes to convict him. The Democrats are calling him the first twice-impeached President; it won’t be long before he will be the first twice acquitted President.

References

References
↑1 On July 4, 2010, I needed to paint the fence between our two yards, something which involved me going into their back yard. When I knocked on the door, to ask permission, with white paint obvious on me, one of them answered, herself holding a roller with red paint. She said, “Well, you have white, I have red, maybe we can go paint Jen blue.” I knew she was joking, as they were but half my age, but I was so surprised that I mumbled something that essentially said no.
Posted on by

Another draconian decree from the Pennsylvania Soviet Socialist Republic

The Department of Health of the Pennsylvania Soviet Socialist Republic has issued yet another draconian decree:

Did you catch that. Secretary of Health Dr Richard Levine[1]Dr Levine is a male who is so delusional that he thinks he is female, and goes by the name ‘Rachel.’ In its continuing mission to normalize transgenderism, the credentialed media always … Continue reading is ordering Pennsylvanians that they must wear face masks in their own homes if anyone who does not live there enters the residence.

One has to ask: just how do Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) and Secretary Levine plan to enforce this order? Will the Philadelphia Police knock on row house doors if an officer spots an unfamiliar vehicle parked out front, just to make certain everyone inside is masked up? Will the police in Harrisburg conduct random checks, especially on Thanksgiving day, ready to confiscate drumsticks and arrest the entire family?

Pennsylvania has made violation of Dr Levine’s orders a criminal offense:

Administrative Code of 1929, 71 P. S. § 1409, states that:

Every person who violates any order or regulation of the Department of Health, or who resists or interferes with any officer or agent thereof in the performance of his duties in accordance with the regulations and orders of the Department of Health, shall, upon conviction thereof in a summary proceeding before a justice of the peace, alderman, or magistrate of the county wherein such violation or offense is committed, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than ten ($10.00) dollars and costs nor more than fifty ($50.00) dollars and costs, such fine to be paid to the county in which the violation or offense is committed. In default of payment of such fine and costs the offender shall be sentenced to be confined in the proper county jail for a period of thirty days.

The Pennsylvania Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955 35 P.S. § 521.20(a):

Any person who violates any of the provisions of this act or any regulation shall, for each offense, upon conviction thereof in a summary proceeding before any magistrate, alderman or justice of the peace in the county wherein the offense was committed, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars ($25) and not more than three hundred dollars ($300), together with costs, and in default of payment of the fine and costs, to be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days.

27 Pa. Code § 27.8(a):

A person who violates any provision of the [Disease Prevention and Control Act of 1955] shall, for each offense, upon conviction thereof in a summary proceeding before a district justice in the county wherein the offense was committed, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than $25 and not more than $300, together with costs, and in default of payment of the fine and costs, shall be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not to exceed 30 days.

Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.

Note: a criminal trial is not required, but a “summary proceeding” is sufficient to fine you or lock you up!

Will the Secretary send you to Lubyanka prison? A summary proceeding, meaning that there is no trial by jury, and you can be locked up for up to a month? Not just no, but Hell no!

I no longer live in the Keystone State. Were I subject to Pennsylvania state laws, I would be in violation, this weekend as my daughter will be visiting the farm from her house in Lexington, and again on Thanksgiving day, when we will be having dinner at her house. We will not be in violation of Kentucky’s indoor gatherings restrictions, in that there will be only two households present and fewer than eight people there, and the mandatory mask order does not apply in individual homes. I’d like to say that I’d be in violation of it, but I won’t.

References

References
↑1 Dr Levine is a male who is so delusional that he thinks he is female, and goes by the name ‘Rachel.’ In its continuing mission to normalize transgenderism, the credentialed media always refer to him as ‘Rachel,’ and no longer note that he is ‘transgender. The First Street Journal, in accordance with its Stylebook, does not go along with such stupidity, and always refers to people by their biological sex and proper name.
Posted on by

Did the Green Party candidate cost President Trump the vote in Pennsylvania? The Democrats kept Howie Hawkins off the ballot

I noted in Blaming the Libertarian Party that I did not believe The Wall Street Journal’s claim that Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen somehow cost President Trump the 2020 election. But The Philadelphia Inquirer is making the case that the exclusion of Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins from the Pennsylvania ballot may have carried the Keystone State for Joe Biden:

Pennsylvania Democrats may have saved Biden by knocking the Green Party candidate off the ballot

Howie Hawkins, from Howie Hawkins for President campaign.

In a particularly litigious presidential campaign, one legal fight may have saved President-elect Joe Biden’s chances of winning Pennsylvania — and the presidency.

The state Supreme Court, in a split verdict Sept. 17, removed Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins from the ballot for improper paperwork. The legal challenge was filed on behalf of two Democrats by Pittsburgh attorney Clifford Levine, who was representing the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in other cases.

“The concern was that, if you looked at the results in 2016, the Green Party candidate got more votes than the margin between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,” Levine said Monday. “There was obviously a concern that a third-party candidate may effectively dilute the focus that we thought was important, that it be a race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”

Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 nominee, won 49,941 votes in Pennsylvania in 2016, as Clinton fell to Trump by 44,292 votes, a margin of just 0.7%.

Biden held a lead of about 54,000 votes over Trump in the state, as of Thursday. Pennsylvania secured an Electoral College win for Biden on Saturday as media outlets across the country called the state in his favor.

The Green Party’s nominees for attorney general, auditor general, and treasurer all won far more votes than Biden’s lead.

Note that Miss Jorgensen was not kept off the Pennsylvania ballot, and thus the common wisdom would have had her syphoning votes from President Trump, but Mr Hawkins could not have taken away many votes from Mr Biden, other than write-in votes.

It’s still a bit of a difficult argument to make, given that it was also common knowledge, pushed every day by the Inquirer, that the race was extremely close, and that Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes might be decisive. Remembering Hillary Clinton’s narrow loss in Pennsylvania, I have to ask how many people would have voted for the Green Party candidate.