Posts Tagged → house
Trump wants to be liked by the mean boys
President Donald Trump is a good guy, and it is why he keeps making the same mistake over and over with people who are not good. He understandably sees himself as a reasonable person, a respectable person, a responsible person, and he also desperately wants to be somewhat, even a little bit, inside The Republican Club.
This is why he endorsed politicians who were openly antagonistic to him: Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) and Brian Kemp (Georgia), to name just two. Trump keeps thinking, and hoping, that the Republican politicians who hate him and reject him will nonetheless ultimately come to like him, admire him, and appreciate him. This is why he keeps on trying to play their insider game, and he keeps on losing at it.
The problem is that the career Republicans are mean boys (and a few mean girls), occupying their own little tree house club house. And while they may have vicious squabbles amongst each other inside that tree house, their hideout remotes a closed club to outsiders. Closed even to people who may think the tree house is plenty big enough for more people, and in fact might benefit from having more people in it.
We have seen this exact same dynamic play out even down to the legislative staffers in Washington and in state capitals across America. A sense of elitist prestige and exclusive specialness. These people have spent their entire careers knitting together personal power by carving out a niche for themselves inside the bureaucratic spiderweb, and by God, they are never ever going to share that power with anyone they don’t have to share it with.
President Trump’s latest mistake is constantly weighing in on behalf of US Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a highly preened, plucked, scrubbed, and unprincipled careerist from California who desires to be the next Speaker of the US House. We can see by now, after seven failed votes among US House members, that McCarthy obsesses over and craves the Speaker’s gavel and office like various brainwashed victims in The Lord of The Rings who are caught caressing The One Ring and calling it “My precious.”
McCarthy even moved into the Speaker’s office despite not actually being elected Speaker!
Anyhow, President Trump. What a window into his mind this endorsement business has been, this public craving of his to be accepted into the mean boy RINO club, or at least to be publicly valued and acknowledged by the RINOs. It is why he keeps giving them unearned endorsements. And he knows that even if he helps McCarthy prevail and become Speaker, he will still be ignored and cast off afterwards. It is like Trump is so loyal, and so earnest, that he simply cannot fathom the treachery and selfishness endemic to career politicians like McCarthy and McConnell.
No, President Trump, these careerist jerks will never change. Stop thinking they will.
The good news is that a cool black guy, Byron Donalds, got the most dissident votes for Speaker today. Smart, articulate, brave Byron Donalds is exactly what the Republican Party needs from top to bottom. But the bad news is that instead of grooming Donalds for future leadership, the so-called “leaders” of the House Republicans (Scalise, McCarthy) are running around twisting arms and trying to hurt and threaten fellow House members for not supporting McCarthy for Speaker.
Kind of interesting how this mean boys club works. It is almost like it doesn’t matter which political party these people are in, at the end of the day they are all the same: Mean, coercive, uninterested in listening to people who disagree with them, unwilling to negotiate a settlement, and vicious. They never back down no matter how much people reject them, they are always selfish and demand that we all acknowledge their selfishness and reward it. In short, McCarthy et al are gross yucky people. Not nice.
President Trump, this is not your fight and these are not your people. Forget about it, let this play out without your participation. You can’t win here, no matter what you do. You are not a career-long mean boy and you don’t belong in this squabble.
Kevin McCarthy is an evil DC swamp thing
Congressman Kevin McCarthy is a corrupt career politician from the Marxist state of California. To be a Republican from California in 2023, you would by necessity have to be really slimy and corrupt. McCarthy has been in Washington DC for a long time, and his ties to the evil DC Swamp run long and deep. Heck, just look at his shielded face, his hooded eyes. You can easily read McCarthy’s crookedness by his outward facial appearance and body language. In fact, he has a lot of Justin Trudeau’s same body language going on (Canada). And Gavin Newsom’s for that matter (California governor).
These people above all share a common lust for power and control that overrides elementary human decency and empathy. Anyone who wants that much control should never be allowed to have it, and yet, if McCarthy becomes the next Speaker of the US House, then he will have it.
My congressman, Scott Perry, has been wonderfully vocal about McCarthy’s cozy relationship with the DC Swamp, and how McCarthy refuses to make commitments to transparency and accountability that would change the way Washington DC spends our taxpayer money. Thank you, Congressman Perry.
What is really amazing is how weak willed and sycophantic most elected congresspeople are. They each want power and control so badly that they fall all over themselves to elect someone dirty like McCarthy. The people supporting McCarthy for Speaker are not conservatives, they are career politicians in search of wealth and power through a public service job. And this list of lame-os now includes Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman congresswoman who has raised hell with Washington DC criminality since the day she arrived.
How did fake Republican Liz Cheney go to Congress for just six years at an annual $175,000 salary, and emerge as a multimillionaire? What kinds of illegal, unethical, anti-citizen, anti-America back-room deals did she make to earn that kind of wealth? And it’s not just Liz Cheney, it is the vast majority of the elected officials in Washington that use their official office for personal gain.
Yuck!
So here we are today with RINO Rep. Kevin McCarthy trying to gain the speakership at all costs and with no commitments to advancing Republican values like good government, limited government, accountable government and public employees. I wonder if USA arch enemy China has purchased McCarthy like a sack of potatoes, too.
Like a lot of Americans, I am fed up with the political parties. They do not interest me, because it’s like watching two criminal gangs fight each other. The citizens lose no matter which gang is in charge. What does interest me is limited government, transparent government, accountable government.
Like: Why the hell is the IRS now empowered to track our $600.00 (six hundred Dollar) purchases and incomes, along with enormous destruction of our individual constitutional rights, but We The People have zero control or information over how the federal government, like its IRS, spends OUR money?
Kevin McCarthy is an evil DC Swamp Thing. He cannot be Speaker, and if he does become Speaker through the weakness of most GOP congresscritters, then America is done for, because he will protect the DC Swamp from being changed or challenged or held accountable. And America will never have another opportunity after this Congress to hold DC accountable.
Harrisburg Candlelight House Tour 2022
The Princess of Patience and I have an annual event we enjoy, and that is the Candlelight House Tour organized by Historic Harrisburg Association.
The homes are historic, often brick and stone, but increasingly being rehabbed and rebuilt to suit modern lifestyles. Mid Town Harrisburg is the center of a great deal of this gentrification and re-use, the reclamation of its former glory days by investors, young couples, and entrepreneurs taking empty dilapidated homes and fixing them up into tax-paying structures once again.
Often the true downtown homes are as-is-as-found-as-was, somewhat cluttered and dark, filled with holiday tsatchkes, very homey and comfortable. These downtown spaces are all smaller attached homes from the 1860s-1900s, whose original materials and design often require a significant boost to make them truly livable today. And yet so many owners keep the original pine flooring, which is as attractive now as it was 130 years ago. Many owners aggressively incorporate new steel I-beams and wall materials, and install new windows in the former closed brick, while maintaining as much of the original construction as possible. The result is always a fun and harmonious combination of antique and modern, and I would say that most of them make me wish I had it as a pied-a-terre.
One of the big efforts is taking old mansions and commercial buildings and turning them into apartments. This is not an easy or cheap thing to do. When I was in graduate school, I lived in an old Victorian mansion on Lyle Avenue that had been turned into apartments by an enterprising cocaine addict named Steve. Steve lived in one of the larger apartments that spanned from the basement to the roof. One day, while watching Steve hold his own, raging drunk, buck naked and armed with a single shot .22 rifle, in an armed stand-off with the Nashville police, who had taken cover with their service revolvers over the hoods and roofs of their squad cars and a humorously deployed bullhorn, I came to appreciate the thick, strong brick construction of the building I was in. If the bullets ever flew, I was without a doubt immune to dying from acute lead poisoning behind those bunker-like walls. Ever since then I have admired the must-be-crazy people who seek to bring these clunky dinosaurs into the current day and age as livable spaces.
One of the people I spent time talking with was Nathaniel Foote, who took the old Carpets & Draperies building and provided Harrisburgers with luxury loft apartments. His emphasis is on short-term nurse housing. Another entrepreneur I spent time talking with was Justin Heinly, who has restored both the historic Cottage Ridge Mansion and the historic Donaldson Mansion next block down. Justin told me true rehab war stories, like finding old brick chimneys upstairs that had been pulled apart downstairs, thereby leaving thousands of pounds of hidden unsupported weight bearing down hard on the floors below.
This historic home rehabilitation work takes real dedication, risk, and sacrifice by people who have slight streaks of both crazy and artistic creativity. This work directly benefits everyone who lives in Harrisburg, or who owns real estate in Harrisburg. Thank you Nathaniel, Justin, and all the others who are making Harrisburg’s old abandoned areas now livable and desirable once again, one building and one apartment at a time.
And thank you to all of the home owners who let the public enter their private spaces, and to Historic Harrisburg, for bringing us all together as the community we are.
A home place that was special in 1900 and is once again in 2022.
Real estate entrepreneur Justin Heinly keeps a smile on his face, despite encountering unbelievable engineering challenges resurrecting majestic old mansions for today’s renter
The Princess of Patience listening in surprise to home rehab war stories from entrepreneur Justin Heinly
Perfectly produced home tour booklet by Historic Harrisburg
Ten take-aways from my Election Day experience
With the Kerwin men, quality people
Primary elections are more important than the general election every November, because voters choose who is going to be representing them at the November election. And in the case of Republican Party voters, if you don’t vote for constitutional America-First candidates, you are guaranteed to have a Republican In Name Only (RINO) liberal running against the Democrat Party liberal in the November election. There’s not a whole lot of philosophical difference between the Republican liberal and the Democrat liberal, and after that November election between a RINO and a Democrat it’s just a question of how rapidly America is destroyed under your feet, slowly or quickly.
On Tuesday I volunteered at four different election polls, handing out brochures for Kathy Barnette, and I spoke with a lot of voters. Here are some take-aways from my experience during and after Tuesday’s Primary Election here in PA:
- Unsurprisingly, voters make both simple and complicated choices in voting for candidates. Simple choices can be lazy or principled, and complicated choices can be bizarre or carefully thought out. Candidate selection is as complex as any other choice in life, and I think that is a good thing.
- Party establishment endorsement is a negative among Republican/ conservative voters, who appear to increasingly view the GOP as a force for bad and not for good. For example, Lou Barletta’s campaign unleashed a tidal wave of Republican establishment career politician endorsements in the days before Tuesday’s election, and if anything these endorsements seemed to hurt Barletta at the polls, not help him; Doug Mastriano crushed Barletta.
- On the other hand, Democrat voters seem highly attuned to and in synch with their establishment, as witnessed by political newcomer Justin Fleming’s trouncing of long time Democrat Party activist Eric Epstein in the newly created 105th Legislative District (PA House). For at least ten years, and probably closer to twenty years, independent-minded liberal Epstein has run for everything from dog catcher to school board to state senate, almost always unsuccessfully but always with close-call results. Not this time. Apparently ten unions and the House Democrat Campaign Committee aggressively weighed in to stop Epstein from finally capitalizing on his well-known household name in southcentral PA. Fleming the unprincipled “electoral pragmatist” won with 61% of the vote.
- Money is not all that it used to be, but it can still matter in elections, no surprise. Case in point is a very small amount of money (like $157,000 total), old fashioned shoe leather, and reasonable social media networking got conservative grass roots favorite Kathy Barnette up to 25% of the vote in an eight-candidate race. This is a huge statement about the lack of importance of money. However, when the wildly false negative attacks against Barnette started pouring in during the last week from McCormick and Oz and their supporters, like Sean Hannity, Barnette lacked sufficient funds to get out her last-minute rebuttals on TV and radio that could have gotten her over the finish line to win. Enough confusion and obfuscation was created by the attacks to blunt Barnette’s position at the top, and allowed both Oz and McCormick to grow their own voter returns at her expense. Had Barnette possessed a million dollars to do last-minute TV and radio ads, she probably would have won the election.
- Negative advertising does work, and it also greatly suppresses voter turnout. At all of the five polls I was at yesterday, voting was down between 10% and 20%, and I believe many voters were just fed up and confused by all of the negative advertising. SO they stayed home and said “I will just vote in November for whoever wins this primary race.”
- Conservative voters are much more oriented toward ideology and principles than political party.
- Almost every primary election has one winner and some losers, and almost always the losers say they will take their ball and go home if they don’t win, and they won’t back the winner of their race. For weeks before and even after the election was over, I heard unceasing complaints from Republicans about how Mastriano is “too conservative” for Pennsylvania, and that his win will automatically hand the governorship to Komrade Josh Shapiro. I also heard unceasing complaints from Republican voters that Lou Barletta was too milquetoast to appeal to anyone in November, except for blue haired suburban GOPe Republicans. Folks, get used to these competitive races. They are good for us. This competition is just the nature of real and healthy primary races, something that Republicans really need, and something that the GOPe HATES. The Republican Country Club Party hates hates hates sharing decision making with the unwashed dirty masses, who keep gumming up GOPe dreams of easy ill gotten wealth and posh fundraisers. Sorry not sorry, GOPe, get used to ceding more and more decision making to the actual people you claim to represent. It is a good thing, and it is why Mastriano won by an enormous margin.
- For the most part, the GOPe got its ass kicked in PA and elsewhere in America. RINOs like Jake Corman (the sitting President Pro Tem of the PA Senate!!), Jeff Bartos, et al either dropped out or finished below 5%, while underdog candidates like Kathy Barnette and Dr. Oz scored big time vote returns against the establishment’s wishes. We are witnessing a power shift away from GOP party bosses, which is a good thing, because party bosses are corrupt and self-serving people.
- Charlie Gerow is still a good guy, and still not a catchy candidate. Once again, voters enjoy Charlie as an articulate proponent of conservative values, but not as a representative in government for their needs. Charlie is a salon intellectual in the mold of William F. Buckley, one of the 20th century’s great conservative crusaders. Not winning elections doesn’t mean Gerow isn’t relevant, it just means his strength is in policy debates and in the conservative salon of ideas. Nothing wrong with that.
- Finally, yard signs and road signs do not mean anything close to what they used to represent even ten years ago. At one time yard signs and roadside signs were a big part of electoral public outreach, but in this digital age, they are becoming less important. I would not say they are unimportant, because in some ways they can be used to get a sense of voter engagement. Like, lots of signs for Candidate X in a county or in a region probably means that Candidate X is well known there. But it does not mean that Candidate X is necessarily going to convert that name recognition into an Election Day win. Information is now moving so fast and so far across the political landscape, that just one gaffe or one slip-up by an otherwise reasonable candidate can mean the end of their lead or presumptive win. No amount of yard signs can counter a fifteen second video of a candidate doing or saying something ridiculous.
Thank you to all the voters who spent time talking with me on Tuesday. I promote candidates at polls on Election Day every year because these are people I believe in, and I believe in sharing the why and how I have arrived at my decision on whom to vote for. One thing that has not changed among voters at polls since I was a teenager is this: Liberal voters at polls are always surly, grumpy, dismissive, or disrespectful. Do not ask me why this is, but it does hint at how some people think.
Put Joe Biden on trial in the senate
Yes, we know, the Republican Party has little fight in it, and that is the reason why the ridiculous kangaroo show trial in the senate has been allowed to go on for more than the first five minutes. I mean, compare the hidden way the Democrat Party handled the due process-less “impeachment” in the US House to the hands-off way the GOPe handles the Senate side.
The entire impeachment hoax has been nothing but a non-stop anti -Trump political activity that began before Trump was even sworn in.
So now that we have listened to months of lies about Trump, it is time to set the record straight. Oh, I know, the GOPe doesn’t have the stomach for drawing this out, for letting this go on and on. They just want it to end and go away.
Except, it won’t go away. The Democrat Party Press will never allow this to go away. They will have panels discussing it every day until Election Day, and never in Trump’s favor. Every Democrat Party anchor – George Stephenapolous, Chuck Todd, Chris Matthews, Wolf Blitzer, Rachel Maddow, you name it – will be talking about it until Election Day, and never in Trump’s favor.
So, let’s get the cause of this up on the stand, under oath. Get corrupt Joe Biden and his son Hunter, the cocaine addict dishonorably discharged from the US military, up on the stand, under oath, to explain what the hell they were doing in Ukraine that lead to this whole cover-up and fake impeachment effort to stop the criminal investigations into the Bidens in the first place.
If Joe Biden is put on the witness stand under oath, then the American people will finally get to find out, one way or another, what exactly happened in the Obama administration that channeled so many inexperienced young Democrats from high level families into high paying jobs in Ukraine.
So, irony of ironies, if there is one possible silver lining and hidden purpose to the whole fake impeachment, it is the possibility to get the criminals who started this whole thing under oath on the witness stand. Answer some questions.
Of course it would require not only the Senate republicans to want to actually do something, but then the US Dept. of Justice would have to, too. And as we have seen, the US DOJ is just as corrupt now as it was four years ago, when a previous administration ran it. Sorry to say, because AG Barr does give some great talking head. He sounds freakin awesome, but he then allows corrupt and partisan holdovers in the DOJ to have their way politically, with no consequences. Which means Barr is not in this fight, either.
The sad thing is, with a few notable exceptions, the Republicans just do not have any fighting spirit in them. None. And they are facing a very determined enemy, who will say and do anything, no matter how untruthful, how damaging to America, to achieve their goals and to protect their criminal history.
It may be that in the end there is no political solution to this mess, and that instead of the politicians, the American people are going to have to sort it out themselves.
Trump not legally impeached, but wear it with pride anyhow
Trump was not legally impeached, but he should wear it with pride anyhow…
Because the US House has failed to deliver the phony “Articles of Impeachment” to the US Senate, as required by the US Constitution, there is no actual impeachment. President Trump has NOT been impeached by the US House. Not yet, anyhow. So all those wahoo-for-political-chaos partiers and “Merry Impeachmas” fake news reporters/ partisan political activists will just have to put off their foolish celebration until the process moves to the US Senate. If it ever goes there.
The reason the Founders of America structured the impeachment process this way was to give everyone a bite at the apple, both accuser and defendant. This simple structure is the heart of America’s due process found at every level of our legal system. If either half of the process is procedurally deficient or missing, then it does not exist. The impeachment process is a whole, not two separate halves existing by themselves.
This is because America’s Founders did not want an accused president guilty by accusation only, without the ability to defend himself. Just like you and I would not want that situation to exist. Would any of us want such a deficient process to exist in America, at any level? For example, would you yourself want to walk into a local magistrate’s court to defend yourself against a speeding ticket, and have the cop simply tell the judge that you are guilty because he says so, and have the process end there, with no opportunity for you to defend yourself?
That would not be a fair or balanced process, would it? Well, without the impeachment articles being delivered to the US Senate, it is not a fair or legal process.
But this deficient process does fit in with the entire previous false accusations against President Trump, starting with the Russia collusion hoax, and when that failed, jumping seamlessly over to yet another hoax, this time Ukraine. Ukraine is where the entire Democrat Party is running interference on behalf of corrupt criminal Joe Biden. Biden used his position as Vice President of the USA to illegally enrich himself and his son, Hunter Biden. President Trump tried to get to the bottom of it, and was falsely accused of exactly that which Biden had done.
And this un-American process also fits in with the Democrat Party’s novel and un-American approach to criminal charges: To them, you are guilty until proven innocent, contrary to the US Constitution’s guarantee that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty. That is, the burden of proof is on the accuser, not on the accused. If the accuser cannot make their case, then the accused goes free. No matter how empty the accusations against President Trump have been, the Democrat Party and their mainstream media propaganda arm have said “We don’t have the evidence yet, but we know it is there, and the evidence we have we can’t share with you, and you are guilty.”
Dear Democrat Party members: Are you truly proud of this un-American farce? Are you really OK with an entire American political party devoting itself to the destruction of the core rights and procedures that make America so much better than every other country? Would you ever tolerate this happening in your own life? If you are OK with this, then shame on you! Shame Shame Shame on you!
To be a true American, your love of America must be greater than your willingness to sacrifice America and all things American for your own personal goals or feelings. This feeling has always defined Americans, and yet the Democrat Party has one-two-three thrown it overboard.
What has actually (legally) happened in all of this is the US House has in effect censured President Trump, though once again without following correct procedures. In any event, the Democrat members of the US House are now on record as not liking the president. Are any of us surprised? The Democrat Party has not gotten over their 2016 loss to Donald John Trump, and they have allowed raw hatred, disdain for the US Constitution, and rejection of basic American civil rights to define them ever since. We know this already, but what the heck, make it official.
So, Mister president Trump, I encourage you to wear this fake “impeachment” with pride. Wear it as a badge of honor. The people who have put you and the rest of America through this destructive process are not true Americans, and if they say they don’t like you, that is to your credit. Keep doing what you are doing, Mister President.
Fake impeachment makes Americans love President Trump even more
Last week President Donald Trump held a rousing rally in Hershey, PA. Many friends of mine participated, either inside or outside the venue, despite the cold rain. They were demonstrating their devotion to a man who has demonstrated his devotion to them, to us, to America. Call it a quid-pro-quo, without the corrupt Joe (Biden) thrown in to make it something corrupt.
President Donald John Trump arriving in Hershey to standing room only uproarious cheering by patriotic Americans. Photo by Ron Boltz
Last night’s shampeachment only cemented the thoughts and feelings of tens of millions of Americans already devoted to Trump or inclined to reward him for working so hard for the benefit of all of US (USA). Not only was the partisan fake impeachment over nothing fake, devoid of due process, devoid of actual charges, devoid of facts, but today, the so-called articles of impeachment are not being delivered to the US Senate, as the US Constitution requires. Instead, it is being held in reserve by the US House leader, Nancy Pelosi, as some sort of symbolic statement. It is not going to go through the process, not if it results in the president being vindicated.
So obviously the sham-impeachment is nothing more than a propaganda tool meant to try to hurt President Trump’s re-election campaign. If this is what Democrat Party voters really want, then shame on them, because this sort of behavior severely damages America and people’s faith in our political institutions.
It does demonstrate how corrupt the Democrat Party has become, because it clearly illustrates that the party will use democratic processes and procedures to advance and achieve non-democratic results that damage the foundation of America’s representative government. That is, democracy is great if the Democrat Party wins, and it is terrible if they lose. The Constitution is great if the Democrat Party wins, and it is to be discarded if they are going to lose.
This kind of opportunism and abuse of the system is as un-American as anything could ever be. America’s government has been run according to rules everyone agreed on for 241 years, and suddenly now that these same rules are in the way of one political party having more power than the voters are willing to give them, the party tosses aside those rules. They are an impediment to getting more power, or blunting someone else from having the power given to them by the voters.
Talk about short-sighted! Remember that whatever goes around comes around. Break the rules today, and you will be on the receiving end of the same process later on yourself. We have already seen this play out in the US Senate, where rules put in place hundreds of years ago to protect the minority party’s voice were thrown out by Democrat senate leaders in their rush to get more and more power over the process. And when the Republicans then took the US Senate, they used the same exact new rules that their predecessors had established. And of course, the Democrat senators howled and whined and complained about how unfair it all was, even though they were perfectly happy with it when they were in control.
Voters know what is good for America, and they know that this kind of instability and over-reach is not good. I can’t see most normal Americans supporting this kind of irresponsible and destructive behavior, regardless of their party affiliation. It doesn’t matter if you personally dislike President Donald Trump (which is usually due to the constant negativity and lies told about him in the mainstream media), the man has done great things for America, for you, for us.
So last night’s fake impeachment is only proven to be even more fake today, and all of this fakery only cements my devotion to President Donald Trump even more.
Tweet by Washington Post “reporter” Rachel Bade bottom left, celebrating the impeachment with other Washington Post and CNN “reporters.” Example of how US media are not impartial fact-finders, professional journalists; they are in fact partisan political activists. And they wonder why bazillions of Americans see them as our enemy…
Thank you Sunday Hunting activists!
Despite many last minute bold-faced betrayals and stabs-in-the-back by the PA Farm Bureau that delayed and delayed and delayed the passage of SB 147, which allowed for hunting on just three Sundays, the bill finally passed the PA House today.
It now goes to the PA Senate for a concurrence vote. It has already passed the PA senate once before, thanks to the bold leadership of Senator Dan Laughlin from Erie, so this should be a perfunctory and symbolic vote, some time in the next few weeks. After that it goes to Governor Wolf, who has said he will sign it.
Unfortunately, because of the PA Farm Bureau’s vindictive approach, where they knew they were going to lose this issue so they tried to delay its implementation for as long as they could, to deny hunters the pleasure of more hunting time afield with our children, we will not get Sunday hunting this big game season. It will have to come into play in the spring of 2020.
As some of you know, my son and I do not hunt on Saturdays. This put us at a disadvantage with other hunters who do hunt on Saturdays. We would happily trade our Saturdays for the following Sundays, but that was never considered by the PA Farm Bureau, who simply demanded that everyone goose-step in unison and follow their marching orders.
So Isaac and I very much appreciate those Pennsylvanians who empathized with our plight these many years, and who felt our pain when official state law excluded us from participating equally with all other Pennsylvanians in something we love to do, and who stood with us and advocated for our equal rights all this time.
Rosa Parks did not NEED to sit at the front of the bus, but she wanted to, and she deserved to have that choice. For at least three days next year, my son and I will not have to sit at the back of the hunting bus.
Thank you to all who got this done.
Special appreciation goes to Robb Miller, the Governor’s Sportsmen’s Advisor and a long-long time professional politico who has championed Sunday hunting through thick and thin for at least twenty years; to Kathy Davis Gehman, who founded HUSH (Hunters United for Sunday Hunting) and led the legal charge and associated fundraising, in which I was one of the plaintiffs; to Harold Daub, who picked up the HUSH gauntlet when the rest of us were dispirited, donned his armor, and led the next political and social charge; to Kevin Askew and Jahred Klahre, two young guys who joined Harold at HUSH and really put the fine touches on the public outreach that became so effective. National Shooting Sports Foundation staff, the NRA, Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, PFSC – the PA Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs (now Conservationists), United Bow Hunters of PA, and many other groups and individuals also helped in both big ways and small to get this passed.
In these politically divided days, it is important to note that this effort took hard work from professional political partisans in both the Democrat and Republicans parties, and also from generic registered Republicans and Democrats at the grass roots level. It is truly a bi-partisan issue, and it took members of both political parties working together to get it this far. In the sense that America and states like Pennsylvania are well served when diverse people find common political ground to solve big issues, this is a victory.
Above all else, this is a victory for individual liberty over Big Government.
And if you don’t like Sunday hunting, you do not have to hunt on Sunday. That is your choice, your freedom.
God bless America.
Home is Where the Heart Is
Home is where the heart is, goes the old and proven adage.
Home is that place you love, where you feel safe, loved, comfortable, surrounded by the fruits of your labors, like a flower garden behind a hand-laid stone wall, a manicured lawn, a bird bath or bird feeder, a porch for sitting on after a day of work. Maybe you raised a family in the home, and on bedroom walls in a couple places hidden from paint touch-ups there are some old finger prints from children who are now with families of their own. After putting so much work and love into your home, you naturally feel love for it. Just the memories alone inspire you!
So yes, your heart resides there, in your home, the ultimate symbol of all your efforts, the fruits of all your labors.
And so this is all true for those of us who have worked in and paid taxes here in America, our home, our house. Our Social Security payments, mine since I was fourteen years old, our volunteering for charitable organizations and Little League, our playing by the rules and laws of America, being good citizens. Always building the country up, making it a cozy and safe home for those who live here, who contribute to it, who will move here with the intention of participating in it.
And yet, unbelievably, America now houses people like US Reps Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and other elected representatives, who are actually openly advocating for tearing down the national house, our home, America. These people are openly working every day to destroy the home that you and I have built. Along with “free” healthcare, income, education, and even a “free” home for people who have come here illegally, never paid anything into Social Security, and who themselves fly the flags of the other nations from which they come, where their hearts remain.
None of us lifelong taxpayers will ever get any of this “free” stuff, even though it is our tax money that creates it in the first place!
Can you imagine if some stranger walked into your house and began tearing the place apart, and offering to hand out your furniture, clothing, your food to passersby on the street outside? It would be even worse if it was someone you had invited in, so they could participate in all of the wonderful opportunities America offers to anyone willing to work hard. Well, this all is exactly what is happening with Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and all of their supporters and enablers.
So it is a natural thing, an understandable and totally human thing, for our elected President to say “If you don’t like America, then go home to your parent countries.” He is definitely speaking for a majority of Americans. This should be no surprise to anyone. Every other country does the same. In every other country what Omar, Tlaib and their political party are doing would correctly be seen as treason and an intolerable act of war against the nation.
Like a lot of Americans, I applaud President Trump for writing this in one of his public messages the other day. Good for him. He understands that this current illegal invader situation is not sustainable. Not financially, not economically, not legally, not socially, and not politically. It is a testament to how good we Americans are at heart that this has been allowed to go on at all. We have such a strong generosity, even if we can’t always afford it. Americans are a giving people. Very few other nations, if any, will allow foreigners to literally walk into their nation and begin demanding free this and free that, tear down the border so anyone can literally walk in; it is quite insane. In most other countries, you would either be killed outright, or jailed, or expelled. Understandably.
Yes, we understand that there is a political party that has turned this illegal, lawless, anti-human, anti-America behavior into a business model, a way to gain political power. But just because that one political party is using and abusing the democratic process to achieve non-democratic results does not make this situation acceptable.
So I applaud President Trump for speaking out on behalf of the nation he was elected to lead, the home he was sworn to protect. He is doing what any American president is supposed to do. Anyone now opposing his standing up for America and our rule of law is openly a declared enemy of America.
America: Love it as it is, or leave it, as it is. And no, you cannot take our stuff with you. We worked for it, we built it, it is ours. It is not yours.
The Prayer Heard ‘Round the World
About a week ago, a Pennsylvania state representative dared to make a Christian prayer in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, a building filled with beautiful religious symbols and statements from the Bible writ large upon the walls and the ceilings.
The world then exploded around her, condemnations filling the empty spaces at every corner of her life and space. Her prayer was labeled “Intolerance” by the fake news PennLive/Patriot News (which published a viciously anti-Christian article and then deleted every online pro-Christian comment afterwards, which is going to be our next essay here).
What is strange about all this anti religion sentiment is that mere minutes before Rep. Stephanie Borowicz made her public prayer, in the official time and place allotted to her, a fellow Muslim representative was sworn in. By an Imam using the Koran. No boos or hisses followed that religious event. The negativity only resulted from and surrounded a Christian speaking as a Christian in a building built by Christians in a state founded by Christians in a nation – the world’s freest and most successful- founded by Christians, and based on the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Testament, together or separately otherwise known as the Bible.
Everything about America, from our concept of law and order to our stop signs and street lights to our universal education and safety net for the destitute to free speech and tolerant free religion, are based on the orderly rules laid out in the Bible by God. Simple as that. Without Christianity, there is no America, no freedom, no big opportunity, no tolerance. Yes, Christianity started out as an offshoot of Judaism, but it is its own religion. It is the repository of all of America’s basic, founding principles and values. America has always been about shared values, shared goals, despite different theologies among its citizens.
If you take away Christianity, you no longer have America. No doubt, that anti-America goal is behind most of the negativity surrounding Borowicz etc et al. People complaining about Christianity are essentially declaring war on America. They no longer share values, goals, or a common vision of what it means to be an American.
Today, in the establishment media and its one political party, God is out, the US Constitution is out, the First Amendment freedoms are especially out, Christians are very, very out, and fake victims and even fakier minorities are forced in and falsely elevated and valued above everyone else (how can a group of people 1.3 billion strong be considered a minority anywhere on our planet?). This situation is not right, but it is the fight we find ourselves at this time and place. Freedom is never free, world-wide it is uncommon, and every generation has had to fight to hold onto it. America is still a majority Christian country, and if those Americans wake up, there is still time to save the nation from the physical and cultural onslaught exemplified by the negative response to Rep. Borowicz’s simple prayer.
Whether Christian theology speaks to you, or not, and whether or not a person believes that Christianity will save your soul, or not, is a matter of a particular faith. One thing here is absolutely certain, and that is only Christians and Christianity can save America. Whether America’s Christians are up to the task is the question before us. Our nation’s armed rebellion against British tyranny started quietly in a church pulpit. Rep. Borowicz made a prayer heard ’round the world; pray that it resonates further.