Pennsylvania’s Dysfunctional Government

July 21, 2026July 21, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Governor Shapiro signed a $50.8 Billion budget just shy of two weeks late. That’s the good part, as last year’s budget fight stretched so long that counties were running out money. They might be still. Hey, at least they got some money out to the counties, cities, school boards, and non-profits the state government provides most of the funding for. Look, it probably wasn’t good enough, but in an election year it’s as good as the Pennsylvania Legislature is going to do.

Let’s just be honest, Tom Wolf was not satisfying as 21st century politicians go, there was no sizzle there, but he was a really, really good Governor. He fixed the mess he inherited, while dealing with an incredibly weak Democratic House Leader (the Senate was marginally better) and Republican Majorities in both chambers. Tom Wolf was able to finally establish a health care exchange for the state under the ACA and pass the fair education funding formula while he served as Governor, two monumental acts of government that directly impacted millions of Pennsylvanians lives in a positive way. He handed Josh Shapiro a functioning state government in 2023, as well as a Democratic Majority in the House with leadership that is dynamic and wants to govern. For the most part, not many major things have passed the legislature since. Governor Shapiro’s early attempt at pushing school vouchers through didn’t go well, and most of the achievements since then have been marginal upgrades on things the state already does. On data centers the state response has been a confused mish-mash of doing anything possible to court the jobs and kind of, sort of, at least talking about regulating them. I’m going to be fair for a second- most of them mostly maintain what the folks before them did. For the most part, this Governor is Xeroxing his predecessor’s budgets, which is politically brilliant and frankly the right thing to do. Yeah, he fixed a 20 yard stretch of road and handed out a lot of economic development money, most of which was approved before his term. This is not ground breaking, transformational stuff, and you know what, I’m glad. Tom Wolf inherited a disaster of a state government. He fixed it. It’s far from perfect, but it’s way better than it was. And you know what? I’m not sure the public wants it much better. The lack of activity in Harrisburg isn’t hitting most of them, yet. And so, as they usually do, they like it. Josh Shapiro is very popular. Tom Wolf was very popular. Ed Rendell was very popular. Tom Ridge was very popular. Bob Casey Sr. was very popular. Hell, Dick Thornburgh was really popular, and that’s every Governor in my life besides Tom Corbett. Some of them did big things as Governor. Some didn’t. Pennsylvanians are fine if the trains run on time and they never really have to read about their government. At least in the short term.

You see though, Governors are not really the problem or the solution in Pennsylvania. Our courts, which 20 years ago went through horrific scandals with the pay raise and “Kids for Cash,” are actually pretty good now too and functioning to the benefit of the public. The problem is, and basically usually is, the legislature. It is a body with a wide variety of grifters and odd balls. When I was a high school student I once asked my wonderful State Representative at the time, whose daughter was a good friend willing to introduce me to him, what the legislature is like. He responded “Rich, I meet some of these guys and decide I never want to actually go to some of their districts- and those are the good guys.” The Senate has been hopelessly lead by corrupt lunatics since 1995, a one party rule that is only made worse by the Senate Dems inability to get out of their own way and run candidates around the state that want to represent the state, and not Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. The House has either been run by the same brand of ideological nutbags or narrowly lead by sane people who can’t find 102 votes to do much, let alone then get their bills through the Senate. Last year as the state languished without a budget for months, the Senate literally went on a Summer vacation longer than the school kids across Pennsylvania. Meanwhile the House Dems passed bills representing many of their core partisan priorities. Good stuff, but tone deaf under the circumstances. If you want to solve something, the courts and the Executive Branch might have your remedy. The legislature struggles to cut through the noise of lunatic fringers who inhabit it.

Right now, the legislature is in full election year mode. They had several priorities that needed passage, and they really didn’t do any of them. The courts nullified life without parole for second degree murder as a mandatory sentence, saying it was unconstitutional (not that it can’t be the sentence, but that judges should be able to consider a range). The courts also ruled that video poker machines are in fact slot machines and not a special category of “skill games” that don’t require licenses. In both cases, the cases were sent back to the legislature to address by passing a bill. So far, neither has happened. One might forgive them for not acting at the whims of the court if one thought they were doing it to assert that they don’t work for the courts, but it’s really more like watching moss grow on a stone. There are things though that are fully the responsibility of the legislature to do, and well, they just didn’t do them. Even after the importance of SEPTA in Philadelphia navigating America 250 celebrations, the World Cup, and the All-Star Game, I’ll be damned if the legislature would actually fund our mass transit. The Senate doesn’t want to do it, and well, nobody made them. God forbid they actually fund transportation in the largest economic activity hub in the state. And of course, finally, there is adult recreational marijuana use, which is something forward thinking states have done to help them fund their state governments. Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York- also known as all of our neighbors but one- have already done this. Pennsylvanians are driving to their states and purchasing marijuana products as adults, and paying tax dollars to their states. Their seniors and their students are getting those dollars. Meanwhile, we’re underfunding our counties. We lack clear DUI laws that make sense for marijuana users. We can’t do basic things.

I know we like to joke about how PennDOT is a third world organization and our roads suck. Honestly, other than a clean sweep, I have no idea how you fix that. It would be nice though if the legislature wanted to legislate. While I have my issues with the House, I am specifically talking about the Senate, where good and bad ideas go to die so everyone can go do whatever they do with their down time. It is, at this point, creating problems for the future, for the sake of doing nothing. It’s a disaster. And while right now everyone is cool with it, the chickens will come home to roost. We’ll be sitting here at some point, wondering why we can’t do basic things. I wonder if people will be smart enough to assign blame correctly.

Podcast Episode: Democratic Fights And Crooksy Chaos

July 21, 2026July 20, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Pip: Every election cycle, someone promises the apocalypse is finally arriving on schedule — and every cycle, the map barely moves.

Mara: That's the territory Rich Wilkins has been mapping on Apocalypse Vibes — the structural limits on Democratic ambitions in 2026, the candidate quality problems making those limits worse, the progressive left's Israel politics, and what America's 250th birthday actually means when you're paying attention. Let's start with where the 2026 wave is, and isn't, headed.

The 2026 Map: Real Gains, Real Ceilings

Pip: The central argument in "Political Gravity in 2026" is that Democrats are probably winning the House, but the landslide narrative is running ahead of the actual numbers.

Mara: The post puts it plainly: "The best way to understand American politics is to understand that our country has been stuck in a 48-46% split for a quarter century or so now." That's the floor and the ceiling both.

Pip: Which means gerrymandering doesn't even need to work that hard — the electorate is doing most of the structural work already.

Mara: The post estimates roughly 400 of 435 districts are drawn so partisanly that even a wave doesn't move them, projecting a net Republican loss of fifteen to twenty seats. "The Delusions of the Progressive Populist Left" and "What Democrats Got Wrong" both reinforce why: the party is consolidating leftward while independents — now 45 percent of Americans — are calling themselves moderate, and they are not moving toward the Democratic Party as it shifts.

Pip: So the wave is real, the ceiling is low, and the party is spending energy debating whether to go further in the direction that's already not working.

Mara: That's essentially the argument. Which brings us to the candidates Democrats are actually fielding.

Crooksy Brooks: A Case Study in Self-Inflicted Damage

Pip: "Crooksy's Loose Lips" opens with a scene that pretty much writes the rest of the segment for us — Bob Brooks, at a private lunch, cracking jokes about a popular mayor's spelling while his own social media history is a liability archive.

Mara: The post is direct about the strategic problem: "The blueprint for Crooksy was written by literally the same people who created Nazi oyster farmer Graham Platner in Maine and John Fetterman here in Pennsylvania." Same consultants, same pitch, same early polling lead that is already shrinking.

Pip: A 47-43 internal in July, per "Bernie, Platner, Crooksy" — which also notes the NRCC didn't wait long to tie Brooks directly to the Fight Agency consultants behind Platner's campaign.

Mara: "Crooksy Goes to Court" lays out the financial record: money loaned in 2004, a signed promissory note from 2008, an appeal lost in 2022, and a reported hundred dollars paid to date. The post also notes an ethics complaint was filed with the House during the primary.

Pip: A hundred dollars. Over twenty-two years. That is a commitment to a position.

Mara: "The NRCC's File on Crooksy" details four lines of attack the Republicans have already assembled — unpaid workers' compensation insurance, racist social media posts, the mother-in-law lawsuit, and a pay raise Brooks took while cutting spending on actual union member advocacy. The post notes this probably is not everything they have.

Mara: Then there is the firefighter issue. "Bob Crooksy Brooks Doesn't Just Hate Barack Obama, He Hates the Folks Who Save Your Life" covers his social media posts calling IAFF members who also volunteer "scabs" and "shitbags." "Someone Ask Crooksy How Many Scabs Helped Fight Last Week's Massive Fire in Allentown" puts a concrete number on what that argument looks like in practice: over a hundred firefighters from as far as Carbon County, working for more than seven hours.

Pip: His pathway to victory, the post argues, runs through turning out the Susan Wild coalition — the very voters he most repulses.

Mara: And the through-line across all of this is candidate quality as a structural problem, not a one-race accident. Which connects directly to what's happening on the Israel and progressive politics front.

The Progressive Left, Israel, and the Limits of the Movement

Pip: "These Folks are Mentally Ill" is about the New York primaries, but the argument is really about where the progressive left can and cannot win.

Mara: The post draws the line precisely: "these embarrassing freaks are only winning certain kinds of races — very blue district, legislative races that usually have more than two candidates." Safe seats, low-turnout fields, places where you never have to acknowledge Republicans or moderate Democrats exist.

Pip: The Gaza politics driving a lot of these candidacies gets its own full examination in "For All the Talk About a Free Palestine, Nobody Has a Plan for Who Would Lead It."

Mara: That post walks through the practical obstacles — two separate governing authorities that do not recognize each other, Abbas whose term ended in 2009, Hamas, skeptical neighboring states, and an Israeli electorate that roundly rejected the idea after October 7th. The conclusion is that attaching conditions to foreign aid is reasonable; promising a functioning Palestinian state in the near term is not.

Pip: Serious conditions on aid — yes. Promising a flying cow — also apparently on the table, and the post is not more optimistic about one than the other.

Mara: From there, the question becomes what any of this means for a country about to turn 250.

America at 250: Pride Without Amnesia

Pip: "Happy Birthday America" is the outlier in tone — a genuine defense of patriotism that holds the country's failures and its achievements in the same frame.

Mara: The post names the failures directly — slavery, Japanese internment, Jim Crow, January 6th — and then pivots: "We're also the greatest country on Earth. There is a reason my friends in foreign countries want to come here." The argument is that a nation is more than the sum of its government and its worst moments.

Pip: Ho Chi Minh quoting Thomas Jefferson in Vietnam's own Declaration of Independence is the detail that earns that argument.

Mara: The post closes on that note — that the ideals in the Declaration of Independence matter more than the day-to-day failures, and that billions live in greater freedom today at least partly because of what this country did and inspired.

Pip: A structurally frozen electorate, a candidate class that keeps finding new ways to underperform it, and a birthday party anyway.

Mara: The through-line is the gap between what the moment calls for and what the parties are actually offering. That gap isn't closing before November — we'll see if it narrows at all.

What Democrats Got Wrong.

July 20, 2026July 20, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

For the last ten years, Democrats have been locked in a brutal battle over the direction of their party. One wing of the party, let’s call it the mainstream, took the lesson from the Obama years that leaning into social issues, pluralism, and changing demographics was the pathway to a longer term majority. The other wing felt that the Occupy Wall Street movement, anger at wealthy people, and a more ideological policy portfolio would lead to victory. The “mainstream” generally won this fight and occupies a majority within the party. But the insurgents are a sizable bunch. Either way, neither has been successful.

The mainstream Democratic Party, for lack of a better way to put it, decided it needed to lean into social issues and “identity” politics late in the Obama years. This was driven in no small part by the party’s failures in elections where Barack Obama was not on the ballot. The thinking was that if you could turn out the “Obama coalition” consistently, you would win elections consistently. Not only did this fail in 2016, but Trump has seen his share of the vote improve amongst most of the groups that Obama rode to big victories, at least at the margins. The only place the party has seen real growth in this era with this strategy has been among college educated voters, particularly white ones, and that has had to offset declines with lower educated white voters. Basically running on what leftists call the “HR Lady politics” is not very popular and can’t build a sustainable majority outside of white collar, educated enclaves. It’s a losing strategy. Outreach to non-white voters who gave Obama huge numbers in his runs usually has brought leftists into the fray with circus clown candidates like Graham Platner who make fools of the party, and unpopular, absolute joke policy soundbites like “Defund the Police,” which end up not only costing us White voters, but also Black voters and Latino voters. In short, Democratic “mainstream” operatives have no bloody idea how to reach any group of voters right now besides white folks with grad degrees, and they’re still the better option because they don’t sound crazy, harmful, and destructive.

Then there’s the other side, which sounds like a campus protest at this point. These fools thought the reason Obama was successful was leftist protest movements such as “Occupy Wall Street,” and well, that’s went how you’d expect. They have jumped from “omnicause” to omnicause, hoping to jumpstart their revolution, and it just never quite finds enough support outside of lower and lower turnout primaries where they can edge out a low intensity win. They come up with slogans like “defund the police,” “Green New Deal,” and “Free Palestine,” none of which have any actual substance behind the plans (they often argue over what they even mean), and end up as the subject of Republican attack ads. They have leading figures like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who don’t have many career achievements and generally dislike the party more than they hate their opponents, and it ends as horribly bad as you’d expect. They give us ideological lunatics like Tulsi Gabbard, John Fetterman, and Graham Platner, who end up practically making the Republican arguments for them as they run away from the Democratic Party, people so intellectually flexible that they end up disagreeing with themselves on what kind of America they want. They make up roughly a third of the party that is just angry and wants to “FIGHT” or “DO SOMETHING” even if there is no concrete idea what that is. They can’t build a majority of the party, let alone the country, and if they did take over a lot more of the existing Democrats would leave. Which is bad when you’re 27% of America. They justify this though by living in an imaginary world where they’ll convert some portion of non-voters and Trump voters into leftists, which is nonsensical to any thinking person, but it’s the only way to justify moving left when the country thinks we’ve gone too far now.

The second problem is truly a problem of leadership though, and it’s made these problems way, way worse. Instead of standing on their beliefs and values and presenting a plan of any kind to the country, they have bent over backwards to appease these folks. What’s come out of it is slop policy, adaptation of half measures to try and appease people which does not appease people, and the perception among less ideological voters of all stripes that Democrats are a bunch of weirdos obsessed with changing everything in society. Let’s be honest, I kind of get people defining us by our furthest left flank- they at least have a list of things they want to do. They might not have a real plan to get there, or any clue how they’d change a government not meant to change, but they have policies. What does a Chuck Schumer Democrat do, run the government better? It’s basically a management class political party that promises to appropriate money better than the other guys and maybe be a bit better about hiring more diverse people, and defending achievements the party had in the past, like Medicare, Obamacare, or Social Security. Really, let’s be serious, most of the great achievements Democrats have in recent times are cleaning up messes left to them by Republicans. It’s not as though they’ve put forward serious regulatory bills on things like the internet, social media, or AI. It’s kind of just “we’re better at governance,” which makes people’s eyes glaze over. Then the leftists yell about giving out free shit, and most voters know it will never happen, but some folks do latch onto it, and so people assume that’s the party’s position. I mean, it’s dumb, but I can’t blame people.

So not only are Democratic leaders appeasing people who want to change the very core of the support they currently have to become something less popular, they’re also literally putting nothing forward as a party. And this has been the case for ten years. We’ll pass continuing resolutions for the same government you don’t like, but do it better than them, so vote for us. Then we wonder why we’re being defined by the least popular among us. I don’t know why we’re shocked. Ten years into this.

MLB Power Rankings, 7/14/26 (All-Star Break)

July 14, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Well it’s the All-Star Break. Baseball is descending on Philadelphia. Tonight I’ll be sitting in the seats watching Cristopher Sanchez deliver the first pitch to Mike Trout. I was not nearly as excited about this months ago as I have become recently. In 1996 I was there, and it was awesome, but there was one Phillies player in the game. This will be dramatically different. Maybe too different in my view, but there’s no way to balance getting every team involved with giving the fans what they want.

As for where baseball is- well, it’s where you expect it to be. The Dodgers are good. The Brewers, Braves, Phillies, and Cubs are chasing them in the NL. The Yankees, Guardians, and Mariners are good. But it’s also not. Miami, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis are as alive as the Padres and Diamondbacks in the NL. The White Sox and Rays are more alive than the Tigers or Blue Jays. Everything that was predictable, well most of it was. But not all of it.

First, here’s my preseason picks. Boy, I got some wrong. Here’s the first and second power rankings too. I’ll give you my updated power rankings now, then the thoughts on the rest of the season:

Los Angeles Dodgers
Milwaukee Brewers
Tampa Bay Rays
Atlanta Braves
Chicago Cubs
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Yankees
Cleveland Guardians
Chicago White Sox
Miami Marlins
Texas Rangers
St. Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Pirates
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Diego Padres
Seattle Mariners
Boston Red Sox
Washington Nationals
Minnesota Twins
Houston Astros
Baltimore Orioles
Detroit Tigers
Toronto Blue Jays
Cincinnati Reds
Sacramento Athletics
San Francisco Giants
New York Mets
Kansas City Royals
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

So I re-arranged the front group, but not wildly. I think the top eight all have a legitimate shot to win the World Series and should be absolute buyers. From nine to sixteen, those teams really should believe in their team and try to buy. Here’s the thing though- I don’t think any of the top 24 are like 100% out of this. How they come out after the break will really determine what those teams do, and there are teams like Boston and Detroit that I thought were absolutely dead that have actually regained some life in recent weeks.

Here’s how I would evaluate each team’s chances though- how many legitimate #1 or 2 pitchers do they have, and how bad is the back end of their bullpen. Teams that have three or even four premium arms are going to eventually just pull away, as long as they have a bullpen that doesn’t just give away wins they should get. If you made me predict today, I’d predict the Dodgers, Brewers, Phillies, Yankees, Guardians, and Mariners to win their divisions. I’d predict the Cubs, Braves, and Marlins to win the NL Wild Cards, today. The teams I think with the best shot of knocking off the Marlins? Pittsburgh and Arizona. The deadline will decide that, and frankly if Atlanta pulls a strong deadline they could hold off the Phillies- if they don’t do the same. In the AL, I’d pick the Wild Cards to go to Texas, Tampa, and Boston- yes, Boston- right now. Again, pitching. Most pitchers are at 18 or 19 starts this season right now, and teams with less proven arms will see serious depreciation in the last ten to thirteen starts of a pitcher’s season. Teams like St. Louis and Washington, who have really fun lineups to be excited about, will need pitching to not fall off. I love what the White Sox are doing, but they are a team who needs to add arms. Again, I like teams like Miami and Pittsburgh, who have young arms that casual fans don’t realize are really talented, and will hold up better than you believe. I still basically believe the teams like the Yankees and Cubs who were built with postseason aspirations, or even just well run teams like Milwaukee, will hold up better. Those teams are made for long seasons.

AS FOR MY PHILLIES, I did say I think they’ll win the division, but the deadline will matter. They have the best top three starters in the division, if not the league, and that will be decisive. They have the most top heavy roster in baseball though. They have six guys at the All-Star Game. Add Wheeler to that, and that’s about all of the roster that you’d bet your season on. Maybe you’d add Kerkering or a Stott and say you feel decent about them, or you might still feel very good about Justin Crawford’s progress as a rookie, but they’re truly all complimentary pieces. The truth is that the Phillies charitably can feel good about maybe nine or ten roster spots, and should look for any upgrades they can possibly make for the other 16. I’m not asking for big names like Buxton or Trout, I’d be fine with several marginal upgrades. I particularly am intrigued by the possibilities with the Giants, Tigers, Angels and Twins, among teams that may have more than one piece we want in a deal. Like everyone else, a right-handed bat, left handed reliever, and starting pitcher better than Aaron Nola would work. Given that this team is carrying two back-up catchers around for an abnormal amount of time, I’m not picky on bats, just someone who actually can hit. I’d love to buy a rental arm like Ray, but that’s probably a pipe dream, so again, anything above a five. And someone to replace Alvarado as the main lefty in the seventh and eighth.

I said Ohtani and Judge would win the MVP’s, with Bobby Witt Jr. and Juan Soto as the top challenges. Woof. Do I think Ohtani should win? No, I think frankly he should be more under consideration for Cy Young, but in the analytics age he’s a given. Personally I’m drifting further from being a WAR voter as this season goes on, but I’d probably vote for James Wood in the NL, though I’m tempted to say the hell with the analytics and pick Schwarber. If he really hits 60 and people start telling me about PCA’s defensive metrics, I’ll bite their head off. With that said, Pete Crow-Armstrong is having a very good season and needs a look too. My AL mention of Witt is more than deserving, but his team is massively disappointing. Yordan Alvarez’s team isn’t a ton better. So maybe I’m voting for Junior Caminero. For NL Cy Young I am going homer and saying I’d pick Zack Wheeler (yes, the non-All Star) over Sanchez, Misiorowski, and Ohtani in what is a fantastic race. In the AL, give me Cam Schlittler by a nose over Dylan Cease right now. I’ll give Kevin McGonigle the nod for AL Rookie of the Year and J.J. Wetherholt the NL nod, unless Murakami can come back strong from injury. That AL race is going to be great. Clayton McCullough and Will Venable get my Manager of the Year nods.

Bernie, Platner, Crooksy

July 10, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Well, the NRCC didn’t wait much on this.

Brooks uses Fight Agency, the same consultants tied to Platner’s campaign, and has shown no interest in dropping them.

“Bernie Bro Bob Brooks is backed by far-left political allies who helped prop up alleged sexual abuser Graham Platner. Brooks won’t distance himself from them because he is exactly what the Democrat machine produces: a self-serving socialist who protects the system, not families.” – NRCC Spokesman Reilly Richardson

This isn’t new, if you’ve been reading here, and it’s not shocking. Much like the Nazi in Maine, Bob doesn’t really like people who aren’t white. Crooksy hates Barack Obama, and Platner’s whole campaign was against the party. As you can see above, they are both Bernie backed candidates. Let’s take a look at some of Bernie’s other greatest hits:

You know, it’s about time for this “revolution” to die. I have to hand it to Crooksy though- he’s maybe not a Russian asset, Nazi, or Shrek, but he did stiff his former mother-in-law. Bernie and Fight Agency are really picking out some fantastic people to run for Congress.

Meanwhile Crooksy is crowing about an internal showing him up 47-43 in July. That’s a lot smaller lead than Platner had two months ago. When the NRCC opens fire on this guy, he really may implode. Especially if he keeps talking.

The NRCC’s File on Crooksy

July 6, 2026July 6, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

The NRCC has put up it’s first “red box” page on Bob “Crooksy” Brooks in PA-7, and it’s a mix of things we expected and knew, and things that are expansions on his other laundry list of problems. The four main hits they put up:

I have to admit that I’m surprised they limited themselves to just four things with this guy, but as I found in the primaries, there’s so much more than you can actually print legally about him. They’re hitting on the obvious stuff, being a racist who stiffed his family. They’re also hitting him though right where his message is most vulnerable- he’s not a champion of blue collar Americans. They’re going to call him a “union boss,” an attack with a false meaning for the most part, by hitting him for his compensation in the job and job performance. I mean, I guess that works with Republicans, but I don’t know there. The first hit, that he doesn’t have workman’s compensation insurance for his landscaping business could expose him to some serious issues legally, and also open up the long rumored issues of how he got the business. Of course they have videos of Crooksy saying crazy things and also avoiding talking (see above) on the page as well. I doubt this is everything they have, but it’s probably enough to pull Crooksy down a bit. I’m sure they’re going to use the deadbeat stuff and racism to really nuke him, because well, it’s true.

With what we are seeing in the Platner race today, you may have to actually kill someone to get headlines that raise eyebrows this cycle.

The Delusions of the Progressive Populist Left

July 6, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

This could be written in one sentence- “They didn’t vote for him.”

Welcome to the mythical summer of “the Democratic Tea Party.” They can win the most gentrified areas of New York City. They can win Denver. They can win the super safe Philadelphia seat. The Bronx? The Hudson Valley? Suburban Chicago? All the competitive Texas seats? Suburban Philadelphia? South central Pennsylvania? Every California competitive race but one? Suburban Maryland? The Iowa seats? I could go on. They lost every one of them.

Progressive populists are winning low intensity primaries. Safe seats that no Democratic nominee can lose. Races with backbench, lower profile (to the general public) candidates or divided, underfunded competition from multiple candidates. Wildly leftist seats. Rural white seats and gentrified white trust fund babies. Actual working class districts with working class voters? Those folks want nothing to do with these idiots. People in competitive districts? They’ll pass.

Their movement is white, educated, and very male. Their attempts at “working class” are trust fund babies like Graham Platner and grifters like Bob Brooks that somehow didn’t get beat up too badly in their bar room days. When they ran Bernie in 2016, he hit his high in the low-40’s in the primaries. Four years later, with huge money advantages and organization, he fell downward closer to a third. Both times Black peoples had no interest in him. No primary this year suggests anything has changed.

But let’s play along for a minute. Their entire theory is that most Democrats will stick with the party in the event the DSA takes over. They also believe there ae a group of non-voters and even Republicans out there who would vote for them, but not Dems. Is this realistic? Would Republicans cross over to vote for DSA Democrats? Well 77% of them call themselves conservatives, another 18% call themselves moderates, and just 4% call themselves liberals. Even among the whole electorate, liberals are the smallest share of the three options (conservative, moderate, and liberal). Could people not voting right now tip the scales in favor of the DSA types? Well, more non-voters favored Trump in 2024, so that’s not super promising. It doesn’t stand to reason that people calling themselves conservative or moderate in general would prefer the further left version of Democrats to the current version of Democrats that they also didn’t prefer to Trump. But there’s a greater danger here- it really wouldn’t take many existing Democrats just deciding they’re out on this to make the Democrats a hopeless minority forever. Democrats have received about 48% of the vote or more in every Presidential election since 1996, so let’s use that as a baseline. If ten percent of Democratic leaning voters decided they didn’t want to vote for this party anymore, the party would be a 43% national party and would lose both houses of Congress and the White House for a generation. A little over 40% of Democratic voters are independents that lean Democratic, and about 45% of them are moderates, at minimum. So figure conservatively somewhere around 20% of Democratic leaning voters are definitely well to the right of these people, at least. Losing half of them seems to be an automatic. Reality is that these numbers could be a lot more.

What’s the point in taking over a party that can’t win anymore? Ok, you win a majority of a small group and meanwhile the larger public is repulsed. It’s hard to put lipstick on a pig. You can say Mamdani is a model for Democratic Socialist governance if you want, but they can talk about the $4 billion bailout from Albany he got this year and the missed pension payment for city workers worth $2.3 billion more. We all know that $6.3 billion for a city is a lot of money. People who don’t live in these big, blue cities are not going to be as okay with that kind of government as the very progressive voters in those places. How do you sell this to people who are largely not all that ideological, let alone to anyone opposed to leftism?

The answer is you don’t, and you won’t. Yes, they are going to win elections in very blue areas right now. Expanding beyond that isn’t something they have even fathomed beyond some nonsense about “turning out non-voters” that probably don’t like them either. The whole thing is just Corbyn’s British Labour on steroids, and probably will go about as well. In what world are you going to sell voters in the Midwest, or even here, on electing people who are members of a political party that is nominating people supporting the Kremlin, Cuban communism, and people chanting “death to America” over in New York City? Literally why would any American with a sane mind look at the recent winners in New York City and Denver and be like, “yeah, I’m for this?” This is a dead end. For those of you who say “well the establishment Democrats lost too!,” yes, you are right. They lost in no small part because the country thought they were too obsessed with social justice and economic redistribution under Biden, how the hell do you think the country is going to react to someone who is actually a real life leftist?

Happy Birthday America

July 4, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Well, I’m home from eating hot dogs and hamburgers, drinking beers, and shooting off fireworks to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. No, I didn’t watch any of Trump’s speeches or freak show. No, I didn’t watch Mamdani’s speech either, because he’s not our leader. I divorced myself from real world politics today, and well, it was nice.

A lot of folks have suggested that Trump, and the issues facing our nation, made this July 4th less worth celebrating than past ones. Not surprisingly, I don’t agree. Part of celebrating America is celebrating the ideals of it, not necessarily the day-to-day reality of it. I also happen to think that a nation is a lot more than the sum of it’s government and laws. It’s worth noting that our Declaration of Independence was written years before our first real legal document, the Constitution, and is far more of an idealist document. It is a document that celebrates freedom, independence, and the idea of a country where all people are free to live as they want. It’s a beautiful document. It is a beautiful idea. And yes, we are a beautiful country.

The United States has a lot of failings. Slavery. The Trail of Tears. Japanese Internment Camps. Jim Crow. Segregation. The Immigration Act of 1924. The Iraq War. The Patriot Act. The War on Drugs. The way we treated Vietnam veterans when they came home from the war. I would argue January 6th and the current actions of ICE are not good moments. Our failings are pretty bi-partisan and very real. I suppose if you’re an absolutist, you could cancel us as a nation. Lord knows we’ve done it to plenty of people who we shouldn’t have.

We’re also the greatest country on Earth. There is a reason my friends in foreign countries *want* to come here. There’s a reason millions of people try to immigrate here illegally, or overstay visas, or try to float from Cuba, or even seek to marry to get here. It’s better here than it is there. Sure, it’s not *equally* better for all people, we don’t all have the same opportunities, and that’s a problem we should be trying to fix every day. No, I’m sorry though, there’s not really somewhere else I’d rather be. And you know, the rest of the world wants us at our best. The French maintain a cemetery at Normandy because brave Americans of all stripes were willing to sacrifice their lives for their freedom, as they did for us during the Revolution. We’re the country that lead the 20th century in innovation. We landed on the Moon. We won the World Wars. We built the interstate highway system. We built suburbia. We were a leader in the industrial revolution. Nations across the globe quote our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution in their own founding documents. Millions come see our musicians, actresses, and athletes when they come to their countries. Yes, sure, we did some shitty stuff in history that we should reckon with and avoid doing again. We’ve also done the greatest shit in world history. Like individual people, we should hang our head in shame because of our worst moments. Screw that, it’s no way to live. Billions live in freedom around the globe today, either directly because of what we did, or in part because of the inspiration of our own revolution. We fought a whole war with Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, and he and his nation directly quoted Thomas Jefferson in the opening of their very own Declaration of Independence. We’re not perfect, we’re not even the only great nation in this world, but dammit be proud, we’re the best.

So yeah, I celebrated like a red blooded American today. The idea of this country, the great things we do, matters a lot more to me than the failings. I hope to hell all of you celebrated too. God bless America.

Crooksy’s Loose Lips

July 2, 2026July 2, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / 3 Comments

The other day Bob “Crooksy” Brooks was sitting for a lunch with friends. As one would expect from Crooksy, he said something stupid. He made a joke about Mayor Sal Panto’s social media posting, saying something along the lines of he got drug for his social media postings, but at least he spelled them right. He probably figured he was sitting with friends, and he was. But well, the walls have ears when you run for Congress, and the walls couldn’t wait to tell me about it. Was his joke mildly funny? Sure. But Sal Panto is popular in Easton, and with good reason, he’s the best Mayor the city has ever had. Also though, Crooksy’s social media postings are cringe, cringe, cringe. And more cringe. He all but defends violence. Like the problem here isn’t whether or not Bob can put together a complete sentence (he barely can), it’s more that he spent most of his adult life spouting off offensive, racist shit before he decided he was a working class hero leftist politician. But that’s neither here nor there, he’s nominated now, amiright?

The right wing is just starting to tee up their line of attack against Bob for later this Fall. They dug up his hits on IAFF Fire Fighters who are volunteers too, and kind of easily, because the guy must not have his Facebook locked down. I mean, you’re running for Congress, man. The graphic above from Fox News ironically just uses his own words against his campaign statements, they didn’t even have to lie for once. Look, pro tip here- a former bartender should have a consistent position on how we tax tips for bartenders. Going on some bro podcast and calling Trump’s so-called (it’s not really, or at least not fully) “no tax on tips” position “garbage,” then having your handlers say you support it is campaign malpractice that’s impressively bad even for a knuckle dragger like Crooksy. The question is, is he dishonest, stupid, or both? I’m going with both. The result of that is he just shoots from the hip on policy questions and tells the room whatever he thinks they want to hear. Kind of makes sense now that he recently told a room of mostly Muslim Americans that Israel’s war in Gaza is a genocide, but when he was asked about cutting aid to Israel at a Lehigh Valley for All meeting a few months ago, he pulled his shirt over his face like he was afraid of the question. This guy believes whatever he’s told to believe. Consistency isn’t his thing.

If you believe the Democrats are going to win 30 seats and take the House in a wave this year, none of this will matter. Crooksy will win because Democrats win, and frankly any complaints I have against him won’t mean anything because the race will be too far gone. I don’t believe that at all. These midterm elections are going to be way more competitive than most Democratic activists want to believe. This is what happens when activists and electeds just talk to each other and confirm each other’s biases. The fact is that battleground voters think Democrats are nuts right now. They think we are more extreme than Republicans. They thought this in 2024 too, and then voted for Republicans. Now we’re nominating embarrassing, Mamdani-DSA candidates around the country.

The blueprint for Crooksy was written by *literally* the same people who created Nazi oyster farmer Graham Platner in Maine and John Fetterman here in Pennsylvania. The idea they sold voters on is that Crooksy would win back (white) working class voters because he’s a working class, union President with a bald head that said some stupid things on social media that makes him “authentic.” It’s literally the same as Platner’s story, to the word. We heard some of the same rhetoric around James Talarico’s campaign in Texas too. Well, how’s it going? Platner’s once mighty lead in Maine is gone, because his personal baggage is out now (oh hey, Crooksy), and he’s getting absolutely housed among white, non-college educated voters in Maine, the people he was supposed to pull back to the Democrats. Oops! Talarico is doing even worse. There’s less than zero reason to think that Crooksy is doing better with white non-college educated voters here, or frankly any other group that didn’t vote Democratic in 2024. He’s not. He’s probably going to be lucky to flip any individual precincts on Mackenzie, let alone communities, and therefore his pathway to victory will be motivating more core Democrats, the type that were the backbone of Susan Wild’s coalition, to show up. Frankly, he repulses a lot of those activist types, and I doubt he does much better with the 30 or 40 something year old college graduate couple living in the suburbs either.

Crooksy’s continual mistakes are going to burn him. And he’s going to keep making them.

Someone Ask Crooksy How Many Scabs Helped Fight Last Week’s Massive Fire in Allentown

June 29, 2026June 29, 2026 / Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Ok, as usual here- those are Bob “Crooksy” Brooks own words, right? Crooksy said recently that IAFF members who also serve as volunteer fire fighters and respond in areas where other IAFF members work are “scabs.” I talked about how ignorant of a thing this was for Crooksy to say here. Look, it was an ignorant statement, and Crooksy is an ignorant guy, but I do get it in theory. If IAFF members were undercutting other IAFF members by working for some sort of renegade department that went into their municipalities and worked for free, they would legitimately be “scabs.” That’s never how it works though. Basically, some IAFF members also serve as volunteers in their home communities, either out of civic duty or for the benefits Pennsylvania offers them to do so. Sometimes they get called in to towns with professional fire fighters, because there is a fire so big and awful that it requires a lot of extra, outside help. Even professional forces don’t always have enough guys. So they ask neighboring communities for help. You know, like during a six alarm fire in Allentown…

“Most of those homes are displaced, some of them sustained significant damage. Fire crews worked an offensive attack, as soon as the fire jumped the street, in order to save these homes. The homes are salvageable, but they are significantly damaged,” says Steed.

One resident tells us they saw flames shoot up into the sky from several blocks away.

“I saw the flames, they were way beyond the building height right now, I felt the heat, and I’m like ‘Yo man, I hope they get this taken care of,” says Charles Shafer of Allentown.

Others say they smelled the fire before even seeing it.

Danitza Lopez of Allentown says, “It smelled like my house was on fire, I smelled the smoke, it was like engulfing my house, and then thankfully I looked around everywhere, and there was no fire, but then I came outside, and the whole building was engulfed in flames.”

For more than 7 hours, over a hundred firefighters from as far as Carbon County were entrenched, snuffing out the blaze inside the vacant industrial building.

Oh, yikes. I have no idea what Crooksy meant when he was spouting off online, and judging from the quality of his other posts, I doubt he knows what he meant either. I’m going to say that I hope he wasn’t talking about situations like this, because honestly, that would be brain dead. For the record, two juveniles have been charged with setting the fire. I’m going to take a guess that a lot of “scabs” were on site.

I suppose it’s possible that some volunteer force somewhere is trying to respond to calls in a town that has professional fire fighters, and in this hypothetical it would make sense for a union leader to make a statement against that. I have no idea what kind of ass backwards place that’s happening in, but I won’t say it’s impossible. I just will take a guess that it’s not happening in Allentown. So thank you to everyone who responded to the fire, both the professionals and those who were volunteering. Most folks appreciate you.