Author: Rich Wilkins

More Money for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission? Yeah, No Thanks.

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment
Doesn’t this look like a nice spot for a warehouse to you? Sorry, it’s in Warren County.

Let’s just be clear here- the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission is not going to get it’s $461,375 INCREASE in it’s budget from Northampton County. Even if Council approves the increase in cash at their next meeting, that’s going to get a veto from the Executive. Three of the five Democrats are never going to vote to override that. Councilman Brown said he doesn’t support a tax increase, and I doubt Councilman Goffredo does either. What conservative wants to increase taxes to pay for a regional government body’s staff? Good luck getting to six votes for the tax increase to fund this. It will die at the veto, 5-4.

As it should. Councilman Ken Kraft said it better than me:

“Why do we want to give Lehigh Valley Planning Commission all this money?” demanded Council member Ken Kraft.  “You heard them when they were here. They have a huge budget surplus.” 

Council member John Brown supported an increase and said it was part of the agreement we have with our sister county. But in the eyes of Kraft and many others going back to former Council President Wayne Grube, we are treated more like the ugly red-headed step-sister.

Kraft went on a tear.  “I didn’t tell them to move into a new building. I didn’t tell them to incur all this new debt that they did and I don’t think our taxpayers should pay for that. And 90% of it was in salaries alone. … I think they need to figure out how to pay their bills without handouts. I’m a strong No. …. I can’t believe we’re doing this.” … “It’s ludicrous to give this kind of money to them when they said most of it is for salaries. Remember, they are the people who brought you the warehouses all over the county. They told every one of these little municipalities back in Walt Dealtry’s days, if you remember, to change their zoning and planning to allow what happened. And then in the future, we’re like ‘Oh my God, there’s warehouses and cars and everything everywhere.’ Who gave us that? The LVPC. … They have a lot of reserves. We should have their reserves.”

So there’s a lot here, but the main point is “NO.” I often times think the “we get treated like the little brother” argument is a bit trumped up. Is there some truth to it? Sure, but not as much as people think. Let’s dig into the real meat of this though. LVPC does not dispute that they have cash reserves. They did say most of this money would go to salaries. In what world should we fund salaries for an organization that has cash reserves? How far can their reserves stretch? How much of their reserves were county tax dollars? Current taxpayers don’t need to fund future rainy day funds or current bloated regional bodies. It’s not fair in this economy.

Then there is the whole discussion of warehouses and over development. My Father happens to be a township planner, and well, zoning is actually important. Township planning commissioners have very limited abilities to fight back against over development when zoning was already approved for more development and their Township Supervisors don’t have the stomach to fight against deep pocketed developers in court. Essentially most Planning Commissions in municipalities end up simply making sure developers dot their I’d and cross their T’s when they want to make a giant sum or money on a former farm land. If you’re lucky you can get the developer to put in an interchange (route 33 and Tatamy) or maybe give you a little league field (Forks used to love this). If someone buys a piece of land to develop it and has all their legal ducks in a row, they can. Is LVPC responsible for all of the townships being in this position? That’s probably a bit much to claim. Did most of the Lehigh Valley kind of, sort of all zone themselves into this mess in the first place? Yeah, basically. Is there a body that was kind of, sort of supposed to help them avoid that? Yeah, maybe there is.

So I’m a little split on the arguments Kraft made, but he’s generally right- they have money, their reasons for needing more money aren’t really our problem, and maybe, just maybe, this level of government hasn’t worked out all that well for what the residents of the Lehigh Valley would like. I’ll go another step though. Back in the dark ages of the Biden Administration, when infrastructure money became available, there was a shot at connecting up to regional rail from Northampton County to New York City. PennDOT wanted to put a “quiet veto” on that, and basically sought to do so by simultaneously raising the idea of connecting Allentown to SEPTA. The elected County Executive in Northampton County came out and publicly supported AMTRAK to NYC. It’s been alleged by OTHER elected officials that the folks at the LVPC asked them to not seek rail to New York City, because PennDOT would then yank their alleged interest in connecting Allentown to SEPTA (The “other” electeds are from Lehigh County). Neither has happened, nor probably will they, which was really what PennDOT wanted. You see, those bureaucrats stay no matter who is the Governor, and they oppose building anything but highways- even though they build some of the shittiest highways in the country. Even taking everyone at best intentions, they called for killing calls to connect Northampton County and it’s citizens to passenger lines to New York in favor of a never realized passenger line from Lehigh County to Philadelphia. So, in the best of intentioned scenarios you see Kraft’s “little brother” argument with LVPC, and well, he’s right. Worst case? PennDot didn’t want to do shit for anyone in the Lehigh Valley, which is why we have two lane highways all over instead of three way highways, and why we sit in the parking lot called US-22 from 3pm to 6pm every day. PennDOT fat cats keep padding the pension and you get nothing. LVPC either is not picking this up, or has too cushy of a relationship with PennDOT. Either way, if LVPC doesn’t support the objectives of the elected government in Northampton County, why give it extra money beyond what it needs to function?

Crooksy’s Hired Nerds Will Save Us, Right?

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

They gave you an underperforming antisemite. They gave you Senator Shrek. Now you should trust that they are ready to deliver you a House Majority. Just check out their puff article.

After successfully propelling Zohran Mamdani to the mayor’s office in New York City, the campaign firm Fight Agency is moving on to its next targets – defeating Pennsylvania Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R-07) and Rob Bresnahan (R-08).

The six-person firm consists of Rebecca Katz, Tommy McDonald, Julian Mulvey, Morris Katz, Eric Stern, and Lynnette Jackson. Fight Agency’s website reads that it has assisted over 300 winning elections in 40 states and has won over 100 awards, including 2022 Campaign of the Year.

Katz was the lead strategist for Sen. John Fetterman’s winning campaign in 2022, while McDonald was his key admaker. Mulvey was a key member of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) braintrust, and Katz was the firm’s lead on the Mamdani campaign. 

Stern was deputy campaign manager for Fetterman, while Jackson heads operations.

The group’s website says that it is “looking to help American originals” who are “ready to fight the toughest battles in politics.”

“And we’re here to help you with sharp messaging and the next great iconic ad.  So, if you’re looking for something different, you might have just found it.”

So their new iconic original is a pro-gun militant, who hates Kaepernick for supporting BLM (as opposed to telling people to not vote in 2016), and stiffed his mother-in-law. An American original? I mean, you can find deadbeats all over the place right, like maybe Trump Tower? Or is this whatever day Northampton County has hearings for people who stiff their family? I’m unsure. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is certainly unoriginal though. I’ve see plenty of people who aren’t even honest when it comes to their family.

Yes, these folks got Zohran elected in a gigantic blue city. Good job. Unless they’re going to flat out lie to people and get away with it like they did with John “Shrek” Fetterman, that doesn’t usually work though. Look, Mamdani will be the latest leftist who promised the world and under delivers. John Fetterman somehow went from a Bernie socialist to a Republican before he finished three years in the Senate. These same folks want you to think it’s okay to have a Nazi tattoo, so much so that you should be elected Senator in Maine. Yes, he’s really their guy. These folks brag about electing like 300 socialists, but they probably lost more Presidential primaries with just Bernie Sanders alone than Eugene Debs did in his career. Most Americans don’t want to be Democratic Socialists.

The movement they are selling is simply awful. It’s morally bankrupt. We have seen what their kind of candidates give us. They give us Trump’s National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard. They give us deadbeat Senator, Bernie Sanders. They give us completely con-artist Senators, like John Fetterman. That’s a road to the future version of MAGA. We don’t need this kind of garbage.

NFL Power Rankings, 11/26

/ Rich Wilkins / 3 Comments

Well, we got a bit of a shake up at the top, right? Philadelphia and Indianapolis lost kind of ugly games to annoying teams on the road. Sure. I’m not going to do what everyone is doing though and bump the Rams to the top, at least not yet. Do the Rams have a great record, winning coach, winning quarterback, and some decent wins lately? Sure. They even have a championship with this coach-QB combo. I’m just not totally shaking up the top over one week. The top two stay as the top two. Really the top 11 aren’t changing much.

The middle of the pack is way more interesting. You have 7-4 disappointments (Buffalo) and a ton of teams with 4 to 6 wins where how we talk about them is almost entirely lacking in any consideration of the fact that they all basically have the same record. Kansas City is “disappointing” at 6-5, but Carolina is on the up and up at 6-6. Really? We are just creating distinctions so we can interpret what “basically .500” means in this league. It’s silly and really belongs in a fiction aisle.

Anyway, here’s this week’s rankings.

11/18 rankings. 11/11 rankings. 11/4 rankings. 10/28 rankings. 10/21 rankings. 10/15 rankings. 10/8 rankings. 9/30 rankings. 9/24 rankings. 9/16 rankings. 9/9 rankings.

  1. Denver Broncos
  2. New England Patriots
  3. Los Angeles Rams
  4. Philadelphia Eagles
  5. Indianapolis Colts
  6. Chicago Bears
  7. Buffalo Bills
  8. Green Bay Packers
  9. Seattle Seahawks
  10. San Francisco 49’ers
  11. Detroit Lions
  12. Jacksonville Jaguars
  13. Los Angeles Chargers
  14. Baltimore Ravens
  15. Houston Texans
  16. Kansas City Chiefs
  17. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  18. Pittsburgh Steelers
  19. Carolina Panthers
  20. Dallas Cowboys
  21. Miami Dolphins
  22. Minnesota Vikings
  23. Atlanta Falcons
  24. Cincinnati Bengals
  25. Arizona Cardinals
  26. Cleveland Browns
  27. Washington Commanders
  28. New Orleans Saints
  29. New York Giants
  30. New York Jets
  31. Las Vegas Raiders
  32. Tennessee Titans

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Stumble Over the Political Industrial Complex

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In case you’re a total fucking idiot, allow me to verify something for you- there is a “political industrial complex.” I mean, c’mon, did you need Marjorie Taylor Greene to tell you that? Look, I’m still not a fan of her’s, but even a broke clock is right twice a day. Like, you thought all of those emails asking you for money with the headline “This is the most important election of our lifetime!” and texts asking you “just give us $5!” were something genuine? You never wondered why after you gave one candidate $10 because you believed in them, then you suddenly ended up on other email lists? List sales and swaps are a big business, man. Really though, you needed her to tell you this?

Washington politics is not any different any other industry, it needs it’s customers to survive. Candidates are taught, if they don’t instinctively know, to cater to the audience that keeps the lights on. Small dollar donors. Volunteers. Interest group leaders. Mega donors. Government affairs directors. Basically, the hyper engaged. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking this only means the rich or corporate interests, but it’s really true of anyone that is an active participant in our political dialogue in America full time. Why are we running candidates who mostly appeal to base voters and turn off most of the rest of the public? It’s an industry. That keeps the lights on.

Is there any reason the #1 metric of the DCCC in a swing seat needs to be money? Not really. Let’s be honest, they’re going to spend money in PA-7 or 8, or NJ-7, or NY-17, and so on. The nominee will be funded, so why worry about if they’re good at it? We all know why- the DCCC exists to make sure people get paid. They want candidates who can sustain expensive consultants and pay staff. Is it always necessary? At a certain point, yes. For months on end? No, not at all.

Let’s be honest, shitty people sustain candidates like Graham Platner because they make them money. Does any one think the guy with the Nazi tattoo should walk into a Senate seat for their first political gig? Only if they’re a weirdo. Did anyone think Marjorie Taylor Greene was an ideal Congresswoman? Only if they were so strange that they thought making the other side angry was a positive attribute. It takes a grift to make someone think the guy robbing his mother in law should go to Congress. This is where we are though.

Conflict sells. Anger sells. Telling people they want the most divisive person possible because the other side’s voters, not just candidates and donors, are horrible people who want to kill children, old people, and puppies, it sells. Lining up AOC’s resume next to say Jimmy Carter’s or Barack Obama’s, let alone Dwight Eisenhower or LBJ, and trying to claim she should be a viable Presidential candidate should immediately tell you by common sense that this is silly. It doesn’t for a lot of hyper partisan people. The industry has rewired your brain to believe things that a rational person would not. If you stay in a constant state of conflict against everyone, even your friends, neighbors, and family members that you disagree with, you’re ready to roll with anyone. Suddenly you have no standards. You’re good with whatever slop is put in front of you. J.D. Vance couldn’t even find the private gym in the Senate, and suddenly he’s up to being Vice-President, because he can speak to the hyper engaged.

I do not think for a second that this all bothered Marjorie Taylor Greene even a little bit. I mean, remember “Jewish space lasers?” This woman pushed every crackpot conspiracy theory, hell she even claimed to believe in Q Anon. She’s not mad that you’re being played. She’s mad that she fell out of favor with the cabal in her party and they turned on her. I do think there was some genuine concern over the Epstein Files on her part, there’s something real there, and she couldn’t let it go. She took it too far and they turned on her. She’s mad the grift was over for her. I don’t think for a second that she’s had some genuine, over-arching epiphany.

If you’re just a normal person that votes twice a year and goes about your daily life, you are not the audience of our politicians. They’re not aiming their message at you. They have figured out that you will make a choice within the binary, even if you’re not really thrilled about it. You don’t sustain the business, like any casual consumer is not the main target of any industry. They’d love to hook you too, so that you spend your time on social media raging about a “second Civil War,” but until you get there, they don’t worry much about you. You knew that though. You knew this was an industry and that people made money off of it. You didn’t need Marjorie Taylor Greene to tell you that. The fact that an animal of the system like MTG is the messenger here may seem not right to you, but consider this- Dwight Eisenhower told you about the military industrial complex, and he rose to prominence by being one of the greatest generals in history.

Now I’m going to tell you something though that runs almost entirely counterintuitive. The vast majority of the people in that industry actually aren’t trying to set a trap for you. There are some, and they benefit a lot. Most are people who hold strongly held convictions and beliefs, and think you’ll live in a better world if they can just win. So they take part in this, to win. I’m not sure if this makes me feel better or worse, but I guess it does make things make sense to me.

Trump Uses Fetterman and Schumer’s Blunder to Kill Obamacare

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And there you have it- the death of the subsidies is here. Trump is demanding direct payments to the people of cash for the ACA subsidies, or he won’t sign it. Of course that won’t work, I know you’re thinking it. People will pocket it. People will buy junk plans. It’s literally just a give away. Yes, you’re right.

Chuck already put abortion access in danger with this stupid deal. Now it’s the whole Affordable Care Act. Giving 8 votes to the GOP to re-open the government was political malpractice, and bad government. It was never a good idea. The most leverage they had to get the subsidies back was in the shutdown. Now Trump is going to say he wants to give the subsidies straight to the people, instead of the companies. And guess what? The GOP Congress will go with that. Democrats will probably end up voting no. A lot of that money will never get to health care, and a lot will go to junk plans. The system will collapse.

Fetterstein and Sleepy Chuck strike again.

Why Did Allentown Go With Crooksy Over Carol?

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I told you before about a bunch of Allentown elected officials endorsing Crooksy for Congress. All had stayed neutral for months, and even suggested to folks that they planned to stay neutral, or possibly endorse other candidates. Obviously in the end, only one state elected official in the city is still neutral, Senator Nick Miller. So what happened?

Republican Ryan Crosswell and Democrat Carol Obando-Derstine are both from Lehigh County. Mark Pinsley is literally the Lehigh County Treasurer. Crosswell even claims he lives in Allentown, even if he’s out with the night owls in DC. I know what they’re going to say, and that’s half the fun of writing this. Crosswell is a Republican carpetbagger that worked at a union busting firm. Well, that’s true. Pinsley is a far left progressive in their eyes, which is maybe true, but he’s also winning with their voters, so they may want to be careful how bad they diss him. So what about Carol Obando-Derstine? She’s endorsed by former Congresswoman Susan Wild, who they all loyally backed basically from the start in 2018, albeit maybe less vocally than they’re being for Crooksy. She worked for Bob Casey, who they all loyally supported as well, as they should. So what is it about Carol that they don’t like? Is it that she worked for PP&L, and now PP&L is asking the PUC to approve a rate hike? PP&L is currently asking for a 7% rate increase, so I can get them being reluctant to be too friendly to PP&L. The thing is, they didn’t care about that when Obando-Derstine actually worked at PP&L and rate increases were enacted, they liked her there. I doubt that’s the reason. While Crooksy has failed to really gain support from local organized labor on the whole, he has the Allentown Fire Fighters basically running his political operation, and they are objectively good at it. Are they demanding endorsements for Crooksy from anyone who will seek their future support? Or is it the state Democratic Party, run by the Governor’s foot soldiers, who are demanding support for Crooksy? Could it literally be the Governor himself demanded they endorse Crooksy? We’ve known from day one that the good ole’ boys in the Democratic Party have wanted to shove Obando-Derstine out of the race as the only woman running, because they think she’s dangerous to their plot to astroturf Crooksy in. Could it be that people were told they are not allowed to endorse her? They have already put a nasty rumor out in the street that Carol will be dropping out and endorsing Crosswell because of her poor fundraising. Are they trying to make sure no one backs her now?

If we’re being honest, there are only three people with a chance to win this primary, unless the Harrisburg insiders can muscle all resources and support to their flunky, Crooksy. Crosswell might be able to win because he’s raising a lot of money and his cover story for why he’s doing this is heart-warming to primary voters who don’t know better. Obando-Derstine can win this primary too, if her supporters put up an IE for her and she doesn’t get knee capped as “unelectable” for either her PP&L time or for the “sin” of being an immigrant woman in the era of Trump. And then there’s Lamont McClure, who can win because he’s actually won some elections around here and the voters like him a lot more than the party good ole’ boys do. Crooksy can only win this race if he can get McClure, and probably Obando-Derstine, out of this race too. Otherwise he starts out too unknown to win any part of this district by a large enough margin to win. They know they can’t get Crosswell out of this race, because his Republican out-of-town donors don’t care what the Governor thinks, or any other Democrat for that matter. They know they can’t get Pinsley out of the race either, because the guy habitually loves to run for something. They know they can’t get Crooksy nominated, to ultimately lose the general election, unless they get the actual Democrats from the actual Lehigh Valley to drop out. If they can pull that off, then a bigot, socialist, that stiffs his mother-in-law can maybe, just maybe win. If we race to the bottom, we’ll find something lower.

Wrestling Season Notebook, 11/19

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It’ll be several weeks before high school wrestling starts here in the Lehigh Valley, so there’s no real need to dive into that yet, but college wrestling is in full swing already. For most of the last 15 years, the team to beat has been Penn State. That really doesn’t seem to have changed at all.

Penn State is redshirting two returning All-Americans, a World Champion from Japan, and also is missing a returning National runner-up at 197, but they shut out Oklahoma in their opener. Just for good measure they sat out a senior Team USA member at 157, and it still didn’t matter. They did so in a packed arena, something most programs can’t do, which just further underscores that it’s Penn State’s world. Penn State had guys wrestling off in other tournaments, in their own dual, fighting in MMA, and transfers on other powerhouse teams now. They’re everywhere in this sport and really should win another National Title in 2025.

Closer to home, Lehigh had a tough start at the National Duals. They went without two former All-Americans expected to contend for National titles this year, so it doesn’t mean the season will be all bad. Lehigh went 1-2, losing to #2 Nebraska and #15 Illinois. They beat Arizona State for a nice win. 157 pounder Logan Rozynski beat defending national champion Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) and defending All-American Sheldon Seymour (125) went 3-0 on the day. Lehigh will be quite tough once they’re healthy.

Speaking of Nebraska, many though it would be them, or Iowa, or Oklahoma State pushing Penn State this year. Ohio State beat them all this weekend and won the National Duals. Their lightweights really rolled through Nebraska and Iowa on Sunday in a bit of a surprise. None of the duals were really that close. Iowa was second, Oklahoma State third, and Nebraska fourth. So that’s a total early re-shuffle.

On the women’s mats, Lehigh won their first ever dual meet this weekend at Lock Haven. #1 Iowa won a match on the U.S.S. Yorktown against #6 Presbyterian. Next weekend’s Missouri Valley Open is one of the biggest events in the sport, and will be the first major test of the year.

Mamdani Really Didn’t Do That Great

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

If you listen to the Branch BERNidians, BROhan Zohan Mamdani taught Democrats the way forward. We need more charismatic candidates like him, candidates who promise to defund Israel and give away a lot of free stuff. As I’ve said before, Mamdani isn’t a good candidate and being like him would lead to 2026 losses for Democrats, under the kindest of conditions, outside of dark blue enclaves. But do we even need to look beyond New York City to illustrate that?

It turns out there were other races on the ballot citywide in New York City. Both Democratic candidates essentially did what Sherrill and Spanberger did in other states, bringing all anti-Trump voters together under their umbrella. Mamdani supporters will be quick to point out they had a three way with Andrew Cuomo in it. These races had independent candidates too. These guys ran against a field that didn’t include a vigilante and the former Governor who once had to say “I’m not a pervert, I’m Italian” on live TV to defend himself as he was getting ready to resign. One could argue they beat actual candidates and not cartoon characters.

Then there’s these races- Borough wide races within New York City. Staten Island is a red place, so ignore that one for a moment. The dude that won there literally got caught having two families when he was in Congress and they still made him President of Staten Island. The rest of the city is the rest of the city. None of the Democrats, even somewhat controversial ones like say Alvin Bragg, got less than 70%. All of them did at least 20% better than Mamdani. None of them ran against a disgraced ex-Governor or a vigilante.

Let’s look beyond New York City again though. It’s too fun.

This is what Allegheny County looked like in the Pennsylvania Judicial retention elections. Two years ago they ran a strong leftist candidate for County Executive and she barely won. Without that argument this time, Allegheny looked like old Allegheny.

This is my favorite map, because it was put out by Republicans as some sort of evidence that Mikie Sherrill stole the election. I shit you not. I also love this because the terminally online leftists spent months saying Sherrill was a terrible candidate. You know what, I didn’t think she was great as a candidate either (she’ll be a very good governor), but for totally different reasons than they had. Sherrill moved the entire state and never had to answer a question about “globalizing the intifada” one time. People seem to like it when you’re not an obnoxious child.

Basically, Mamdani was a good enough candidate for New York City. He was not a blueprint for the nation, he was not some force of nature. He was just a guy. He beat two strange birds in a very Democratic place. About 30% of people who should have been his voters said “no thanks.” That’s the lesson you should be taking from him.

So You Claim You Like Crazy? Try This On For Size.

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I’ve got a friend since high school, he was a Marine and fire fighter. When we were young after a few shots, he would remind us all “he likes ’em crazy.” I mean, look, different strokes for different folks. I read this, and I immediately thought of him-

“A 26-year-old Ocean City woman who claimed she was brutally assaulted because she worked for Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Ocean City) instead orchestrated the entire incident — paying a scarification artist to wound her and staging the scene with zip ties and “Trump Whore” written on her stomach and “Van Drew is a racist” on her back, federal prosecutors alleged today.

Natalie Greene, a Rutgers law student, allegedly concocted the hoax in July, with an accomplice making a late-night 911 call to report that she had been ambushed by three men on a nature trail in Egg Harbor Township.  Police officers found Grenee bound with black zip ties, her shirt pulled over her head, and the political slurs scrawled across her torso.  She told police that her supposed attackers had a gun and threatened to shoot her, and struck her in the head.

Prosecutors say nearly every detail was fabricated.

Greene allegedly drove to Pennsylvania and paid a body-modification artist $500 to carve the wounds on her face, neck, and upper body, using a pattern she had provided in advance. Investigators later found matching zip ties in her Maserati SUV.  Cellphone records showed that two days before the purported attack, her co-conspirator searched online for “zip ties near me,” a discovery authorities cited as further proof that the incident was staged.”

Jussie? Are my doing this right? This isn’t just politically crazy, this is cray-cray crazy. The type that will break your windshield to show “they love you.” I’m not about this life.

Seriously though, people keep trying this stuff. What rando that attacks you on a trail knows you work for the Congressman? How do they know to attack you for your politics, are you wearing a shirt with a candidate’s name on it? At least when people put a fake noose on their desk or something, it’s plausible that they targeted you for your race, that’s something visible to the eye. It’s still fake, but it could have happened in some alternative timeline. A random woman on a trail at night doesn’t seem so obviously conservative.

In all seriousness, this girl is seriously ill. She did bodily harm to herself to stage political violence. I hope she gets help, and hopefully then is allowed to return to her education and life. This stuff is not stuff any normal person does, but I guess we can hope she’s young and learns. Right?

Crooksy’s Claiming He’s Got Governor Newsom Supporting Him

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Bob “Crooksy” Brooks should be a salesman. Apparently Josh Shapiro has been convinced that Crooksy is good for his personal political ambitions, and he’s going to endorse him. Of course, they’ve been saying that since July, but still. The good ole’ boys from Harrisburg have been up here telling people to endorse him, because the Governor will be “soon.” Only a couple did, and for all the wrong reasons. Most people don’t want to support a racist, a religious gun-nut fundamentalist, and guy who stole from his mother-in-law and didn’t pay her back for 14 years, even losing on appeal. You would think in a Democratic primary the racism alone, let alone the embrace of political violence, would do it. Ryan Mackenzie has nothing to fear if he gets to run against this crook. No normal person is going to trust a guy who broke a contract with his mother-in-law for 14 years, it shows you exactly who he is. People aren’t going to vote for a guy who lies, steals, and pulls underhanded moves to take over his union. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is just another Tulsi Gabbard or John Fetterman.

Crooksy is either a real good salesman, delusional, or just hilarious. Now he’s claiming he’s going to get endorsed by Gavin Newsom, according to sources. Look, I’d say he’s full of shit, but he did get Deadbeat Bernie Sanders to endorse him, which is both political malpractice and hilarious. You know what they say about crooks of a feather? But Newsom? Really? Coming across the country to endorse a guy who stiffed his mother-in-law? Gavin Newsom wants to embrace the latest marginal intellect white savior complex candidate endorsed by the bolsheviks? That helps him how? He wants to tell Black voters he is for the guy who hates Kaepernick for kneeling?

There is definitely an element within the Democratic operative world that thinks we need to run communists and bigoted white guys. They think a guy with a Nazi tattoo is what we need to win in Maine. They’re not right though, and Newsom is smart enough to know that. So why would this be? The #2 guy at the IAFF is their head guy in California, and I’m just taking a shot in the dark here, but he may be the link. Perhaps it’s a very low brain wave version of political chess, where one Governor thinks he can get a major endorsement for his quixotic 2028 Presidential campaign, and the other Governor then is convinced he absolutely needs to get in on this too, so nobody gets the credit. I mean, I’m spit balling here. It’s definitely not worth the trouble though.

Look, this is borderline hilarious. Given what a narcissist this guy is, he probably opened an email from Newsom and thinks he’s getting his endorsement now. As one out of the Valley lawmaker puts it, “we all like Bob, but none of us think he can do it.” He’s way nicer than I. If I didn’t know the place he tended bar, I wouldn’t believe he was smart enough to tend bar. Bartenders I know are the smartest people out there, they know when to get cut off a bad situation. This guy is trying to drink from a fire hose while a raging inferno blazes in front of him. The problem is, the powerful and brilliant minds that gave us the 2024 Democratic Party in Harrisburg and Washington are trying to astroturf this guy a victory. This is like handing a mentally ill person a loaded AR-15.