Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District

A closely watched race next November will be for our local congressman. While the incumbent is Republican Ryan Mackenzie, the Democrats have a contested primary in May. The top three candidates for that race are Ryan Crosswell, Bob Brooks and Lamont McClure.

If contributions and money on hand for the campaign prevail, it whittles down to Crosswell and Brooks. Crosswell is a former federal prosecutor who resigned, rather than back off a case as requested by associates of  Trump. Brooks is head of the state fire fighters association, and has the party backing.

I consulted with fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare about the candidates. Bernie thinks (and hopes) that McClure's experience will end up putting him ahead primary night. He feels that Crosswell's Republican past is a bug and will haunt him. For an independent like myself, that is not a bug, but a feature. I hope that come November it will be Ryan vs Ryan.

The Dumb And The Desperate

On Friday I posted about Trump's FBI trying to prove that he won the 2020 election. For what purpose? Only the dumbest would think that Trump is concerned with election integrity. The skeptical think that the real motivation is to discredit the upcoming midterms, where Republicans will likely be decimated.

The Trump coalition is composed of the dumb and the desperate. We know what the dumb look like. The desperate are partisan Republicans, who are setting themselves up to lose for the next decade. Nobody inclined to be a Democrat will make the same mistake they made in 2024. I believe that minorities will be back home with the Democrats. The Hispanics saw the prison in El Salvador, and the rush to build Alcatraz in the Everglades. The blacks saw the eagerness of the ICE Troopers.

The dumb is self-explanatory, but I'm surprised at the stubbornness of the Republican Party. Do they care that much about Trump, and do they think that he cares about them? I've been urging Republicans to stand up and speak out. So far that's a short list, containing no locally elected. While a Mackenzie could not earn back my vote, there is still time for them to assert themselves, but that time is waning. The consequences of Trump's arrogance and unqualified advisors are coming home to roost.

ICE Prison For West of Lehigh Valley

ICE has purchased a large warehouse west of Lehigh County for use as a prison. The 500,000sq. ft. prison purchased for $85million shows that we're getting our share of federal attention. I wonder if Ryan Mackenzie will be bragging about this with his messaging? 

Being in Berks, near the Amazon warehouse, sort of takes some of the shine off the recent Lilly announcement. Will Kristi Noem be coming to look over the new inmates? Who knew that our corner of Pennsytucky would be making the news twice in one week?

Between Allentown and Reading there is a large Hispanic population. I would suggest that our Spanish speaking residents carry their ID with them at all times.

Gilding The Lilly

It was announced with much fanfare that Lilly Pharmaceutical is going to build a new facility on Rt. 78 west of Allentown. Attending the announcement were all our elected officials, including presidential hopeful Josh Shapiro. The show featured that the manufacturing plant would cost $3.5 billion and employ 850 workers. They will produce the new injectable for the weight challenged.

Local media articles mentioned state incentives, including a new entrance/exit for Adams Rd.. We apparently offered more incentives than hundreds of other areas, which also entered the LIlly contest. The big winner of course is David Jaindl, who is selling the parcel to Lilly. More so, he owns the adjoining land, whose value is greatly enhanced by the new exit.

While there are plans to widen Rt. 22 through Allentown, I expect that you'll still be sitting in traffic on 22, long after the new ramp is built for Jaindl. Supposedly a pill is in development to replace the injectable for the heavyset. We'll see how long, if ever, there are 850 employees at Lilly Lehigh Valley.

Moby Dick, McCormick and Mackenzie

With the FBI now searching voting machines in Georgia looking for those votes Trump claims were stolen from him in 2020, Kash Patel and the agency are acting like private police for the administration. Trump appointed him, but we voted for you guys.

Trump cannot appoint Mackenzie to a second term, but the voters can turn him out. As a senator McCormick has four more years, but the voters then will be reminded of his complacency now.

Trump and his obsession about the 2020 election being stolen makes Moby Dick look like a passing thought. It is one thing for him to be obsessed, but it is another for him to exploit the federal government. It is only Congress that can rein him in.

Throwing The Baby Out With The Bath Water In Lehigh County

The Morning Call reports that the CEO of a woman's survivor group is upset with Lehigh County evicting the Homeland Security Investigations from its office space in a county building.  As reported previously on this blog, the office goes after human traffickers, not the ICE mission of deporting illegal aliens. 

The eviction proceeding was the brainchild of two very liberal, ambitious county office holders, Controller Mark Pinsley and Executive Josh Siegel. Ironically, the current person complaining about the eviction heads the Bloom For Women group, hardly any sort of right wing affiliate.

Siegel in the Morning Call article double talks about the issue in regard to exploited women. Perhaps he could best serve the community by rethinking the actual consequences of evicting an office defending and helping women from exploitation. The administration in Washington is criticized for never admitting that they made a mistake, perhaps Lehigh County can do better.