An Allentown Story

My grandfather was a wholesale butcher who would deliver meat to corner stores with a horse and wagon.  Family lore has it that on a Sunday, the horse would not take the family on its social outing until he first completed the store route. My grandfather passed away when I was two, and of course I have no memory of the horse and wagon era.

The family lived on the corner of Chew and Jordan, with a small barn structure behind the yard on current Jute St. In a the late 1960's, a friend wanted to show me his younger brother's hot rod, which he was building in a rented garage somewhere in town. 

As we approached the garage, while the brother and hot rod were unknown to me, the structure wasn't. When Jim worked on his car, he had no idea that fifty years earlier my grandfather harnessed his horse to his wagon in the same garage. The old wooden garage is no longer there, but the house, now over a century old, shelters on.

Jim, like his father before him, would go on to work for Mack Truck. When Mack moved production to Winnsboro, South Carolina in 1987, Jim went with them. While production there only lasted for 15 years, today there is a community of retired Mack workers and their children still living around Winnsboro. Allentown officials over the years establish sister cities for political benefit, but Winnsboro really is connected.

Mackenzie Español

After I wrote the post on Wednesday about Trump torpedoing Ryan Mackenzie with his Bad Bunny rant, I was wondering how long it would take Mackenzie to try and make nice with the valley's Puerto Ricans. On Thursday he had himself photographed with some Latino officials. I expect a trip to the island is also on the horizon.

Will a couple photo ops be enough to help Mackenzie come November...I doubt it. I think if he really had bucked the boss, if he had reprimanded Trump at the time, that would have played very well with the Latino community. 

Mackenzie is playing the odds. He wants to keep his MAGA support, and do damage control with the Spanish speaking voters. I think that his real problem is going to be with the independents, not the cross-over Democrats.

The Awakening Congress

Recently I posted that Senator John Fetterman is his own man. Brian Fitzpatrick, 1st District/Bucks County, also votes independently. He joined five other Republican Congressmen to vote against Trump's tariff policy on Canada. Trump has promised to primary them as punishment. 

Not needing to worry about a Trump sponsored primary is our own Ryan Mackenzie. Mackenzie is independent with his Facebook memes, but not so much on the floor of Congress. He's a good Republican Party puppy.

The bill against the Canadian tariffs will now go to the Senate. I'll be watching how Fetterman and McCormick vote, because Trump's aggression toward Canada has been nothing less than absurd.

Peace Bridge between Canada and United States

Trump Not Entitled To Express Every Opinion

The other day a Republican steward explained about the Super Bowl that Trump is entitled to have an opinion. Karoline Leavitt would say that people elected Trump because of his frankness. The excuses are wearing thin. Could you imagine Trump calming a nation, as Roosevelt and Churchill did during WW2.

The bad news for the Republican Party is that their president isn't a Republican. If he cared about the party he would say much less, and not tweet at all. Already his Super Bowl rant will cost them the 7th Congressional District in Pa., and it's only year one for the coming damage. In a couple more years Republicans could be reduced to proverbial dog catchers.

The annual bi-partisan Governors meeting will not be at the White House...Trump only invited Republicans, and some of them wouldn't come in protest. There are Republicans all over this country serving their constituents well, they don't deserve the backlash coming their way. Hopefully they will start speaking out.

Mackenzie Loses Election At Super Bowl

Ryan Mackenzie has already lost the election, there's not enough money to save his seat. He and the local Republican sycophants were too indoctrinated to calculate that Trump's Bad Bunny rant wouldn't play well in the 7th Congressional District. Hope they enjoyed the Kid Rock show, because it will end up being a very costly ticket. There's an old saying that if you're going to be dumb, you better be tough. Before the Super Bowl controversy, I already decided that anyone that partisan was too dumb for my vote.

Lately, I haven't been printing many comments. Mention TDS and I don't print it. Some unprinted ones claim that the local Puerto Ricans don't vote anyway. I don't know what their turnout is, but I do know that with Mackenzie winning 2024 with just 1%, he can't afford to leave any votes on the table.

I think from the Democratic viewpoint, with Mackenzie shooting himself, who wins the primary isn't as relevant as it was...they will still win. From my independent perspective, I'm supporting Ryan Crosswell. He's not as polished slick as some in Washington, but his sincerity and work ethic sold me.

Trump Wins, Republicans Lose

This past weekend Trump managed to offend both Latinos and many Olympic watchers in just a couple of tweets. Just last November both he and the party bragged about making so much headway with minority voters. 

Here in Allentown we have taken to referring to a minority majority. We have a mayor who promoted his Latino background and makes sure to make all his proclamations in both English and Spanish. Trump in his bubble, it's certainly no ivory tower, thinks that the country is still MAGA.

Those Trump flags on the pickup trucks are getting tattered. While he is worried that a blue wave might result in an impeachment vote, he's not worried beyond his family's bottom line. Beyond the midterms, current young voters will see how little the 47th actually did for them, and how much for his family. The Republicans richly deserve the future that they are currently standing silent about. Nobody will ever accuse Trump of being a great uniter.