Sex and The White House Campaign

The years have bestowed journalist status upon Wolf Blitzer.  Last week, when he interviewed Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, he asked her about the now infamous 2005 tape leak. Although, she stated that she had seen it, he proceeded to have the tape run for the viewing audience. He then had the tape rerun, between each question he asked her.

Last night, Melania Trump suggested to Anderson Cooper that the media is driving the salacious nature of this election, rather than the actions of her husband. To a large extent that is true. The media has fixated on these revelations, and have made them the issue. Years ago, in the era of Walter Cronkite, such accusations would have been considered off limits.

Certainly, Walter would not have run the tape over and over again.

A Magician's Choice In South Whitehall

One of the South Whitehall Commissioners is an amateur magician.  He is amusing himself giving the residents of South Whitehall a magician's choice, times two, about Wehr's Dam.  A magician's choice is when the audience thinks that they are choosing the card, when in reality, they are steered to that pick.  He got one price to repair the dam, and another to replace it.  He reported that the dam replacement would cost $1.9 million,  so they choose a middle proposal, to only replace 1/3 of the dam, for $600,000.  Although, to the uninformed, it sounds like a reasonable compromise,  it's based on a false comparison.  No portion of the dam needs to be replaced,  all that is needed is a minor repair.  The second portion of the two part trick is putting the issue to referendum.  He knows that the residents never vote themselves a tax increase.  The magician thinks that he can accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy with another dam demolition, and suffer no political consequence.   To me,  they're stealing the history of the township. They are also robbing the citizens,  current and future, of a place of great beauty, which has been enjoyed for over 100 years.  That theft will be their legacy.

Mutiny At Allentown City Council

The mutiny at city council has been well reported by Emily Opilo, ace reporter for The Morning Call. Emily provided blow by blow tweets to her fan base during the meeting. Some of the barbs were much more interesting than the votes themselves. Even though Pawlowski questioned Julio Guridy's salary at his no-show state commission job, Julio still voted Ed's way. He once again proved to be a loyal soldier of the party, which has rewarded him well for over a decade. Candida Affa also fits that loyal soldier definition very well, although her incentive is less clear. Surprisingly, Cynthia Mota, Julio's protégé, voted with the majority against Pawlowski's pick for Community Development Director, Michael Walker.  Pawlowski even tried to use the race card, touting Walker's African-American background for needed diversity.

In an interesting plot twist,  Craig Messinger, nominee for Public Works Director, withdrew his name, over council's refusal to grant new salaries ahead of the budget proposal. In the Allentown of years ago, we would say that he got his Dutch up. Of course, the big story of the night was that city council finally asserted itself. It only took eleven years.

This is an analysis of the meeting from news sources,  I was not in attendance.

The Noodleboy and Wehr's Dam

Billy Mack and some other young people had been talking about the mural on a building soon to be demolished. They called "him" Noodle Boy, and expressed empathy toward his coming fate. It's a cute story, and the Morning Call decided to cover it.  

 Meanwhile, the paper hadn't printed or even acknowledged my recent letter on Wehr's Dam, about to be unnecessary demolished by a disingenuous referendum. I wrote the editorial because Bill White on September 29th had a column, which contained misinformation about the dam. This misinformation was put out by South Whitehall Township, whose Commissioners are trying to have the residents vote the dam away, relieving them of any political consequences. In the summer of 2014, almost 7,000 residents signed a petition asking that the dam remain. Furthermore, they signed the petition while visiting the dam. Mr. White declined to write a correction, but suggested that I submit an editorial on the topic. That editorial had been sitting somewhere between the editor's desk and his waste can for over a week.  Yesterday, I caught him by telephone.  He must have been too busy to look at the caller ID.  I was told that they haven't had time yet to review my submission.  I'm glad that they sent a reporter out to meet Billy Mack at Noodle Boy.  I wish that they would send a reporter to meet me at the dam.  I would like to tell him or her about how South Whitehall is deceiving the voters, and how we are going to lose a destination that has been cherished for generations.  Noodle Boy can be repainted anywhere. Once the historic dam is demolished, it's gone forever.

Wehr's Dam photo by Yevette Hendler

You're welcome to return today at 2:00PM, when I will have a bonus post on last night's city council meeting.

Prince William's Great Grandmother

Long before Prince William walked down the aisle in Westminister Abbey, his great grandmother, Princess Alice (Princess Andrew of Greece), walked there during the wedding of her son Phillip, to Princess Elizabeth. Princess(Alice) Andrew, later at the Coronation of Elizabeth, wore the habit of a nun. An extraordinary woman, she had founded a nurses order composed of nuns in Greece. She modeled the order after one started by her aunt and mentor in Russia, whom she had visited many years earlier. Born Princess Alice of Battenberg, she married Prince Andrew of Greece in 1903, assuming her new title.
During the Second World War, she hid a Jewish widow and her children in Athens, saving their lives. In accordance to her wish, she is buried in Jerusalem, next to her cherished aunt Duchess Fyodorovna, in the Russian Orthodox Church of Maria Magdalene.

reprinted from December 2014


ADDENDUM: When Prince Charles attended Simon Peres' funeral in Jerusalem last month, he visited the church and his grandmother's tomb.

Second Debate Aftermath

Guest Post from a liberal for Clinton 

Elections are won by addition, not subtraction from your base.

It is true that about 35% - 40% of the Republican base is for Trump and nothing he does will cause them to waver.....he could have dropped his trousers and mooned the moderators and they would cheer him on. BUT, that is not enough voters to reach 50% and one. Simply put, even if ALL of Trump's supporters show up to vote, he falls short. So, to win, he has to, horrors of horrors, reach beyond the deplorables , irredeemables, and alt-right pure reprehensibles. Yes, he followed some coaching advice and bagged the funny pouting faces and seemed sedated, but, his creeping around the stage looked weird & lurking, especially when it is a short woman on stage in front of him. It just looked like he was trying to get into every frame shot of her like a photo bomber. Though a cliche, he really has to appeal to and bring in those white, suburban soccer moms.

Hillary was too clever by half in not responding/defending all the charges leveled at her.....telling folks to go to her web site "Fact Checkers" is lame, and quoting Michele Obama to ignore garbage and "go high" doesn't appeal to non partisan Democrats. Suspect you will see her change that tactic by the next debate, unless he is down in the polls by double digits in the swing states, in which case she will just let him foam in the mouth.

I think he committed three tactical errors that will doom him:

1. Libertarians & BernieManaics are potential swing voters this time. Gary Johnson has lost all creditability. They don't like Trump or Clinton, but, they hate Big Government even more. When Trump went off on his Banana Republic tirade about prosecuting Hillary after he wins the election he strikes the worst fears in their hearts of government run amok.

2. By stating that he "admires" that Hillary is a fighter who never quits, he undermines his theme that she is an old, tired, lazy campaigner that lacks the energy to be President. The reasoning doesn't compute for anyone not suffering from Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

3. Trump broke the Gary Hart Rule of Politics.....you NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER DARE the press to uncover evidence of your indiscretions. When he categorically denied ever actually groping anyone (after Cooper set him up by defining same as a sexual assault) he assured that someone will go for the money and sell an audio or video of a woman alleging otherwise. It will be a Bill Crosby - Roger Ailes cavalcade of women coming forward. They won't be 60+ year old women like he trotted out pre-debate....Bill Clinton women from DogPatch, Arkansas, who looked like Taliban hostages on stage......rather, they will be "10's" in Trump parlance, lookers in their 30's who were beauty pageant contestants or TV show assistants from the last decade, when they were in their late teens or early 20's......who he hit on while married to Melania. You can book that Gloria Alford's phone is ringing off the hook now with prospective clients.

You can stick a fork in him; he's done. The battle now is for Congress....."You need me there so that there is a check on Hillary, not a rubber stamp" will be every Republican's theme now. If she wins by 3 or 4 points they probably get by....if she carries a state by anything above 6 they are in big trouble. Four pickups in the Senate gives them control there (VP casts the tie breaker). They pick up 13 seats in the House and Ryan can't pass anything without Democratic votes, because even with a 30 seat majority now they frustrate him. He loses half of that and he has no where to go but to the Democrats in order to pass even Mother's Day resolutions.
                                                     Guest Post by Trent Hall

molovinsky on allentown will not be published Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Calle Siete

When Julio Guridy proposed adding Calle Siete signs to 7th Street, he was somewhat surprised by the reaction. Although, he might have expected opposition from what Bill White calls the Emma Tropiano people, he didn't expect it from the Hispanic merchants of 7th Street. More unexpectedly, the opposition was lead by Pete Lewnes, quasi government official and manager of 7th Street. The merchants expressed the opinion that it was a diversion from more real problems, such as litter. Lewnes stated that it discriminates against other minorities. Bill White felt that the proposal was divisive. Julio himself got defensive, and stated that Hispanics are now a majority, and deserve a piece of the recognition pie.

Leave it to this blogger, a plain talker, to articulate the real issue. One must understand that the recent attempted gentrification of Hamilton Street intentionally relocated the Hispanics to 7th Street, including the merchants that cater to them. In that sense, it's already a Hispanic ghetto. Peter Lewnes and the merchants want as large of a customer base as they can attract. For that reason, substantial funds have gone into the 7th Street facade program. This isn't some large cosmopolitan, sophisticated area where an ethnic sign will attract suburban curiosity. Unfortunately, the cultural divide and prejudice are real obstacles that Lewnes and the merchants are trying to overcome. The last thing they want to do is brand 7th Street as Hispanic.