A Day In Pennsyltucky

Only in Pennsyltucky is the former Attorney General lead away in handcuffs, while the Vice President calls himself one of us. Although, I keep wanting to turn my attention to some local annoyances, the absurdity of this election cycle keeps grabbing my attention.  Today, a new ad for Kate McGinty featured Joe Biden telling his fellow Pennsylvanians how he is one of us. Joe lived here until he was 10 years old.

More troubling is the Obamas' campaigning against Trump.  I wish some of Michelle's outrage concerned the Christian children of Mosul, who are being brutally murdered.  She, like her husband, has the speech thing perfected, but they're both  misguided with their empathy.

Coming to the big screen soon will be the story of Kathleen Kane. In a story which reads like a movie script, she was finally sentenced yesterday, but not before she and her identical twin sister forced two State Supreme Court Justices to resign,  for emailing pornography within the court system.

Mud Wrestling And Politics

Seasoned readers of this blog know that I'm not shy about criticizing officials or policy, when I feel that things are not in the public's best interest. Aggressive as that may be, I am offended by smear tactics and negative campaigning. Certainly, the Trump/Clinton campaigns have been self-described as nasty, and I expect and accept that blood letting. Trump was known as a brawler, and behind those  easy smiles, the Clintons have a long time reputation for viciousness. Locally, I've never seen so much continuous television advertising, nor the low smears being used by McGinty against Pat Toomey.

The national polling released on Friday shows that Trump may have weathered the mud storm. Although, many voters feel that when it came to women in his past that he was no gentleman, they are more concerned about their own future, and change in Washington.

Pundits believe that Toomey's fate lies in Clinton's margin of victory in Pennsylvania. They assume that Clinton will carry the state, and McGinty with her, if she wins by five or six points.

If voters have indeed become immune to mud and sexual escapades, Trump's chances will probably only improve between now and November 8th.  With the news from Iraq, and a lackluster economy, security and prospersity are messages that resonate.

When Allentown Worked

Regular readers of this blog know that I often visit Allentown's better days of the past. I even belong to a nostalgia group, where someone recently asked where everyone's parents worked. Many group members are in their 50's and 60's. Here was the question; When we grew up the best jobs for our dad's was the Bethlehem steel and mack trucks unless they were lawyers or doctors or had another profession occupation I know my my mom worked in a factory all her life and I think most of them have closed. Where did you mom and dad work and are the companies are open? Over 90 people responded, actually constituting a survey. In current Allentown, this would be a study, which taxpayers would have to pay for; Here, it's on the house, no charge. Fourteen of the fathers worked at Bethlehem Steel, while five worked at Mack Trucks, and five worked retail on Hamilton Street. The others worked at Allentown's many other industries, one or two here and there. Only two respondents said that their fathers weren't much for working. Twenty mothers were stay at home, while eight worked in various sewing factories. The remainder worked as teachers, nurses, factory workers and various other jobs. One person wrote, "My parents sound like the scene you described. My dad worked at Beth Steel and my mom at Penn State Mills on a sewing machine. They owned their own home and sent me to college where I graduated without the burden of a loan. Thanks, Mom and Dad." Shown above was the General Electric plant on S. 12th Street, just beyond the old Mack 5C.
reprinted from November of 2013.

ADDENDUM: There is a current proposal to convert the enormous Adelaide Mill into apartments. Although, we hear catch words like loft and middle class, that won't happen; The size and location of the building, along with the developer's MO, dictate more young, single mothers and children, living in a former factory now broken up into a cheap urban motel. There is something ironic about a former place of production now being a warehouse for people. There is something sad about a city looking upon these conversions as progress.

Rumble In Sin City

Trump's fight in Las Vegas with Hillary Clinton didn't end at 10:30pm.  After the debate, he was bashed endlessly by both MSNBC and CNN.  None of their combined commentators could get over the fact that he said that he would have to evaluate the results election night, before accepting them.  I suppose that if he didn't make that statement,  they would have found something else with which to beat him up.

Overall, putting aside that media bias, I think that Trump actually did pretty well.  Although Hillary's free college sounds wonderful to the entitlement crowd,  who would pay for it was never addressed.  Although, Trump lacks the debate skills to emphasize the shortcomings of Hillary's plans,  he did manage to suggest that her policies on immigration and refugees could create problems.   He also did fairly well with his premise that there is a gap between her rhetoric and her results. Hillary did well, with some help from Trump himself,  questioning his temperament. 

I believe that the mythical, undecided voter no longer exists.  After the debate, not one word by the pundits  centered on Trump's treatment of women.  By that shift alone,  Trump won.

Pawlowski's Defiance

According to Emily Opilo of The Morning Call, Ed Pawlowski has gone ahead and hired Michael Walker for de-facto head of Community Development,  even though his appointment was rejected by city council.  Pawlowski implemented this end run by designating Walker as Operations Manager. The operation manager position was created when the previous director was also working officially with the NIZ.

There is actually two factors involved in this defiance. The first is that a historically passive city council allowed city hall to get top heavy.  While there are less indians than ever, there are still as many or more chiefs.  The second factor also involves council's passivity. Opilo also writes, Most council members were initially hesitant to make any public moves against Pawlowski. Two months after the investigation was revealed, council signed off on Pawlowski's pick for finance director and also approved his 2016 budget with minimal pushback.   I have always been amazed at council's refusal to use various funding approvals as a negotiating tool to assert themselves as a check and balance on policy. Consequently, over the years,  I and others have described council as a rubber stamp.

Unfortunately, even under the current environment, Pawlowski  holds sway over the majority of council. While several council members are still known essentially as supporters,  Pawlowski still has strong influence over the majority of members.  Besides his known supporters, at least two more members benefit from either city employment or property. It takes only four votes to get your way in Allentown.

ADDENDUM: Pawlowski may be proving that you don't even need four votes to get your way in Allentown.

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.