Jamie Raskin opposes the Constitution!

Congressman, Jamie Raskin came out Sunday against the Constitution. He says that article 2 section one is dangerous. What's more dangerous, the Constitution or an ultra far left Congressman who thinks he's bigger than Democratic ideals?

"Rep. Jamie Raskin said Sunday the Electoral College “has become a danger” to American democracy.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the Maryland Democrat said: “I think that the Electoral College now, which has given us five popular vote losers as president in our history — twice in this century alone — has become a danger.”"

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/25/jamie-raskin-electoral-college-danger-00075588

Martin O'Malley for Senate?

Mitch Daniels left offices governor in 2013. Now in his preliminary campaigning he's dramatically leading the pack for US Senate. Some people are saying Governor Daniels was never as popular as governor Martin O'Malley and they're pointing out that there is a lane for Governor O'Malley to take a senate seat. The only question is does he want to? One knowledgeable observer said if Martin doesn't want to run for Senate, his wife, Katie Curran O'Malley certainly could lay a whooping on candidates like Jamie Raskin.

"Daniels took 30-35 percentage points in every age group except 18-24 year olds—a range that includes voters who might have been in elementary school when Daniels left office. Of those respondents, only 7% chose Daniels."

https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/gop-poll-respondents-would-choose-mitch-daniels-for-indiana-senate-seat

Can Columbia survived do gooders?

Columbia is so perfectly suburbia that now they want to change it and make it urban.

"The project’s website is more blunt: “The Third City Between D.C. and Baltimore Has Come to Life!” it announces.

The densification mirrors a trend in other U.S. suburbs that are embracing live-work developments and a need to create more pandemic-resilient downtowns. Many are trying to transform themselves into “urban ‘burbs” — retrofitting the amenities, infrastructure and sensibility of traditional cities into spaces conceived as escapes from city life. But Columbia’s utopian genesis complicates the plan: The town is toeing a line between encouraging growth and adhering to all of the founding ideals — inclusivity and spatial openness among them — that Rouse got right. Creating a walkable downtown also necessitates confronting a stubbornly auto-oriented planning legacy."

How a Pioneering Garden City Is Grappling With Growth - Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-02-21/a-pioneering-garden-city-grapples-with-growing-pains 

Biden embraces Barbara Goldberg Goldman plan!

President Joe Biden embraces the Barbara Goldberg Goldman strategy. Naming names and confronting the Republicans is turning everything around for the president who is now favored to win re-election.

People in Maryland wanted to stop the president from running for election. Crazy plans from the far left became the order of the day. One idea was that if they could get Maryland to be a first five primary state that would make governor-elect Wes Moore, a potential vice presidential candidate. This idea being pushed allegedly by Susan Wolf Turnbull was a strange plan that if they could get Wes out of the way it would make lieutenant governor Aruna Miller governor and would effectively give Turnbull control of the state. All the air is gone out of the Turnbull trial balloon since loyal Democrats are supporting president Joe Biden. Maryland's chance to be a first five primary state and the odds of Wes Moore getting drafted onto a presidential ticket are between slim and none. At least not in 24.

"Regardless of the motivation, it’s clear that more provocative statements by Republicans, which earlier in Biden’s presidency might have gone unanswered, are now meeting with a swift White House response. Trump’s late-November dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, sparked immediate rebukes from the White House, beginning with a statement from Bates.

Responding to inquiries from reporters about the dinner, which took place after Ye’s antisemitic comments sparked widespread backlash, the White House declared that Holocaust denial is “repugnant” and should be condemned. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre followed up by calling on other political leaders to disavow the dinner, saying, “When you do not speak out against these types of poisonous and dangerous kind of remarks or representation, if you will, that is also incredibly dangerous within itself.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/26/biden-rapid-response-trump-republicans/

Speaker Jones twice as important as Bill Ferguson

CommuniCare Health and the Wilhelm family are very generous givers, especially to Democrats in Maryland. One has to wonder when giving money out by the bucketful why would you want to give Bill Ferguson only $26,000 and Wes Moore governor-elect $59,000 but $60,000 to the Queen of all Maryland the honorable, good looking, and honest, Speaker Adrienne Jones.

It certainly appears that CommuniCare Health considers speaker Jones more than twice as important as Senate President, Bill Ferguson and slightly more important than wesmore. I think that's a pretty accurate appraisal right now. Speaker Jones is the unofficial queen of Maryland.

"Elections Board records show the following contributions from the Ohio company:

"Governor-elect Wes Moore ($59,000), House Speaker Adrienne Jones ($60,000), Senate President Bill Ferguson ($26,000), Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks ($20,500), State Comptroller Peter Franchot ($6,000), 21st District Delegate Ben Barnes ($4,000), 11th District Delegate Shelly Hettleman ($1,611), 41st District Delegate Dalya Attar ($1,250), and 40th District Delegate Antonio Hayes ($1,000), all Democrats."

https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2022/12/20/nursing-home-company-showers-maryland-democrats-and-candidate-wes-moore-with-campaign-cash/

“We have a problem with our n******”

“We have a problem with our n******”, said ole Clark E, Spence.

I was at the Central Pennsylvania Republican Caucus lunch at the Republican State Committee meeting in the mid-1980s. I was not even a member yet, I was carrying my county chairman Jim Keher’s proxy. There I was at a table of 8 facing Adams County Republican Chairman Clark Spence as he spouted racist nonsense.

I was still in my twenties but I looked Clark square in the eye and said “Maybe you would have less trouble if you stopped calling them N******. We do very well in our black wards”.

With a wry smile Clark said, “What do we have here, a N****** Lover?”

Well it all went downhill from there. I returned as a voting member the next quarter and first thing I did was run against Clark Spence for Secretary of the Central Pennsylvania Republican Caucus. Clark was a grey haired Apple farmer from Orrianna near Gettysburg near Perry County. He beat me in the Caucasus Secretary race and we never spoke again. God sent Clark to his eternal consequences not long afterward.

I lost a few “friends” in the fight with Spence but I made far more and certainly a better class of friends by standing up for what I believe in. Over the years I had to leave the Republican Party because it was drifting in a direction where Clark Spence was not the exception he was the norm. I am far from perfect and am content to be who I am.

I hope I do not offend anyone. But racism is ugly and putting a bow on it won't make it better.

Too much salt in the Apple Pie

My greatest fear in life is baking an apple pie and using too much salt. I know that sounds ridiculous to most people but let me explain.

When I was a wee lad we used to visit my grandparents, my mother’s parents. To me they were Mother and Dada. Da for father is an ancient word found throughout the Indo-European language family. Dada can be used for father but also for father’s father or grandfather. Mother is simpler. Mother in Gaelic is Máthair close enough with accent as to be the same word. Me Dada was an unpleasant man of caloric temperament (I grow more like him as I get older) but this is not his story. This is about Mother.

Mother was born Honora Murray in the US. I never knew her parents who were born in the Auld Sod; Ireland. Mother was a tiny woman with a big heart but with an understated audacity that stood her well married to Tom Conrad as she was. She raised her 5 daughters Nancy, Mae, Kay, Joan (my mother) and Marge, and son Tom. Among her many talents was cooking and baking. I did not always understand her cooking. For example why in the world would you ever cook a Pot Roast when Prime Rib tasted better? I was more than a bit spoiled and I never really understood the whys and wherefores until I had a family. Dada never made much money but the family got by due in large part to Mother’s tenacity.

Life in the depression years was not easy but not nearly as bad as some had it. Dada never lost his job at the Marvin during the depression but he was cut back to two or three days a week which was worse than it sounds since full time was based on a six day week. To make ends meet Mother sold “foundations” door to door. By foundations I do not mean those that a house might be set upon but rather foundations was the polite term for woman’s undergarments. They survived until the onset of WWII when things got good again and the economy rebounded There was work for all who would take it in factories that were humming along on orders mostly for the war. Nancy, Mae and Kay went off to work in the war factories and that was the tipping point of the family fortunes. The older three girls each bought war bonds with every pay and faithfully sent them home. The younger two my Mom and Marge were too young.

By that point the family was living in a rented house on Henry Street in North Scranton.  Mother learned that the owner was losing the house and it was going up at a Judicial Tax Sale. Off Mother went to the sale and this was an audacious move for a married woman at that time to make that move without even telling her husband. At the sale a shady lawyer relative of the owner was trying to pull a fast one. He had let the taxes go and then sent a proxy to the sale to buy the house for a song. He did not go himself because he did not want anyone to know that he had engineered this misfortune to fleece an elderly woman out of her real estate. But not anticipating another bidder the lawyer only gave his man $1,100. Mother took the house for about 1200 dollars which she paid in War Bonds. That night when Dada got home from work and asked how was her day he sternly rebuked her and told her to stop her foolishness when she said that she bought the house. He would not believe she bought the house until she showed him the paperwork.

Mother would bake for us and I remember a magnificent Apple Pie. The crust was perfect; golden grown and light and flaky.  So there in a large family gather the pie was cut and served. Almost instantly someone said “Don’t eat it”. It turned out that she had switched the proportions of salt and sugar. Two cups sugar became two cups salt and a pinch of sugar. The pie was not important, we loved Mother. What was important was that this was to me the first clue something was wrong. I believe the proper term is Early Onset Dementia which may have been Alzheimer’s disease.

A strong vital dynamic woman devolved into a scared child who would periodically wander off trying to get home to her mother and father.

Last night I made an embarrassing mistake. No one died but it makes me wonder how could I screw up. Is this my salt in the pie? Do I have dementia looming on my horizon? Will I become that doddering old man who wanders off that we hear about on the news? 

I don't fear death but living scares me to no end. 

How much of this is true? I have no idea but it is the way I remember it. All legends even personal legends are more about how they are remembered then exactly what really happened. To any of my kin who want to expound or clarify send you comments along. That is if I have not wandered off in a non compos mentis fog by that time.