The LuLac Edition #4,094, June 20th, 2019

WHY IRAN IS BACK IN DANGEROUS PLAY

There is a reason for diplomacy. A tool used to end confrontation and escalation. There is a reason it took John Kerry and more nations than Trump can name to come to an accord. The deal was to put Iran as a threat at bay. There were and are fundamentalists thirsting for war. The reason why the nations signed the accord was to keep peace and threats from happening.
Upon taking office, Diaper Don jettisoned the accord. Now Iran has no agreement to keep.
And we as nation will pay the price for the stupidity and ignorance of a man ill equipped to run a hot dog stand let alone a casino.

TRUMP KICKS OFF CAMPAIGN WITH BLUSTER AND BULLSHIT

Here’s a rundown from the AP about what is true and not true in Trump’s claims as he embarked on another term. President Donald Trump officially opened his 2020 campaign Tuesday with a speech exaggerating what he's done for the economy and against illegal immigration.
Some claims from his rally in Orlando, Florida:

ECONOMY

TRUMP: "It's soaring to incredible new heights. Perhaps the greatest economy we've had in the history of our country."
THE FACTS: The economy is not one of the best in the country's history.
The economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. That growth was the highest in just four years for the first quarter.
In the late 1990s, growth topped 4 percent for four straight years, a level it has not yet reached on an annual basis under Trump. Growth even reached 7.2 percent in 1984.
While the economy has shown strength, it grew 2.9% in 2018 — the same pace it reached in 2015 under President Barack Obama — and simply hasn't hit historically high growth rates. Trump has legitimate claim to a good economy but it's not a record-breaker and it flows from an expansion that began in mid-2009.

THE WALL

TRUMP: "We're going to have over 400 miles of wall built by the end of next year. It's moving very rapidly."
THE FACTS: That's highly unlikely, and even if so, the great majority of the wall he's talking about would be replacement barrier, not new miles of construction. Trump has added strikingly little length to barriers along the Mexico border despite his pre-eminent 2016 campaign promise to get a wall done.
Even to reach 400 miles or 640 kilometers, he would have to prevail in legal challenges to his declaration of a national emergency or get Congress to find more money to get anywhere close.
So far, the administration has awarded contracts for 247 miles (395 km) of wall construction, but that initiative has been constrained by court cases that are still playing out.
In any event, all but 17 miles (27 km) of his awarded contracts so far would replace existing barriers.

TAXES

TRUMP: "We've done so much ... with the biggest tax cut in history."
THE FACTS: His tax cuts are nowhere close to the biggest in U.S. history.
It's a $1.5 trillion tax cut over 10 years. As a share of the total economy, a tax cut of that size ranks 12th, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. President Ronald Reagan's 1981 cut is the biggest, followed by the 1945 rollback of taxes that financed World War II.
Post-Reagan tax cuts also stand among the historically significant: President George W. Bush's cuts in the early 2000s and President Barack Obama's renewal of them a decade later.

ENVIRONMENT

TRUMP: "Our air and water are the cleanest they've ever been by far."
THE FACTS: Not true about air quality, which hasn't gotten better under the Trump administration.
U.S. drinking water is among the best by one leading measure.
After decades of improvement, progress in air quality has stagnated. Over the last two years the U.S. had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data show.
There were 15% more days with unhealthy air in America both last year and the year before than there were on average from 2013 through 2016, the four years when America had its fewest number of those days since at least 1980.
The Obama administration, in fact, set records for the fewest air polluted days, in 2016.
On water, Yale University's global Environmental Performance Index finds 10 countries tied for the cleanest drinking water, the U.S. among them. On environmental quality overall, the U.S. was 27th, behind a variety of European countries, Canada, Japan, Australia and more. Switzerland was No. 1.

EMPLOYMENT

TRUMP: "Almost 160 million people are working. That's more than ever before."
THE FACTS: Yes, but that's not a feather in a president's cap. More people are working primarily because there are more people. Population growth drives this phenomenon.
A more relevant measure is the proportion of Americans with jobs, and that is still below record highs.
According to Labor Department data, 60.6 percent of people in the United States 16 years and older were working in May. That's below the all-time high of 64.7 percent in April 2000 during Bill Clinton's administration, though higher than the 59.9 percent when Trump was inaugurated in January 2017.

TRADE

TRUMP on his tariffs: "We are taking in billions and billions of dollars into our treasury. ... We had never taken 10 cents from China."
THE FACTS: Tariff money coming into the treasury is mainly from U.S. businesses and consumers, not from China. Tariffs are primarily if not entirely a tax paid domestically.
A study in March by economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Columbia University and Princeton University, before Trump raised tariffs even more, found that the public and U.S. companies were paying $3 billion a month in higher taxes from the trade dispute with China, suffering $1.4 billion a month in lost efficiency and absorbing the entire impact.
It's also false that the U.S. never collected a dime in tariffs before he took action. Tariffs on goods from China are not remotely new. They are simply higher in some cases than they were before.

HEALTH CARE

TRUMP: "We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. Always."
THE FACTS: He's not protecting current legal safeguards for patients with pre-existing medical conditions, which are part of "Obamacare."
His administration instead is pressing in court for full repeal of Obama's health care law, including other popular provisions such as coverage for young adults on their parents' insurance, Medicaid expansion, health insurance subsidies and preventive care at no additional charge to the patient.
Trump and other Republicans say they'll have a plan to preserve protections for people with pre-existing conditions, but the White House has provided no details.
Obama's law requires insurers to take all applicants, regardless of medical history, and patients with health problems pay the same standard premiums as healthy ones. Bills supported in 2017 by Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal the law would have undermined those protections by pushing up costs for people with pre-existing conditions.

ABORTION

TRUMP: "Leading Democrats have even opposed measures to prevent the execution of children after birth."
THE FACTS: Executing children is already a crime.
Trump is offering here a somewhat toned down version of a distorted story he's been telling for months that falsely suggests Democrats are OK with murder.
His account arises from extremely rare instances when babies are born alive as a result of an attempted abortion. When these cases occur, "execution" is not an option.
When a baby is born with anomalies so severe that he or she would die soon after birth, a family may choose what's known as palliative care or comfort care. This might involve allowing the baby to die naturally without medical intervention. Providing comfort without life-extending treatment is not specific to newborns. It may happen with fatally ill patients of any age.

VETERANS

TRUMP: "We passed VA Choice. ...They've been trying to get that passed also for about 44 years."
THE FACTS: No, Congress approved the private-sector Veterans Choice health program in 2014 and Obama signed it into law. Trump signed an expansion of it.

BIDEN UNDER FIRE FOR REMARKS ABOUT HIS SENATE CAREER

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Cory Booker. (Photo: AP)

Former Vice President Joe Biden came under sharp criticism from some of his Democratic presidential rivals on Wednesday for remarks he made this week about his time working civilly with segregationists serving in the Senate in the 1970s.
U.S. Senator Cory Booker, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, called on Biden to apologize.
"Frankly, I’m disappointed that he hasn’t issued an immediate apology for the pain his words are dredging up for many Americans. He should," Booker, who is black, said in a statement.
In a crowded primary campaign that so far had been civil, Wednesday's criticism exposed bubbling racial and generational tensions within the Democratic field that is the most diverse in history.
Biden's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the criticism.
Biden, 76, is leading in early polls to take on Republican President Donald Trump in 2020.
Here’s my take on this. Biden as a young Senator had to work with everybody. At the time the 29 year old came to the enate, the committees were controlled by the likes of James Eastland, Herman Talmadge and guys like John Stennis. Biden’s point was that he had to work with all of them. Plus, when Barack Obama picked Joe Biden he had to know that it was a different political time and readily accepted the Delaware Senator. While Booker’s point about the segregationists is valid, put in context Biden’s career toward the African American community through the years.
Furthermore, by Biden not backing down, he might be going for a Sister Souljah moment that Bill Clinton had in 1992. She gained prominence for Bill Clinton's criticism of her remarks about race in the United States during the 1992 presidential campaign. Clinton's well-known repudiation of her comments led to what is now known in politics as a Sister Souljah moment. The difference between the Democratic segregationists Biden was dealing with in the 70s and the current crop of GOP Republicans who are trying to pull back any progress whatsoever is that in Biden's day, you can see racism coming in full view. Today it is couched in inertia and inaction wrapped up in a smirk and the American flag. 

CARTWRIGHT ANNOUNCES OVER $2.5 MILLION FOR WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Congressman Matt Cartwright (Photo: LuLac archives)

U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-08) announced a federal grant of more than $2.
5 million for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (AVP), which will ensure the safety of travelers who come to Northeastern Pennsylvania and increase efficiency at our region’s only mid-sized airport.
“This is how we revitalize our economy: by repairing our roads, bridges, and airports, and by investing in our country’s infrastructure,” said Rep. Cartwright, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “These federal dollars will improve safety for residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania and visitors alike, and they will help improve reliability at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. I’m all in for infrastructure projects like this. They keep our economic engines humming as they renew our communities and create jobs.”
This new infrastructure investment will be vital not only to the long-term sustainability of the airport, but also to the regional economy in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
“The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport is always looking for ways to improve airport safety and efficiency,” said Carl Beardsley, executive director of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. “We are excited to secure a grant that does both. We are thankful that Congressman Cartwright helped to secure this grant that will help rehabilitate our taxiway system.”
The federal grant, which totals $2,550,174, will be used to improve a runway at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport and to enhance its lighting. It will also be used to fix one of the airport’s access roads. The funds are part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Airport Improvement Program.

MEDIA MATTERS

WALN TV

BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

This week's guest will be Geisinger Oncologist Dr. John Farell, discussing breast cancer.
Tune in Sunday morning at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400-The Game, NEPA's Fox .Sports Radio and 106.7 fm; and at 7:30 on 105 The River.

ECTV LIVE

ECTV Live welcomes Martin Henehan to the program the week of June 24th to unveil plans for the annual Drug Addiction Awareness Rally in Scranton. Rusty Fender will host the show while David DeCosmo is on vacation.
Hosts David DeCosmo and Rusty Fender along wit Program Director Mark Migilore for the program that can be seen on Comcast channel 19 (61 in some areas) and on the Electric City Television YouTube page.

BUDDY RUMCHEK

Want to hear some great parodies on the news? Tune in to WILK Radio at 6:40 and 8:40 AM on Mondays. As Ralph Cramden used to say, “It’s a laugh riot!”

BOBBY V’S DOO WOP SOCK HOP

SUNDAY NIGHTS!

1969

Our 1969 logo

The "Amen break", a 6-second drum solo that would become "the most sampled musical track of all time",  was recorded for the first time. Drummer G. C. Coleman of The Winstons performed the 4-bar beat 86 seconds into the song "Amen, Brother", which then became the "B-side" of the 45 rpm vinyl recording of The Winstons' hit single "Color Him Father". For 15 years, "Amen, Brother" would be forgotten until the mid-1980s, when "sampling" came into use when DJs in hip hop music dance clubs used Coleman's six-second "snare-and-cymbal sequence" to make the transition between one song and the next. By 2015, the "Amen break" would be part of more than 1,500 songs and the number would approaching 3,000 within the first 50 years after it was recorded……


Dr. Joseph Weber, a physicist at the University of Maryland, announced the first detection and measurement proving the existence of gravitational waves, confirming a theory that had been postulated by Dr. Albert Einstein in 1916 as part of his general theory of relativity. An astronomer at Maryland, Dr. Gart Westerhout, told a press conference "This is a discovery comparable to the discovery of radio waves." Weber and Westerhout reported that the waves had been measured by detectors at both the university in College Park, Maryland and at the Argonne Laboratory in Chicago. Weber had been attempting to find the gravitational wave since 1958, when he built a 3,000 pound aluminum cylinder as a detector for that purpose. Ten years later, it would be reported that "The response from the scientific community was almost unanimous in its hostility," and as other groups failed to detect the same results after building the same detection equipment, Weber would be referred to by some physicists as "The Don Quixote of College Park",Scientists would continue to search for confirmation of the gravitational wave and on September 14, 2015, almost 15 years after Weber's death on September 30, 2000, physicist Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) would measure a gravitational wave for the first time using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)…… Hee Haw, an American television show aimed at fans of country music, was aired for the first time, appearing on the CBS network at 9:00 Eastern time. Popular with viewers, and hated by TV critics, the show was described by one reviewer as "a hayseed version of Laugh-In" with "probably the worst title of any show to come along this season" while another wrote "Country-Western it is. 'Laugh-In' it ain't." Hosted by Roy Clark and Buck Owens, the show filled the time slot formerly held by the Smothers Brothers and would run on CBS for two years, then spend 22 years in syndication. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 7 to 1, that the U.S. House of Representatives had acted improperly in voting not to allow Adam Clayton Powell Jr. to take his seat in Congress after the 1966 elections. On March 1, 1967, the House had voted, 248 to 176, to bar Powell from representing New York's 18th Congressional District. After Powell had been elected again in 1968, the House had seated him but voted not restore his seniority for purposes of committee selections, treating the 24-year veteran instead as a first-time member of Congress and fining him $25,000. Writing for the majority, outgoing Chief Justice Earl Warren said that since Powell "was duly elected by the voters... and was not ineligible to serve under any provision of the Constitution, the House was without power to exclude him from its membership." Powell's suit was remanded to District Court for consideration of his claim for $60,000 in back pay for the two years of his 1967-1969 term. Voters in New York City's primary elections rejected the nominations of incumbent Mayor John V. Lindsay (who was campaigning for re-election as a Republican) and of former Mayor and Democrat candidate Robert F. Wagner Jr.. The two major party candidates for November instead were Republican John J. Marchi and Democrat Mario Procaccino. Mayor Lindsay, however, would win re-election in November anyway after running as a third-party candidate for the Liberal Party of New York. With almost 7.9 million citizens, New York was the largest city in the United States and, at the time, second to Tokyo as the largest in the world…….The Cuyahoga River at Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire after an oil slick floating on the river ignited. Factories along the Cuyahoga had regularly dumped their waste products into the waters for decades. Before it was extinguished, the floating blaze burned two wooden railroad trestles and warped the tracks, with an estimated repair cost of $50,000. Cleveland Mayor Carl B. Stokes, citing that the city of Cleveland had no legal jurisdiction over the river, called upon the state of Ohio to take action against the licenses of industries that polluted the river. In later statements, Stokes told a crowd that "We have the only river in the country which has been legally described as a fire hazard." The incident of the burning river would help spur an unprecedented American campaign against water pollution, leading to passage of such legislation as the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. More broadly, the accident would focus attention on the threats to pollution in the air and the ground as well and would lead to the creation of a new federal government agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)……..

Actress and singer Judy Garland was found dead of a drug overdose in her London home on Cadogan Lane, three days after she had returned from a New York business trip with her fifth husband, Mickey Deans, whom she had married on March 15.[85] Garland, who had been born in 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota as Frances Ethel Gumm, had been known for The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis and A Star Is Born but was plagued by drug and alcohol addiction during her adult life. The cause of death was attributed to an accidental overdose of barbiturates that Garland used for insomnia……..

in Pennsylvania millionaire Milton Shapp says he will definitely make another try for Governor in 1970…..in Scranton James Doherty becomes a mainstay on WDAU TV coverage of Scranton City Council meetings and fifty years ago this week the number one song in LuLac land and America was “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet” by Henry Mancini & his Orchestra