The LuLac Edition #4, 841, November 10th, 2022

 

DECENCY VS. LIES IN ELECTION 2022

 

This election was in effect a referendum on Joe Biden. Like it or not, Biden’s performance was on the ballot. His gaffes, his age, inflation, crime, he was judged on that by the American people. Biden has been thrown everything there was but stepped up and confronted each issue with evidence-based solutions. Some hit the mark, others will take time. Biden faced these issues without whining, finger pointing or insulting his foes.

He warned about democracy failing because of candidates whole denied his election. But unlike Trump, he added that his plea was not about him but America.

Voters cared about inflation, the border, Ukraine and reproductive rights. But with Biden’s administration not getting buried in a sea of MAGA red, there is one thing most politicos overlooked.

Decency. Voters saw that in Biden, a sincere guy trying to do the best he can.

With flaws, and mistakes but with decency the Dems were not routed, because of what the Republican party of today is totally lacking. Decency.

 

TRUMP ENERGIZES BASE BUT NOT HIS

Donald Trump put himself out there for this midterm election. He slung the same old shit that his pathetic base lapped up like starving dogs. But thinking Republicans and Independents are tired of his act.  In Florida Rick DeSantis won big and even through political negotiation dragged a few Congressional seats to his party.

Trump’s rallies are diminishing. They have become concert spectacles and a side show instead of information about policy. Mainly because Trump has no policy. His recent ad for Jim Bognet was filled with calling Congressman Cartwright “a disaster” twice   and had the tired line “Like you’ve neve seen before” in there too.

Trump is to blame for bad candidates and might be responsible for future party losses.  DeSantis can be poised to take him down especially after he’ll be indicted.

The Trump era will not go away fast. Rather it will slither away and rot like the slime it is. 

 

WHY PAPERGATE DOESN’T MATTER

It was unfortunate that for whatever reason there was a lack of paper for certain polling places in Luzerne County Tuesday.  This is certainly something that needs to be addressed and looked in to. But to blame Dave Pedri of all people for this (as one of the Trumpanzees on WILK did Tuesday) is just plain stupid.  Because there was a decent  margin between  all of the candidates (there were no nail biter races that hinged on a handful of votes) there was no damage done to the electoral process. 

To be sure there was damage done to the reputation of the already embattled Voter Registration Bureau but that will exist only because Republican sore losers (hey, they are sore winners too so it follows when they lose, ) they shout foul and need to blame someone else. Plus,  the interference from the Vice Chair of the Election Board on Wednesday morning who by all accounts was playing Detective without the training was not helpful. Her visit only led to crazy conspiracy calls to WILK.

Some on County Council will call this a fire able offense but I say this:

1.       Learn from the mistake.

2.       Let the staff do their jobs.

 

 HISTORY MADE TUESDAY NIGHT

Pennsylvania made Election history Tuesday.

This is the first time in 179 years, the Commonwealth has had three successive Democratic Governors elected in a row. The last time that happened was 1843 even before the Republican party came into existence.

When Tom Wolf broke the 8 year cycle of revolving party administrations every 8 years, it was a real treat to have Doug Mastriano as a GOP candidate. The Cowardly Colonel was easy to beat.

For the first time since the 1940s, Democrats have two Senators at the same time. The two Dems Senators were Francis Martin  and Joseph Guffey. From 1969 through 1991, the GOP had two Senators serving at the same time. Hugh Scott and Dick Schweiker, John Heinz and Arlen Specter until Heinz was killed in a helicopter crash and replaced by Harris Wofford in 1991. There was a another stint when Rick Santorum won election in 1994 and served with Specter until 2006 when Bob Casey was elected.

Now it’s Fetternan until 2028 and Casey until 2024. Two Dems. 

 

LYING CRYING BOGNET WANTS RECOUNT

Lying, crying Jim Bognet is channeling his political godfather by asking people for money to hire lawyers to overturn an election he lost (AGAIN!!!) to Matt Cartwright. Cartwright beat Bognet handily but Baby Bognet is using the paper shortage as a way to say voters wGuffey. Dere disenfranchised from the contest. Two time loser Bognet is once more lying saying Cartwright, one of the most honest politicians around stole the election. Nope, Lying, crying is wrong. Here’s why he lost:

1.       His ads were filled with lies.

2.       His rallies were pathetic in terms of attendees.

3.       His association with Diaper Don didn’t help him among thinking voters.

4.       Bognet, despite all the money brought in from the dark web was not likeable. Plus, he had nothing to offer.

But like his Lord and Savior Diaper Don, he has to place the blame elsewhere.

The poisonous apple of Trump hate has infected Jim Bognet and it wasn't becoming to voters in this election. 

 

 U.S. REP. MATT CARTWRIGHT RECEIVES FRIEND OF THE FARM BUREAU AWARD

Congressman Matt Cartwright (Photo: LuLac archives)

U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-08) received the Friend of the Farm Bureau Award from the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

The prestigious, bipartisan award is given to Members of Congress who have supported farmers, ranchers and agricultural communities in the 117th Congress. Congressman Cartwright was nominated by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and approved by the AFBF Board of Directors.

“I am honored to receive the Friend of Farm Bureau award from the American Farm Bureau Federation,” said Rep. Cartwright. “Pennsylvania farms and agricultural businesses play a vital role in our region’s economy, history and future. I will continue supporting policies and legislation that will benefit our farmers and the millions of Americans across the country they feed.”

Rep. Cartwright was presented the award by Don Salak, a member of the Wayne-Pike County Farm Bureau, earlier this morning in Wayne County at the Martzen family dairy farm in Waymart. 

“On behalf of the Pennsylvania and the Wayne-Pike County Farm Bureaus, I  congratulate Congressman Cartwright and thank him for supporting legislation that benefits agriculture in our community,” said Salak. “Throughout his time in Washington, D.C., he has been a staunch partner to agriculture and farming in Wayne and Pike counties.”

The Friend of Farm Bureau awards are presented at the end of each Congress to lawmakers based on individual voting records on Farm Bureau priority issues which, in 2021 and 2022, included emergency COVID assistance for farmers, rural broadband access, funding for infrastructure, inflation reduction and ocean shipping reform.

Congressman Cartwright also advocated for a $35,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct a feasibility study for a new dairy processing plant in Wayne County.

In Wayne County, the dairy industry serves as an engine of the local agricultural community, generating about $18 million annually in economic output.

According to the completed study, the proposed plant would have enough capacity to support the equivalent of eight, 75-cow dairies and would pay farmers a $2 per hundredweight premium for their milk, a great financial benefit for farmers.

Using the existing dairy farms as suppliers, the plant would process milk into cheese, with a focus on specialty cheeses that would appeal to Hispanic communities in New York City, Philadelphia and Boston.

The plant would turn a profit by the second year of operation, according to the study.

“As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, I am a strong supporter of programs and opportunities that fund economic and community development,” said Rep. Cartwright. “The Wayne County dairy processing center has the potential to stimulate a vital industry, contribute to the growth of a sustainable local food economy, and preserve an important part of our regional cultural heritage.”

 

CASEY, TESTER, TAKANO: VETERANS AFFAIRS MUST DO MORE TO MAKE VA WEBSITES ACCESSIBLE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Senator Bob Casey (Photo: LuLac archives)

, U.S. Senate Aging Committee Chairman Bob Casey (D-PA), Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT) and House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-CA-41) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough, urging the VA to do more to make the agency’s websites and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. The Members of Congress called on the VA to accelerate its efforts to remediate long-standing accessibility issues and provide consistent transparency into which of the VA’s websites are not yet accessible.

In June 2022, Senator Casey led a letter to the VA, urging them to improve their website accessibility in compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires government electronic and information technology to be accessible for people with disabilities. The VA responded to Senator Casey’s June letter, providing more information about its remediation efforts. Casey and his colleagues write in response to the VA’s letter, noting several points of concern, including the Department’s current inability to conduct federally mandated accessibility data collection due to contract lapses.

“We greatly appreciate your efforts to improve the accessibility of VA’s technology and the significant amount of information your staff undertook to provide information in response to our questions. Yet, there is clearly more work to do, as evidenced by Mr. Ron Biglin’s statement to the Aging Committee. Mr. Biglin, a blind Pennsylvania Air Force veteran, reported that the VA’s health portal, My HealtheVet, does not work with screen-reading software the Department provided him. We want to ensure that all disabled veterans, and the VA employees who work for them, are on a level playing field when accessing technology,” the Members of Congress wrote.

In response to the VA’s statement that the agency will change how it reports on its website accessibility based on which sites are most frequently used, Casey, Tester and Takano emphasize that Congress and taxpayers must be apprised of the full scope of VA’s Section 508 compliance. They ask that “VA continue to report the total number of websites that are not compliant with Section 508 rather than self-selecting how compliance is measured.”

The signers express concern at the length of the VA’s current remediation timeline—for example, they note that while the National Cemetery Administration’s updated remediation plan “is a significant improvement, it reported that fixing 950 un-accessible PDFs will not be completed until 2026—roughly one per day.” They are also concerned that VA staff training to ensure staff are prepared to “to assist individuals with disabilities” is optional rather than mandatory.

In their letter, Casey, Tester and Takano request that the VA:

Report back to them how it will conduct outreach to a diverse array of disability groups beyond existing relationships with Veterans Service Organizations;

Provide them with an updates on contracting a new vendor to scan websites for accessibility; and

Keep them apprised of progress and timeline of establishing an Accessibility Office within the agency.

In December 2020, Senator Casey’s bipartisan Department of Veterans Affairs Website Accessibility Act, which directs the VA to report to Congress regarding the accessibility of VA websites to people with disabilities, became law. In June 2022, Senator Casey led a bipartisan, bicameral group of committee leaders in sending a letter to VA Secretary McDonough urging the agency to improve VA website accessibility for disabled veterans. Casey also released VA’s Section 508 report required by the VA Website Accessibility Act.

In July 2022, Senator Casey held a hearing in the Special Committee on Aging examining the challenges facing seniors and people with disabilities when accessing crucial online resources from the federal government and pressing for answers as to why barriers to web access remain, and what federal government agencies are doing to meet accessibility standards. Today, Senator Casey also sent a bipartisan letter to the U.S. General Services Administration seeking information that the agency maintains on the accessibility of federal technology and websites.

 

GOV. WOLF SIGNS 66 BILLS INTO LAW

GOVERNOR DECRIMINALIZES POSSESSION OF FENTANYL TEST STRIPS TO AVOID DEADLY OVERDOSES

Governor Tom Wolf (Photo: LuLac archives)

 

Governor Tom Wolf today signed House Bills 103, 121, 220, 284, 324, 397, 668, 875, 987, 1059, 1103, 1328, 1393, 1486, 1571, 1731, 1795, 1823, 1829, 1866, 1929, 1958, 1988, 2057, 2079, 2086, 2209, 2210, 2214, 2293, 2361, 2398, 2426, 2447, 2458, 2525, 2527, 2528, 2538, 2586, 2633, 2637, 2648, 2667, and 2800. He also signed Senate Bills 118, 153, 225, 317, 431, 439, 522, 696, 731, 806, 807, 1027, 1083, 1123, 1152, 1173, 1194, 1199, 1201, 1208, and 1287.

The governor vetoed Senate Bill 736.

 

MEDIA MATTERS 

 

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BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM 

  

You'll hear the program Sunday at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400 am The Mothership and 7:30 am on 105 The River.

 

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1975

Our 1975 logo.

"Nitecaps", hosted by Herb Jepko, became the first nationally syndicated call-in radio show, broadcast over affiliates of the Mutual Broadcasting System. On February 11, 1964, Jepko had pioneered the concept of a radio show where listeners could call on the telephone and the conversations could be heard over the air. He was the first radio talk show host to do a nationally syndicated, satellite-delivered program…….The Sex Pistols, gave their first public concert and introduced "punk rock" to the United Kingdom. Singer John Lydon, billed as Johnny Rotten, was backed by Glen Matlock, Steve Jones and Paul Cook in a performance at the St. Martin's School of Art. In turn, The Pistols were influenced by the music of an American group, the New York Dolls…..The United States announced that it was withdrawing from the International Labour Organization. When the departure became effective on November 6, 1977, the ILO lost 25% of its income; the U.S. would rejoin the ILO on February 18, 1980……Travis Walton, a 22-year-old logger, was working in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest with six co-workers near Snowflake, Arizona, when he suddenly disappeared. Walton was found five days later and said that he had been abducted by extraterrestrial aliens.His book, The Walton Experience (1978), would become the basis for a film, Fire in the Sky (1993)….Shortly before midnight, Moscow time, the crew of the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy mutinied, as second-in-command Valery Sablin, locked up Captain Anatoly Putorny, then seized control of the vessel. The mutiny, which would fail, would inspire the best selling Tom Clancy novel, and later a film, The Hunt for Red October.[26] Captain 3rd Rank Sablin would be convicted of treason and be executed on August 3, 1976…….Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, a 5'6", 165 pound senior walk-on to the Notre Dame football team, who had never gotten to take the field, was allowed to come into the lineup in the final 27 seconds of a game against Georgia Tech. Ruettiger broke through the line and sacked the Tech quarterback who, coincidentally, was also a Rudy— Rudy Allen.Ruettiger's story of determination would later be made into the film Rudy……The first 164 Cuban troops arrived in Angola, as two turboprop airplanes, carrying the MININT Special Forces, landed at Luanda. On the same day, a force of FNLA and Zaire troops invaded Cabinda, an Angolan enclave that was separated from the rest of the nation. And this week in 1975 the number one song in LuLac land and America was “Who Loves You” by  The 4 Seasons.