perdita9
perdita9's JournalValentine's hearts for purchase?
Is DU doing that this year? I love that fundraiser.
ICE evicted from Allentown, PA office for non-payment of rent
Elections have consequences and so do current events.
Josh Siegel, newly elected County Executive of Lehigh County, is evicting ICE agents from a county office building, partly because they haven't paid rent in 3 years (the tab is over $155,000, not including late fees), but also because of ICE's recent behavior, spreading terror in American cities.
The action is not without controversy. This particular office helped with human trafficking and drug related crimes. ICE wasn't dragging people of their homes in their underwear in the middle of a snowstorm.
(From the article)
District Attorney Gavin Holihan, who has worked closely with HSI, said the eviction is short-sighted.
“They’re a very important partner of ours in keeping the community safe,” he said, noting that the office’s lead agent was keynote speaker at a recent fundraising event for Bloom for Women, a nonprofit that helps victims of sex trafficking and exploitation.
Indeed, Holihan — who supported Siegel in the November election — said the agency is so important that he is willing to pay the back rent out of the drug forfeiture fund — money seized from drug operations that can be spent on crime-fighting initiatives at his discretion.
He acknowledged the agency should pay what it owes, but challenged the idea that HSI is essentially the same agency as the enforcement arm dominating the news.
https://www.mcall.com/2026/01/20/lehigh-county-josh-siegel-evicting-ice-allentown-office/?utm_email=F5F0F455A512E4E404B99564B9&active=no&lctg=F5F0F455A512E4E404B99564B9&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.mcall.com%2f2026%2f01%2f20%2flehigh-county-josh-siegel-evicting-ice-allentown-office%2f&utm_campaign=trib-morning_call-breaking_news-nl&utm_content=alert
Ignorance Spreads Illness
My op-ed ran in The Morning Call this morning. Wishing everyone a safe and healthy Christmas.
Everyone knows how George Washington lived, but do you know how he died? The medical community killed him. In December 1799, America’s first president developed a bad cold and throat infection. His physicians prescribed the standard treatments of the time: bloodletting, harsh purgatives, blistering agents and enemas. Those medications didn’t cure George Washington, they hastened his death.
The practice of bloodletting is 3,000 years old. The Egyptians used it as did the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Asians and Europeans with the practice continuing into the 19th century. Bloodletting persisted not because it actually worked, but because people believed that it did. Doctors truly thought they were doing the right thing when they applied leeches or cut a vein and bled a patient until they got dizzy. That so many patients died from the treatment didn’t affect their belief. Not until the medical community switched to clinical trials did it became clear that bloodletting made illnesses worse, not better.
British Navy surgeon James Lind conducted the first documented clinical trial in 1747 onboard the HMS Salisbury. Sailors in that era were often plagued by scurvy, a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anemia, gum disease and bleeding under the skin. Lind gathered 12 afflicted men, split them into six groups and dosed each pair with a different treatment: sea water, cider, vinegar, oranges and lemons, an elixir of vitriol or a mixture of horseradish, mustard and garlic. In six days, he had an answer. The sailors who ate the lemons and oranges recovered from scurvy. Lind applied the findings of his experiment to the rest of the crew who all showed signs of improvement once they started eating citrus. He took his discovery back to England and, by 1795, the British Navy made it a standard practice to stock all of its ships with citrus fruit. It’s why British sailors became known as ‘Limeys.’
Recently, a federal vaccine advisory committee voted to end the longstanding recommendation that all U.S. babies get the Hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born. Director of Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all members of that committee earlier in the year and replaced them with his own handpicked candidates. Several of the new members, like RFK Jr., are known to have anti-vaccine viewpoints. They don’t have evidence to back up their claims that vaccines are dangerous, they just have beliefs and feelings. Much like George Washington’s doctors who believed that relieving a man of 40% of his blood supply could cure a cold.
Hepatitis B is a virus which infects the liver and can cause cancer in people who contract it when they are young. It is spread by bodily fluids and can be transferred from an infected mother to her baby, but that transfer can be prevented by vaccination. When the Hep B vaccine was first introduced 1981, the strategy to lower infection rates focused on only vaccinating high risk groups such as prisoners, health care workers, gay men and IV drug users, but the number of cases remained unchanged. Ten years later the government issued a recommendation that all newborns should be immunized and the rates of infection fell dramatically, resulting in a near elimination of Hepatitis B in children.
Vaccines are some of the most regulated pharmaceutical products on the market. Because they are, for the most part, given to healthy people, the clinical trials are much larger than those required to test a drug. After a vaccine is approved, any adverse reaction must be reported back to the manufacturer’s pharmocol-vigilance department and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a department at Health & Human Services. If a pattern of adverse reactions is detected, the vaccine is flagged for further investigation. If evidence indicates a vaccine poses a danger to the public, it is pulled off the market.
The Hep B shot has never been flagged. Its safety profile, including with infants, is excellent. That is a fact backed up by data. Belief and feelings do not figure into the equation. Some members of the vaccine advisory committee admitted that there was no documented evidence of harm from the doses given at birth, but suggested larger studies be conducted. Why? Because they believe there is a problem, but beliefs aren’t data.
George Washington’s physicians did not mean to kill him when they prescribed bloodletting for his cold. I’m sure they thought it was the best course, a belief backed up by 3,000 years of tradition, but it wasn’t backed up by data. During human history, a lack of facts has caused the deaths of millions. This changed when science decided to take beliefs and feelings out of the equation and base medical decisions on verifiable evidence.
RFK Jr. and his handpicked members of the vaccine advisory board are taking us into a dark time where, once again, ignorance will spread illness.
https://reader.pagesuite.com/shortcode/C04BFE/edition/e62f560f-e318-4f1d-9d60-734e67b89a1b?page=55a8fd0c-1a94-4b5a-8e45-9716d1f6bd8a&
Is the "pro-life" community really pro-life?
My letter to the editor ran in today's issue of The Morning Call: Where are "pro-life" voices on deadly administration?
The following actions all have two things in common. Can you guess what they are?
The Trump Administration cut 83% of U. S. Agency for International programs which distribute medicine and food to vulnerable communities. By 2030, the cuts are expected to result in 14 million deaths.
Between Sept. 2nd and Oct. 26th, the Trump Administration has killed at least 43 people in strikes on Venezuelan boats in international waters. No evidence of illegal narcotic trafficking has been presented as justification for these attacks and no due process has been extended to the sailors.
Director of Health & Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has fired 20,000 employees and cut billions of dollars from services to inspect restaurants and monitor wastewater and from programs to prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer and infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV.
So, what do these three actions have in common?
First, the “pro-life” community has not risen up en masse to protest any of them and second, each action received significantly less coverage from some media outlets than that time President Obama wore a tan suit to a press conference.
https://www.mcall.com/2025/11/02/letters-how-east-penn-could-realign-its-schools-without-spending-a-fortune/
The 8th Circle of Hell -- Where Trump's Cabinet Members Will Spend Eternity
My local paper, The Morning Call, published my LTE today. I always like it when I can include a literary reference.
Donald Trump held a Cabinet meeting recently which lasted 3 hours and 17 minutes and featured him basking in the fawning praise from his Cabinet members.
Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, invited Trump to see the banner with his “big beautiful face” hanging in front of her department headquarters. Steve Whitkoff told him, “There is only one thing I wish for, that the Nobel Committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate ever for a Nobel Peace Prize.”
This cringey display reminded me of Dante’s Inferno, an imagined journey through Hell where sinners are punished in a fashion befitting their crimes. In the 8th circle, Dante encounters the “flatterers,” those who gained power not with intelligence or skill but through misleading others by feeding them lies. The flatterers spend all of eternity trapped in a pit, submerged in the excrement that spews out of their mouths every time they speak.
A fitting fate, some would argue. History shows that flatterers push aside men and women of true wisdom. Flattery is safer than telling unpleasant truths but, in the long run, it can cause a government to collapse.
https://www.mcall.com/2025/09/06/letters-to-the-editor-flattery-will-get-the-us-nowhere/
The Dining at a Restaurant Index
My husband and I are retired and go out to eat most Friday nights, typically at a family-friendly place. We go early, but have noticed that, no matter the place, it's barely half full.
Not many couples sitting down to eat, fewer large tables of families. The cost of dining out has gone up so that may explain the empty tables but I'm wondering if others have noticed this trend. (We live in eastern Pennsylvania, near the New Jersey border.)
"All Lives Matter" - the biggest lie conservatives ever told
George Floyd died on May 20, 2020, murdered in public by the Minneapolis police. Outraged Americans took up the cause of bringing attention to police brutality with the chant “Black Lives Matter,” a slogan originally used to protest the murder of Travon Martin. Millions participated in marches around the nation and across the globe in hopes of ending the systemic racism which has, for too long, put people’s lives and livelihoods in danger.
Backlash soon followed via the “All Lives Matter” movement where conservatives claimed that the “Black Lives Matter” slogan was divisive because everyone’s life mattered and there shouldn’t be carve outs for special groups.
Now, five years later conservative republicans control the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court. So, how’s that “All Lives Matter” claim holding up?
In July, after Trump joked about alligators eating unauthorized immigrants in an Everglades prison, the National Republican Congressional Committee started selling T-shits with a picture of a grinning reptile and the slogan “ICE with a bite!”
In August, Representative Mike Flood of Nebraska held a town hall filled with citizens angry about his vote for the tax and spending bill, H.R. 1, which slashes services and gives tax breaks to the wealthy. “Do you think that people who are 28 years old that can work and refuse to work should get free health care?” he demanded. “Yes!” the crowd screamed at him. Because all lives matter means every life matters, even that of a healthy 28-year-old who is one bad step off a curb from needing treatment for a broken ankle and the five-figure bill that comes with it.
The badly named ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ takes a machete to services many Americans rely on. With all the hoops citizens will have to jump through to stay enrolled in the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare, including shorter enrollment periods and no automatic renewals, the paperwork requirements alone will cause lapses in coverage. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the resulting lack of care could cause up to 22,000 deaths annually.
SNAP funding has been reduced by $186 billion over the next 10 years and requirements have changed. Now refugees, asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking are no longer eligible for food stamps. What exactly do conservatives have against victims of human trafficking? Don’t their lives matter enough to provide them with food?
A medical study published in The Lancet, estimates that USAID programs for nutritional assistance, maternal mortality and combating tuberculosis, malaria and other tropical diseases has saved 90 million lives over the last 20 years. With Trump’s drastic cuts to the program, statisticians estimate that 14 million people will die from the loss of services between now and 2030.
When all lives don’t matter, safety becomes a privilege reserved for the rich and survival a gamble for everyone else. Compassion, decency and humanity are just line items to be deleted on a whim.
But these examples are on the legislative and executive sides of our government. What about the Supreme Court? Do our esteemed justices believe that all lives matter? That we all stand equal under the protection provided by the Constitution and the law?
In June, the six conservative justices voted to allow the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants to countries such as El Salvador and Sudan where they could be jailed and tortured. Interestingly, John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas were all raised in the Catholic church. (Neil Gorsuch currently attends an Episcopal church). Undoubtably, all six have read the stories in the gospels detailing how Jesus was arrested, tried by a corrupt court, tortured and crucified. (Note—the Bible portrays this as a bad thing.)
I’m pretty sure Jesus would have been all in on the “All Lives Matter” movement but, unlike most conservatives, he would have been sincere about it. If he was here now, he would put his values into action by overturning the money-changing tables wherever those Alligator-Alcatraz T-shirts are sold.
Alito, Kavanaugh and Barrett have books coming out
Publisher's Marketplace announced three titles from conservative Supreme Court justices which will hit bookstores soon.
Amy Coney Barrett's LISTENING TO THE LAW, will be published by Sentinel on September 9th.
Samuel Alito will release a book in 2026 from Basic Literary imprint. It does not have a title yet.
Brett Kavanaugh has a book under contract with Hachette Book Group. The book was originally sold to Regnery and Kavanaugh reported receiving an advance in his 2023 income disclosure, but it moved after Regnery was sold to SkyHorse.
I know what I'm NOT going to be reading in the future.
My Republican Congressman sounds really nervous
Ryan Mackenzie (R- PA 7th District) did a telephone townhall tonight (July 23, 2025). It only lasted 45 minutes and his staff clearly pre-screened the questions to be MAGA friendly. Despite weekly "Mondays with Mackenzie" protests outside his offices, the only issue Mackenzie wanted to discuss was taxes. Only one tough question got through concerning the growing income inequality, how trickle down economics doesn't work and about releasing the Epstein files. Mackenzie was clearly caught off-guard and stammered something about how the ACA (Obamacare) had caused a spike in premiums and that Biden was to blame for the Epstein situation.
Cuts to SNAP benefits and Medicaid were addressed with claims that benefits would only be denied to abled-bodied people which means... I don't know. Just that random people will be cut out of the program, I guess. File that answer under "All Lives DON'T matter."
Mackenzie made constant references to the Big Beautiful Bill. When challenged about most of the benefits going to billionaires he claimed everyone would get a break on their taxes next year.
When asked about the $49.6 trillion the bill will add to the deficit and the high price of interest payments he said that "robust growth" will take care of that problem.
He also claimed the immigration issue had been ignored by Biden, conveniently omitting the fact that Biden had proposed bills to fix immigration and the Republicans had killed them every time.
He did not answer my question which was about the National Park System. "Why isn't Congress preserving those lands for future generations as intended either through proper staffing or by opposing Trump's plans to sell them off to the highest bidder?"
Lying Ryan sounded REALLY nervous on the call and only spoke for 45 minutes. What a wuss!!!
Your tax dollars do work for you. They work for all of us.
"The Morning Call," published my op-ed today. Yes, you do get something for your tax dollars. Yes, the government does work for you. If you don't appreciate what it does for you now, you will after the Trump administration destroys it.
"One night on PBS, I watched a documentary about the hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. There was no National Weather Service to track the storm and no Emergency Broadcast System to warn the residents to flee inland. There was no Coast Guard to rescue sailors at sea and no FEMA to help with disaster recovery. That storm caused the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history with approximately 8,000 fatalities, 7,000 buildings destroyed and 27% of the population left homeless."
https://enewspaper.mcall.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=dbaea63a-d05d-4ce7-b673-1bc3c5dd5c90&fbclid=IwY2xjawKyTwxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETF2TGZkN3owcHRRRWVCOWE3AR4nnVLwZai-ZqRcqanUptrvGK8MRgS2yFNHd_DVMWVes2GYl-c6NxxaAGgdMA_aem_RNsIyw9qKyrXO9P2YFEVCg
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