SERIOUS POTPOURRI

  You do not have to be LGBTH to have pride. Every one of us can have pride that as USA residents we or our ancestors have come as immigrants seeking freedom of thought, speech, and religion as well as a transparency in government.

  It is up to each one of us to fight to protect that freedom from bigots and autocrats who would abrogate any elements of those rights including a woman’s right of choice because of their own interests.

  With that in mind I call your attention to Bill Kruse’s comment on my previous blog, The State of Things”.

 In DC our government was on the path of brinkmanship until POTUS at the last moment, so he says, cancelled the BOLTON/POMPEO championed retaliatory strike on Iran in favor of a UN Security Council meeting.

  If true, Trump gets a gold star for probably the only time in his Presidency.

 This coming week will be marked by an appointment with a Doctor who will retire at the end of the month.  

  Once again, I will have to search for a replacement. Unfortunately, the new breed is not as patient oriented as my generation was but are employees of group hospital or insurance companies employees where the emphasis is on the bottom line.

  Mid-week I will have the pleasure of a visit from my oldest nephew and his wife. He served two tours of duty as a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam and now has leukemia from transporting Agent Orange.

  The end of the week through the fourth will be devoted to my close family including 3 dogs and various O HELL players.

THE STATE OF THINGS

  One of then meanings of the “golden years” is to enrich the Health Care system. I have now added two more doctors to my list of five. But it beats the alternative.

  That said let’s talk about transparency and Plainfield’s government. Once again even after using two different browsers I was unable to open  from the linked agenda, any resolution or subordinate documents. It would be of little difference because the puppet Council will approve with out discussion everything on the agenda of the immediately following business meeting.

  I did note however that two known engineer donor firms were awarded a total of 5 contracts; Pennon a total of almost $276k AND Remington and Vernick a measly $34,900!

  In DC, shades of Iraq and the Cheney/Bush claim of absolute intelligence evidence that Saddam Hussein had a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction that lead to the Gulf war and destabilization of the Mid-East. No weapons were ever found.

  Now Trump claims that we have indisputable evidence that Iran not only sabotage two tankers, but one was hit by a torpedo. He has claimed that the statement by the captain of one ship that it was an airborne missile that hit his vessel as “false news”.

  Whom can we believe? A claim from the master of lies and misinformation, or what he terms the “FAKE NEWS MEDIA”.
  The fact that there is tape showing the Iran vessel removing a magnet attached mine does not prove that Iran attached it. A third party could have and the Iran vessel spotted it. (6-16 4:45 pm)

  Each of us has to believe what he wants;, and hope that we do not get into an unwarranted conflict. If Iran is guilty of attacks on neutral shipping, then we and all the free nations should punish them. Then the only question is the means and how.

SPEARS TO DAN DAMON

Except for the previous 3 days bad weather, a computer rthat would not connect to the internet, horrible Verizon support and some medical problems have kept me from posting. I have had some comments of thee Potpourri nature but will blog them later. Meanwhile this letter from Jim Spears to Dan Damon about Mapp and the local Democrat party is worth reading.

Dear Dan Damon, Now that’s one of your blog posts worth the read, (Thursday, June 6, Message for Chairman Mapp).  Adrian Mapp doesn’t allow dissent, he is tone deaf in my opinion, and he doesn’t want to hear about or acknowledge any anti-Mapp sentiment.   

 

I realize that your blog was a mix of reporting and editorial comments, and I think that you are partially correct on your analysis. But we have just walked much of Ward 2, so consider this:

 

Councilman Storch was vulnerable even without the anti-Mapp sentiment.  Especially in the districts that are part of Netherwood.  Though most residents like Cory, they are frustrated with his lack of helping and follow up on constituent services.  That is a very important part of a ward Councilman’s responsibilities.  When we knocked on doors in those districts many voters said, “I’m voting for you Sean - put the sign out”.   In addition, there is yet another real estate tax increase this year in the face of the Mapp Administration “entitlement” spending, for SUVs, trips to Hawaii, more City departments and promotions for his friends.  During our walks in the rest of the second ward we encountered some anti-Mapp sentiment - those voters rewarded Mapp after his fiscal achievements in his first term, and now have reservations about him in his second term. 

 

In the four districts that Sean lost, it was expected.  Time and resources need to be strategized in the short election window.  Those districts are not typically Mapp or Storch districts – they are Line A districts. We only needed to hold our numbers there. 

 

Regarding the Wawa project, we never raised the issue, the residents did - they made it a campaign issue.  I would say 2/3 of the doors we knocked on brought it up.  Not one voter we spoke with wanted it.  I must admit I was surprised by that, I thought some residents would have been in favor of Wawa, I was wrong.  Development in the 2^nd Ward, including Wawa, may preclude future Mapp wins in the ward. 

 

Regarding the Plainfield Democratic City Committee, if a properly managed campaign was launched to win the committee, I think it could have been successful and Chair Mapp would have lost.  I still feel he should not be Chair, he doesn’t have the time, and he doesn’t allow a democratic approach to pick candidates.  And he thinks buying folks breakfast and waving to them from a float driving by at 20 miles an hour is leadership.  It will be his demise.  

 

I think that Mapp has problems not only in the 2^ndWard, but in the 1st and 4th wards, and the 3rd as well. 

 

I do not believe that he recognizes the issues in Ward 4, and the three council people that live in the ward do not appear to be providing him any help.  That’s a blog post in itself. 

 

 In the 1^stWard, the demographics are quickly changing.  The Mapp administration paved almost every street there and Mayor Mapp barely won it in the 2017 election. On the night of his mayoral election win I said to him “you should have paved their driveways too”.  So, disconnect in the local party leadership with those voters. The bright spot is Councilor Ashley Davis, who got herself elected there with little help from Chair Mapp with “boots on the ground”.  And the leadership’s unwillingness to fully embrace her candidacy is more evidence of no tolerance for dissent of any kind, and tone deafness.  

 

In 3^rdWard, the voters seem to sense Mapp’s self-serving entitlement.  They see how he rewards his own - they don’t seem to like that.  In 2017, he received 13 less votes in the four-way race for mayor in the ward - though he did win it but with under 50% of the vote.  There are many new people that are moving into the 3^rdward, the old guard is leaving - that may help Mapp, but you must engage them. 

 

Mapp only won the city in 2017 mayoral race with 50.2% of the popular vote, Rebecca’s numbers were similar the year before - certainly not a mandate.  This year his committee lost the 2^ndWard council seat by a big margin with a popular candidate.  And he lost the popular vote in the Ward 1/4 at large.  He has problems. 

 

His campaign team (I was campaign manager in 2017) recognized the problems after the 2017 election - we sat down with him afterwards and showed him the issues we saw.  He listened, allowed some changes on the committee, but ultimately went rogue, endorsed a UCDC Chair without notice to his Committee and many of his loyal supporters, and ruled the democratic party like a demagogue.  Like I said, my opinion, he’s tone-deaf and it will be to his demise. 

D DAY 75 YEARS.

June 6 is the 75^th anniversary of D Day, the beginning of the end of the war in Europe. A special day for me.

My División the 17^th Airborne was still in Tullahoma Tenn., Camp Forrest. Thank goodness we missed what is the worst possible action, a water landing.

We did not get to Europe (England) until August aboard the 

Wakefield traveling without escort. All the regiments  enlisted men were cramped below deck. 

WE also missed a “Bridge too far” the Holland airborne disaster although were poised to go. We were still in England when the Bulge began and at Christmas were flown to France to take up position on the Muse River then moved to the front west of Bastogne, which is a story unto itself.

After the Bulge we were a combat part of the glider crossing of the Rhine. I have written those stories in my memoirs a copy is in the Library/