An Attempt to Talk Sense to Republican Legislators in Pennsylvania

The Republican leadership of the Pennsylvania legislature is trying to turn Pennsylvania into the next Arizona vis a vis election security. My state rep & state senator are both Republicans. Here's what I sent to them today: 

I am opposed to the Pennsylvania legislature wasting the taxpayers' money on yet another audit of the 2020 election. It's ironic that the legislators are convinced that the 2020 election was completely accurate when it elected them, but completely wrong when it elected President Biden. Sad that you don't see anything wrong with that. 

I worked for Allegheny County as an election worker for several elections, including the 2016 election. Election workers I worked with only cared about running an accurate election and ensuring that every registered voter could vote. We were members of both major political parties and there were likely Independents working as well. We never discussed or argued politics - our job was only to enable a fair election. I'm sorry that I'm no longer able to work on elections because I care about fair elections and I would stand up against anyone trying to intimidate voters. It's sad that Republican Pennsylvania legislators no longer care about free and fair elections.

The Importance of Evelyn Gold...and a Rant

I've been helping Mark Olson and Leah Zeldes with research on Fancyclopedia, an online encyclopedia about fandom, conventions, writers, artists and fans. We were stuck on Evelyn Gold for a bit, H. L. Gold's wife and the associate editor of Galaxy during the '50s. In many ways, she was the main public representative of the magazine since HL had agoraphobia and didn't like to leave their apartment.

Anyway, she disappeared from all public records in 1957, about the time that she and HL divorced. I've been using ancestry.com to research people, and there were only maybe four records that were about Evelyn Stein Gold, which seemed like way too few. I also wondered if she just might have died after her divorce.

ancestry.com seems to display some records almost randomly. I took another look yesterday and found a family tree that connected her to the Spencer family. Huh. Family tree data is sometimes not reliable, but I poked around a bit more and found some official records. Evelyn Gold had married Paul Donner Spencer in 1961. She later called herself Eve Paige Spencer and became an artist.

Leah Zeldes then found more about her later life, including a short YouTube video and more.

Eve had a really fascinating life. But when I found her obituary, here's all it said:

Ms. Spencer, 88, of Rancho Santa Fe, passed away May 11. Services to be held at a later date.

To plant trees in memory, please visit our Sympathy Store.

Published by Rancho Santa Fe Record (Online) from

May 19 to Jun. 18, 2009.

I poked around more to see if there was a real obituary for her anywhere. Nothing.

And so, my rant: Write your own obituary or get a friend to write one for you. My mother was a professional obituary writer for a college magazine for about 40 years. It's not that hard. A factual obituary can help prevent you from completely disappearing from the record after you die (and we all will die one day).

Though I need to remember to update mine. I wrote my own obituary as part of a college class on death, dying & eschatology. I've done a few things since then...

Evelyn Gold/Eve Paige Spencer's Fancyclopedia entry.

Never Forget the Senators Who Voted Against the Capitol Insurrection Commission

I am still angry over the #SeditionCaucus.  I'm angrier over the Senators who voted down a Congressional Commision to investigate the 1/6 Capitol Insurrection.  Never forget that these people did not believe we should have a formal investigation over a group of Trumpists whose behavior led to the deaths of multiple people on the grounds of the Capitol & caused millions of dollars in damage to the building:

NAYs ---35

Barrasso (R-WY)
Boozman (R-AR)
Capito (R-WV)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Cramer (R-ND)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hagerty (R-TN)
Hawley (R-MO)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Lummis (R-WY)
Marshall (R-KS)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Rubio (R-FL)
Scott (R-FL)
Scott (R-SC)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Tuberville (R-AL)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)

Not Voting - 11

Blackburn (R-TN)
Blunt (R-MO)
Braun (R-IN)
Burr (R-NC)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Murray (D-WA)
Risch (R-ID)
Rounds (R-SD)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sinema (D-AZ)
Toomey (R-PA)

As awful as the people who voted against the comission are, the people who were too cowardly to show up and vote were even worse. I have never seen a vote where 11 senators did not show up in recent times. And for people like Sinema and Toomey to say "I couldn't be there but I would have voted yes." is way beyond hypocritical.

Letter to Senator Toomey Regarding the COVID-19 Relief Bill

Dear Senator Toomey

I appreciate that three times this year, you have voted your conscience rather than follow Republican dogma. Please do something to help the average Pennsylvanian more than your support of the Trump "detax-the-rich" tax bill did in 2017 - vote FOR the COVID-19 relief bill. The stimulus payments are very important to the unemployed and the under-employed. Any stimulus we get will go to our local food bank and other charities because we know how much the money is needed by so many.

There have been many complaints about the move to have the over-indebted college graduates' college loan debt forgiven or reduced. A $15 minimum wage would help graduates with loans and minimum jobs to pay off more of their loans. It would lift millions of families out of poverty the way that Reganomics never did.

It's your choice. Can you vote your conscience one more time?

Laurie Mann
Pittsburgh, PA

Never Forget the Sedition Caucus

These people continued to question the right of states to certify their own elections after Trump's domestic terrorists invaded the Capitol on 1/6/21.  When Congress reconvened after the terrorists left the Capitol (and only about 50 of them were arrested despite the damage and bringing weapons to the Capitol), they continued with their "The election was fraudulent for Biden" mantra.  But, by 3:45am on 1/7/21, the votes cast were acknowledged by Congress and Joe Biden's election to the presidency was formally certified.

But it's important to never forget who encouraged "the election was fraudulent for Biden" lie beyond Trump - many Congressional Republicans.  Most of them want support by Trump Cultists in the future.  Trump Cultists are not going away.  But, even though many Republicans voted for Trump, I don't think all Trump voters are Trump cultists. [[3/17 note:  And, in fact, over 100,000 Republicans have left the party since the Capitol Insurrection]]  Which means, in a few months or years, these people may see that aligning themselves with Trump may not get them elected.  They may claim that they really didn't stand with Trump.  These people absolutely engaged in the seditious act of denying the reality of an election.  These members of Congress should never be elected to any office in the future by any rational voter:

United States Senate

Josh Hawley (R-MO)

Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)

Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)

Roger Marshall (R-KS)

Rick Scott (R-FL)

Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)

United States House of Representatives

Robert Aderholt (R-AL)

Rick Allen (R-GA)

Jodey Arrington (R-TX)

Brian Babin (R-TX)

James Baird (R-IN)

Jim Banks (R-IN)

Jack Bergman (R-MI)

Stephanie Bice (R-OK)

Andy Biggs (R-AZ)

Dan Bishop (R-NC)

Lauren Boebert (R-CO)

Mike Bost (R-IL)

Mo Brooks (R-AL)

Ted Budd (R-NC)

Tim Burchett (R-TN)

Michael Burgess (R-TX)

Ken Calvert (R-CA)

Kat Cammack (R-FL)

Jerry Carl (R-AL)

Earl Carter (R-GA)

John Carter (R-TX)

Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)

Ben Cline (R-VA)

Michael Cloud (R-TX)

Andrew Clyde (R-GA)

Tom Cole (R-OK)

Erik Crawford (R-AR)

Warren Davidson (R-OH)

Scott DesJarlais (R-TN)

Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

Byron Donalds (R-FL)

Jeff Duncan (R-SC)

Neal Dunn (R,-FL)

Ron Estes (R-KS)

Pat Fallon (R-TX)

Michelle Fischbach (R-MN)

Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI)

Charles Fleischmann (R-TN)

C. Scott Franklin (R-FL)

Russ Fulcher (R-ID)

Matt Gaetz (R-FL)

Mike Garcia (R-CA)

Bob Gibbs (R-OH)

Carlos Gimenez (R-FL)

Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

Bob Good (R-VA)

Lance Gooden (R-TX)

Paul Gosar (R-AZ)

Sam Graves (R-MO)

Mark Green (R-TN)

Marjorie Greene (R-GA)

H. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)

Michael Guest (R-MS)

Jim Hagedorn (R-MN)

Andy Harris (R-MD)

Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)

Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)

Kevin Hern (R-OK)

Yvette Herrell (R-NM)

Jody Hice (R-GA)

Clay Higgins (R-LA)

Richard Hudson (R-NC)

Darrell Issa (R-CA)

Ronny Jackson (R-TX)

Chris Jacobs (R-NY)

Mike Johnson (R-LA)

Bill Johnson (R-OH)

Jim Jordan (R-OH)

John Joyce (R-PA)

Trent Kelly (R-MS)

Mike Kelly (R-PA)

Doug LaMalfa (R-CA)

Doug Lamborn (R-CO)

Jake LaTurner (R-KS)

Debbie Lesko (R-AZ)

Billy Long (R-MO)

Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)

Frank Lucas (R-OK)

Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)

Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)

Tracey Mann (R-KS)

Brian Mast (R-FL)

Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)

Lisa McClain (R-MI)

Mary Miller (R-IL)

Carol Miller (R-WV)

Barry Moore (R-AL)

Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)

Troy Nehls (R-TX)

Ralph Norman (R-SC)

Devin Nunes (R-CA)

Jay Obernolte (R-CA)

Steven Palazzo (R-MS)

Gary Palmer (R-AL)

Scott Perry (R-PA)

August Pfluger (R-TX)

Bill Posey (R-FL)

Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA)

Tom Rice (R-SC)

Mike Rogers (R-AL)

Harold Rogers (R-KY)

John Rose (R-TN)

Matthew Rosendale, Sr. (R-MT)

David Rouzer (R-NC)

John Rutherford (R-FL)

Steve Scalise (R-LA)

Pete Sessions (R-TX)

Jason Smith (R-MO)

Adrian Smith (R-NE)

W. Gregory Steube (R-FL)

Thomas Tiffany (R-WI)

William Timmons IV (R-SC)

Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ)

Tim Walberg (R-MI)

Jackie Walorski (R-IN)

Randy Weber, Sr. (R-TX)

Daniel Webster (R-FL)

Roger Williams (R-TX)

Joe Wilson (R-SC)

Ron Wright (R-TX)

Lee Zeldin (R-NY)

3/17 When the House voted to give gold medals to the police who fought the Capital Insurrection, 12 Republicans voted against HR 1085. So it's interesting that even most members of the Sedition Caucus are starting to realize that they need to acknowledge the help they got from the Capitol police that day.

Here are the 17 Republican House members who could not bring themselves to acknowledge the Capitol police that day:

Representatives Who Voted No

Biggs, R-AZ

Cloud, R-TX

Clyde, R-GA

Gaetz, R-FL

Gohmert, R-TX

Good, R-VA

Gooden, R-TX

Greene, R-GA

Harris, R-MD

Massie, R-KY

Rose, R-TN

Steube, R-FL

Representatives Who Did Not Vote

Arrington, R-TX

Brady, R-TX

Curtis, R-UT

Kinzinger, R-IL

Wilson, R-SC

How can Republicans seriously call themselves "law and order" when they supported violence against the government, refused a certify a lawful election, and then refused to acknowledge the way many Capitol police fought the Loud Boys? Never forget the Congressional representatives who did this.

And, never forget the Senators who voted against Capitol Insurrection Commission, and those who couldn't be bothered to vote at all.

COVID-19 Spread After 9/22 Trump Rally in Moon Township, PA, Part 3

  How many of his own voters does a maskless, crowded, shoutfest called a Trump rally sicken or even kill?

Three weeks ago, Trump had large rally in Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. A few thousand attended from western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio & the panhandle of West Virginia.
So far, there's no evidence that #COVID has increased much in these areas:

                                    October 13 map

                                    October 1 map

                                    September 24 map

While there are some increases in Western Pennsylvania, the main hotbed for spread in Pennsylvania over the last month has been the Centre county area, home to Penn State.  Centre county is the reddish county in the upper right hand corner of the map (it really doesn't show up much on the 10/1 map).

So I'm glad to have been wrong about Trump's 9/22 rally in Moon Township.  It might have contributed slightly to COVID-19 spread, but there's no evidence it was yet another super-spreader event.

                                    October 13 map

                                                October 1 map

                                              September 23, 2020

Sadly, Pennsylvania "turned orange" in its COVID-19 outbreak over the last few weeks, probably mostly due to the Penn State Surge.  It has been yellow most of the year, and Allegheny county is still yellow.

                                    October 13 map

***********************************************************************

Buy a "Science Always Wins" shirt!

COVID-19 Spread After 9/22 Trump Rally in Moon Township, PA, Part 2

 How many of his own voters does a maskless, crowded, shoutfest called a Trump rally sicken or even kill?

A week ago, Trump had large rally in Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. A few thousand attended from western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio & the panhandle of West Virginia.

So far, there's no evidence that #COVID has increased much in these areas:

COVID-19 spreads gradually. It can take a couple of days to a couple of weeks for the number of cases to increase by much. Here's are detailed Allegheny County maps for 9/23 and 9/30:

So far, there's no evidence that COVID-19 has increased much in the Allegheny County as a result of Trump's recent maskless rally. Which is good so far. Will double-check again next week.

COVID-19 Spread After 9/22 Trump Rally in Moon Township, PA, Part 1

How many of his own voters does a maskless, crowded, shoutfest called a Trump rally sicken or even kill?

Trump had large rally in Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on 9/22. I don't have numbers; no news outlet made any estimates. Saw some photos and I'd guess maybe around 5,000 (unless the crowd was photoshopped as the famous Inauguration photos were).

Allegheny County has had fairly low spread since March.  We've usually been a "yellow" county; we were briefly "orange" after the bars were opened up more in July, but the spread has decreased some since then  when bar hours were restricted again.

Moon Township is in the Western central part of Allegheny County and is home to the Pittsburgh International Airport.  It tends to vote red, but just barely.  I worked in a Moon county district for 3 elections including 2016.  While the red candidates usually won, they never won by much.  Amazingly in 2016, both Hillary Clinton and Katie McGinty won by a few votes in that district, but lost at the state level (though not by much).  Location of Moon Township:

Here's current COVID19 info from Allegheny county & COVIDACTNOW stats. Will update at least weekly. Had low spread so far. Moon Township has had 92 Coronavirus cases/10,000 & 9 deaths. North Fayette Township has had 69 cases/10,000 & 3 deaths.

Probably worth noting - Beaver county is just north of the airport, Washington county is about 10 miles south of the airport.  The West Virginia panhandle is about 15 miles west, and Ohio is about 20 miles west.

At least once a week over the next few weeks, I'll update COVID county case information to see how many people Trump has made sick as a result of his 9/22 rally in Moon Township.

But I wondered - is there a pattern for counties to have a higher-than-average COVID-19 spread?

Here's a Johns Hopkins University map from 9/24, showing the COVID-19 spread in counties in southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, the panhandle of West Virginia and a bit of northwestern Maryland. The one dark-colored county indicating higher COVID-19 spread is Columbiana County in Ohio south of Youngstown. Interestingly, Pence spoke in Columbiana County 3 weeks ago (September 4).

The dark-ish county northwest of Allegheny County, adjacent to Columbiana County, is Beaver County. Beaver is very close to Moon Township (where Trump spoke on 9/22). Trump has spoken there a few times, but not since last June. However...when VP Pence went to Ohio on 9/4, he also stopped in Beaver County the same day. Not that you see masks at Pence rallies either.

So it will be interesting to see whether the COVID-19 rates start to go up in Allegheny County, in Washington County (which is also quite close to Moon Township), in the WV panhandle (Weirton area), and in an eastern Ohio like Jefferson County in the weeks following the maskless, loud Trump rally in Moon Township on 9/22.

You've Got to Be Carefully Taught...

I wrote this in response to a provocative photo of black children being taught to hate police on another person's Facebook page. While I wrote this as a fact-check, it can come off as politicking in someone else's living room, which I should not have done.

But I do stand by what I wrote, so I'll post it here:

__________________________________________________________________________

I agree that hate is taught, but it works in all directions. Remember watching TV news in the '60s? The white southerners setting dogs and water cannons on black protesters? Remember the 3 voting activists murdered for helping black people register to vote? Remember the 4 girls murdered in a church bombing? How about Louise Day Hicks in Boston, raving on and on about bussing? How about the white guy who attacked a black man with a flag in Boston in 1976? When people are treated irrationally, they tend to respond irrationally and sometimes violently. I do not support the violence, but I sure understand it.

__________________________________________________________________________

And, as a reminder to anyone who may teach their kids to hate cops, a black cop in Saint Louis was murdered while on the job this weekend. I do understand training black kids to be overly cautious around the police; it's sad "the talk" is still necessary but it may be more necessary than ever these days.

What Republicans Seem to Believe...

Copied from Rebecca Phipps on Facebook 

Just a note for my right leaning family and friends from my left leaning self and on behalf of my left leaning family and friends as we near voting day: 

You're being told that we want to disband police departments (and that we hate the police). We don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and unnecessary police brutality and for those who abuse their power to be held accountable.

You're being told that we want to release all prisoners. We don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and ensure the punishments match the crimes and to deprivatize prisons. 

You're being told that we want open borders. We don’t, that’s a lie. We want asylum seekers to be given their chance to seek asylum. We want to help people who are coming from unimaginable terror and poverty and give them the chances we have. We want to ensure children aren’t separated from their parents and that nobody is kept in cages. But we do want proper vetting.

You're being told that we want to take away your guns. We don’t, that’s a lie. We want logical gun control to help prevent mass shootings.

You're being told that we want to wage a war on Christianity and Christian values. We don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all religions to be able to practice and worship freely.

You're being told that we want to get everything for free. We don’t, that’s a lie. We want to work hard and make sure that healthcare and education are affordable for all.

You're being told that we want a war against traditional marriage. We don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all sexual orientations to be able to love freely, no matter who you love.

You're being told that we want to destroy or rewrite history. We don’t, that’s a lie. We want to recognize the ugly parts of our past and do everything we can to say “that’s not okay, let’s not honor those aggressors, let’s not let those things happen again.”

You're being told that we want to take away your constitutional rights. We don’t, that’s a lie. We choose to believe science and we wear masks to prevent the spread of this disease.

You're being told that we hate America. We don’t, that’s a lie. We recognize our faults and want us to do better, be better. Wanting better for your country and everyone in it is the strongest form of patriotism. 

Stop with the us vs. them. 

Stop with the straw man arguments. 

Stop with the fake news. 

My position is one of empathy, compassion and logic. Stop believing the hype. Stop with the division. Just because we want equality for all doesn’t mean we want to take anything away from you or your family. 

❤️🧡💛 ***Please copy and paste*** 

 [[Not written by me, but I agree with all of it.]]