Dr. Oz was in the Turkish Army. Oz is from New Jersey. He lives with his in-laws the Asplundh‘s In Pennsylvania. “(“Asplundh”), pleaded guilty…to unlawfully employing aliens” ASPLUNDH PAID A 95 $ MILLION FINE.

Dr. Oz is highly focused on immigration reform in the U.S. as he angles for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, however, his family business has been fined nearly $100 million for the illegal hiring of immigrants using fake names. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. 

“But much of Oz’s fortune, not to mention his ties to Pennsylvania, come from a different source: His wife’s wealthy family. Her grandfather cofounded Asplundh Tree Expert with his two brothers in 1928. With $4.7 billion in revenue, Asplundh is now the 98th biggest private company in America and the fifth largest in Pennsylvania, with more than 33,000 employees. The 93-year-old company, which trims trees for electric utilities, municipalities and others, is run by the third generation of Asplundhs and owned by nearly 200 family members – who are collectively worth at least $3 billion.

That probably helps explain why the celebrity doctor was able to fund his campaign with $12.1 million of personal loans and another $1.7 million of contributions, the sort of money that most wouldn’t consider throwing away unless they knew they had an especially large stash as backup.

Oz, who is the son of Turkish immigrants and also has Turkish citizenship, got his MD and MBA at UPenn in 1986 and lived for years in New Jersey. He only registered to vote in Pennsylvania in December 2020, using his in-laws address…

The first union for Asplundh workers was organized in 1951. In the glory days of trade unionism in the 1960s and 1970s, the labor situation periodically turned nasty, and there was rock-throwing violence.

When employees struck at the company's equipment manufacturing plant in 1984, the company shut it down and moved the division to North Carolina. It was subsequently sold. Today unions represent just 20% of Asplundh's almost 20,000 employees, down from a peak of 50% in 1970.

By 1968 the founding brothers were retired or dead, and a second generation had taken over. Barr Asplundh, Griff's son, was elected president, and seven brothers and cousins were on the board of directors. Edward Asplundh, Carl's son, followed him in 1981. Cris Asplundh, the youngest of the second generation, took over in 1992, with nine members of the third generation serving in key roles…

Benefiting from the pressure on politicians to make tax dollars work harder, Asplundh has begun to get a lot of business from municipalities, too. It coordinates traffic-light sequences in Philadelphia, for example, and trims the trees in New York's Central Park.

All told, Asplundh Tree's revenues from services other than tree trimming will come to around $400 million this year, up from $42 million a decade ago. They're likely to keep growing rapidly as newly deregulated telephone and electric companies search for ways to cut costs."

MORE AT:

FORBES 

The Billionaire Family Behind Dr. Oz Is One Of The Wealthiest Clans In Pennsylvania

Matt Durot

June 4, 2022

***

“PHILADELPHIA — A six year U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Philadelphia investigation led to the largest civil settlement agreement ever levied by ICE.

Asplundh Tree Experts, Co., one of the largest privately-held companies in the United States, headquartered in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, (“Asplundh”), pleaded guilty today to unlawfully employing aliens, in connection with a scheme in which the highest levels of Asplundh management remained willfully blind while lower level managers hired and rehired employees they knew to be ineligible to work in the United States…

The $95 million dollar recovery, including $80 million dollars criminal forfeiture money judgment and $15 million dollars in civil payment, represents the largest payment ever levied in an immigration case…

According to court documents, from 2010 until December 2014, Asplundh, an industry leader in tree trimming and brush clearance for power and gas lines, hired and rehired employees in many regions in the United States accepting identification documents it knew to be false and fraudulent. A six-year HSI audit and investigation revealed that the company decentralized its hiring so Sponsors (the highest levels of management) could remain willfully blind while Supervisors and General Foremen (2nd and 3rd level supervisors) hired ineligible workers, including unauthorized aliens, in the field. Hiring was by word of mouth referrals rather than through any systematic application process. This manner of hiring enabled Supervisors and General Foremen to hire a work force that was readily available and at their disposal.

This decentralized model tacitly perpetuated fraudulent hiring practices that, in turn, maximized productivity and profit. With a motivated work force, including unauthorized aliens willing to be relocated and respond to weather related events around the nation, Asplundh had crews which were easily mobilized that enabled them to dominate the market. Asplundh provided all the incentives to managers to skirt immigration law."

U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 PHILADELPHIA, PA LABOR EXPLOITATION

Asplundh Tree Experts, Co. pays largest civil settlement agreement ever levied by ICE

Omar-“I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase.” It rings true for me. Tens of thousands of dollars for lawyers doesn’t come out of thin air. The “War on Drugs” brought the town of West Chester PA from college town to wealthy town.

 

Season 2, Episode 6

‘I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase.’

“Among the many reasons Omar (played by Michael K. Williams, who died in September) became a fan favorite was his penchant for straight talk. He robbed drug dealers for a living; he couldn’t afford to mince words. After his lover is tortured and murdered by the Barksdale crew, he agrees to testify against one of its enforcers. With a stunning lack of self-awareness, the crew’s sleazy lawyer, Maurice Levy (Michael Kostroff), accuses him of “feeding off the violence and despair of the drug trade.” Omar sets him straight; the judge can only shrug.

MICHAEL KOSTROFF I’ve always said that one of my favorite things about “The Wire” is that it’s hard to identify the good guys and the bad guys — in most of the characters, we see both redeemable and irredeemable qualities.

But I played one of the few characters that we never saw the good side of. I got to show the ugliness of being completely unscrupulous.

There was something very satisfying in this scene about getting to play Maury as he gets a little bit of comeuppance. And there’s something about the outlaw nature of Omar — not only as a criminal, but also as somebody who just doesn’t follow any of the rules — that’s just so gratifying as a viewer to see. And also the fact that the character was gay … he just was Robin Hood. He lived by his own code.

That included not being afraid to call out hypocrisy. As he basically says: “We’re both getting rich off the drug trade. I’ve got the shotgun and you’ve got the briefcase, but it’s all the same game.” Fans always tell me that scene is their favorite, and I think it’s because somebody finally unmasked Levy for a second."

“The Wire” Baltimore scenes looked like my home town Coatesville PA. 

I can walk down the street and find places that look like scenes from “The Wire.” 

When I drive or walk around Coatesville I see memories. Most are warm pleasant memories. A few are  horrifying memories of murders. 

There were "have you seen this boy" signs up in Coatesville. I asked a man standing beside one of the signs near Bookman's Barber Shop about the boy. He replied with a look of grief and horror. 

I saw Aaron Turner on Lincoln Highway. He was about 14 and looked angry. My son had that angry look when he was 14. 

Aaron's bones are in a landfill. 

Aaron Turner was chopped up and fed to dogs. Those dogs were chopped up, put into bags what went to a landfill. 

I sometimes need to drive by the house where Aaron & the dogs were killed and chopped up.

“The Wire” was real, not just for me.  

The kids in Coatesville watched it, they saw themselves in the characters. 

"Season 4, often called the show’s finest, followed four middle school friends on divergent paths, most of them heartbreaking. In one of the most wrenching scenes, Randy (Maestro Harrell) waits in the hospital after his foster mother has been badly burned in a firebombing resulting from Randy’s being branded a snitch. In mocking an earlier pledge by Carver (Seth Gilliam) — “We’re gonna look out for you on this” — Randy vocalizes how profoundly the children’s support systems have failed them."

Maybe the most heartbreaking scene:

READ THE REST AND WATCH THE OTHER 3 VIDEOS:

New York Times

‘The Wire’ in Five Scenes

Cast members look back at some of the HBO drama’s most pivotal moments 20 years after its premiere.

By Jeremy Egner and Austin Considine 

June 10, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET 

The DNC appears to be living in a nostalgic time when Senators and Congressmen were "colleagues." Legislation for the common good was not easy but possible. It’s 2022. The GOP is a violent extremist right mob.

The corporate Democratic Party is living in a Currier& Ives dreamworld. Come January 2023 Democrats could wake up in an autocratic country. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_R._Parsons,_%22Central-Park,_Winter-_The_Skating_Pond%22.jpg

The Republican Party does not resemble the Republican Party pre-2008.

The Republican Party is a violent "Proud Boy" extremist mob.

"The Proud Boys spent nearly half a decade engaged in often violent protests across the country over issues such as the removal of Confederate statues and the unsubstantiated spread of Shariah law. After the Capitol attack, however, as Proud Boys were being investigated by law enforcement and charged with federal crimes, they lowered their profile. The group dissolved its national leadership and encouraged chapters to get involved in local issues, with the goal of amassing support in advance of this year’s midterm elections.

“The plan of attack if you want to make change is to get involved at the local level,” Jeremy Bertino, a prominent member of the North Carolina Proud Boys, told The New York Times last year in the midst of the shift.

What they intend to do with their power is unclear. Still, following a trend pushed by far-right figures like Stephen K. Bannon, Proud Boys started showing up at school board meetings to protest coronavirus mask mandates and the teaching of antiracist curriculum.

In California’s Central Valley, members of the group have intimidated protesters who did not want a church to buy an L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly theater in Fresno. A Proud Boy declared his candidacy for the Oregon Legislature. A former Proud Boy in Kansas lost a race for a Topeka City Council seat.

The Proud Boys’ encroachments into the Miami-Dade Republican Party are, by far, the group’s largest political success."

MORE AT:

The New York Times

How the Proud Boys Gripped the Miami-Dade Republican Party

It was once Jeb Bush’s base of power. But an influx of far-right activists and the radicalization of other members brought turmoil.

By Patricia Mazzei and Alan Feuer

June 2, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET

 

***

"The violence witnessed at last week’s insurrection inside the United States Capitol is not a surprise to anyone who has been following the ReOpen Movement and the conspiracy theories Republicans have been spreading about the election. On the day before the failed coup attempt in DC, Pennsylvania Republicans held their event in Harrisburg.

Speakers at the rally included: incoming Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Senators Doug Mastriano and Cris Dush, and House Representatives Dawn Keefer, Frank Ryan, Mike Jones, Russ Diamond, and Stephanie Borowicz. Republican legislators, including Daryl Metcalfe, David Zimmerman, and Barb Gleim, were also in attendance.

These insurrection enablers have been at the forefront of spreading misinformation in Pennsylvania. They have spread conspiracy theories regarding the coronavirus, posed with fringe militia groups and hate groups, and have outright lied about the integrity of Pennsylvania’s election to undermine our democracy.

Senator Doug Mastriano has been the most outspoken. For months, the senator played a prominent role in organizing and speaking at different ReOpen rallies using various platforms to undermine Governor Wolf’s mitigation efforts, spreading falsehoods about the effectiveness of mask-wearing mandates and launching transphobic attacks against Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. The ReOpen Facebook groups were often a place where white nationalists, anti-vaxxers, and others co-mingled. The senator has also been spotted frequently with militia groups and white nationalists and repeatedly used rhetoric from QAnon.

In the days following the election, Senator Mastriano and other legislators such as Congressman Dan Meuser and Mike Regan spoke at some of the initial “Stop the Steal” events in Harrisburg organized by right-wing extremist Scott Presler and attended by militia groups and fascist organizations such as the Proud Boys and “America First.” A few weeks later, Senator Mastriano invited Rudy Giuliani and other Trump campaign officials to spread conspiracy theories at a Senate Majority Policy Committee meeting at the Gettysburg Wyndham Hotel where Senator Mastriano and others contracted the coronavirus."

MORE AT:

PENNSYLVANIA

SPOTLIGHT

WE ALL KNOW WHO DID THIS: DOUG MASTRIANO

***

A self-coup, also called autocoup (from the Spanish autogolpe), is a form of coup d'état in which a nation's leader, having come to power through legal means, dissolves or renders powerless the national legislature and unlawfully assumes extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances. Other measures taken may include annulling the nation's constitution, suspending civil courts, and having the head of government assume dictatorial powers.^[1][2]

Between 1946 and 2020, an estimated 148 self-coup attempts have taken place: 110 in autocracies and 38 in democracies.^[3]

"Navarro recently published a memoir, and is now pushing out interviews to reporters, bragging of a scheme he dreamed up with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to overturn the results of the 2020 election. They even had a cringey name for it: the Green Bay Sweep.

The plot sought to keep Trump in office by exerting maximum pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the Electoral College votes from pivotal swing states, by drawing out the proceedings on national television for as long as 24 hours. “It was a perfect plan,” Navarro told the Daily Beast. “We had over 100 congressmen committed to it.”

Navarro’s anti-democratic plot was intended to keep Trump in office without violence, he’s fast to insist. In fact, Navarro blames the bloody insurrection at the Capitol for what he calls the “inglorious” result of Congress certifying the (100 percent legitimate) election of Joe Biden, foiling the autogolpe that could have continued Trump’s reign of “populist economic nationalism…

So what was the Green Bay Sweep? The plot, Navarro writes, was named after a famous football play designed by storied 1960’s NFL coach Vince Lombardi, in which a Packers running back would pound into the end zone behind a “phalanx of blockers.”

For the 2021 Green Bay Sweep, Navarro writes, Bannon played the role of Lombardi. The plan was to have members of the House and Senate raise challenges to the counts of Electoral College votes from six pivotal battleground states.

“The political and legal beauty of the strategy,” Navarro writes, is that the challenges would force up to two hours of debate per state, in each chamber of Congress. “That would add up to as much as 24 hours of nationally televised hearings,” Navarro writes. The hearings would enable Republicans to “short-circuit the crushing censorship of the anti-Trump media,” Navarro hoped, and broadcast their Big Lie that Democrats had stolen the election “directly to the American people.”

The goal was not to get the election overturned on Jan. 6. Instead, they aimed to create such a spectacle that Pence would be forced to exercise his authority as president of the Senate to “put the certification of the election on ice for at least another several weeks” while Congress and the state legislatures pursued the “fraud” allegations. The dark particulars for how Trump would remain in office after that are not spelled out, and Navarro did not immediately answer an email seeking clarification. But he writes that the Green Bay Sweep was the “last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats’ jaws of deceit.”

The problem with the plot was that its success hinged on “Quarterback Mike” — and Pence wasn’t solidly on board. Navarro writes that he tried, with Trump’s backing, to brief Pence on his claims of election irregularities, but that Pence was kept off-limits by his chief of staff, Marc Short. (Navarro seethes that Short was part of the Koch brothers wing of the GOP, having previously worked for a nonprofit backed by the Kochs. When Short came to work for the vice president, Navarro writes, “it was like the Soviet Union taking over Eastern Europe. As an Iron Koch Curtain fell over the vice president, the only way you could speak to VPOTUS was to go through Short.”)

Regardless, Jan. 6 began auspiciously — to Navarro’s view of things. He told the Daily Beast that Trump was “on board with the strategy,” which he writes also had the backing of “more than 100” members of Congress. Navarro elaborated that the plan started off “perfectly” as Congress opened the proceedings to count Electoral College votes. Rep. Paul Gosar objected to results from his home state of Arizona, seconded by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — an action that received standing applause from GOP colleagues in the chamber."

MORE AT:

RollingStone

Trump Adviser Worried He’s Not Getting Enough Credit for Trying to Ruin American Democracy

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro details the “Green Bay Sweep” he organized with “over 100 congressmen” to keep Trump in office

Tim Dickinson December 28, 2021 2:42PM ET

Facts, the Constitution & rule of law do not matter in a Republican controlled Alice in Wonderland Supreme Court. The innocent stay convicted. Women are exclusively for popping out white babies. Guns for anybody, everywhere, even subways.

 “Thomas also recites the prosecution’s narrative — including gruesome details of the crime — as if it were fact, ignoring the numerous expert witnesses and two federal courts that have said the injury that caused the girl’s death couldn’t possibly have happened at the time and in the manner the state of Arizona claims.”

MORE AT:

Washington Post

Opinion In death row case, the Supreme Court says guilt is now beside the point

June 1, 2022, 3:04 PM EDT

Radley Balko

***

"Alito, in his draft opinion, invokes “eminent common-law authorities,” including Hale, to show how abortion was viewed historically not as a right, but as a criminal act. “Two treatises by Sir Matthew Hale likewise described abortion of a quick child who died in the womb as a ‘great crime’ and a ‘great misprision,’ Alito wrote."

Alito couldn’t find anything in the Constitution so he reached back to before there was a United States to:  

"Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who conceived the notion that husbands can’t be prosecuted for raping their wives, who sentenced women to death as “witches,” and whose misogyny stood out even in his time." 

MORE AT:

Draft Overturning Roe v. Wade Quotes Infamous Witch Trial Judge With Long-Discredited Ideas on Rape

Justice Alito’s leaked opinion cites Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who conceived the notion that husbands can’t be prosecuted for raping their wives, who sentenced women to death as “witches,” and whose misogyny stood out even in his time.

Ken Armstrong May 6, 1:50 p.m. EDT

***

THEY’RE JUST IN THE BULLPEN WARMING UP

The House & Senate can make any gun control law and not be bothered by opposition of gun & ammo companies. The Supreme Court will strike it down. 

I worked near the North Philly Amtrak Station & lived near the Philly Art Museum. When I worked the 3 to 11 shift I got on the subway to go home. If Philly allowed guns on the subway I never would have used the subway. 

Alito wants concealed carry guns in subways.

Alito is not just extremist right wing. He’s also an Alice in Wonderland gun-wing-nut:

“2. Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. Pp. 54–56.”

FROM:

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA et al. v. HELLER

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit

No. 07–290. Argued March 18, 2008—Decided June 26, 2008

If the case poised to overturn Roe v. Wade is the court’s expected summer blockbuster, its sleeper hit is expected to increase access to guns at perhaps the worst time: when active shooter incidents are up dramatically; school shootings have reached an all-time high; and recent polling shows “huge support” for a variety of gun restrictions. Specifically, before June’s end (and potentially the same week that it topples Roe), the court could invalidate a New York law restricting the concealed carrying of handguns on the ground that it violates the Second Amendment.

That law is nothing new; it’s literally been on New York’s books for more than a century (and well before any women won the right to vote). What’s changed is the court itself. In the 14 years since Justice Antonin Scalia’s self-described “legacy opinion,” District of Columbia v. Heller, held the Second Amendment protects individuals’ rights to own guns for self-defense, the court’s center collapsed; three devoted, young conservatives joined its ranks; and other, veteran conservatives have moved out from Scalia’s shadow to map their imagined America onto their purported originalism.

And that’s how this Court agreed to hear a challenge to New York’s 111-year-old law. The case was brought by two residents of Rensselaer County, where “153,000 people [are] spread over 955 square miles,” as their lawyer explained. Even Rensselaer County’s biggest city has under 50,000 residents and lies more than 150 miles from New York City. The residents, Robert Nash and Brandon Koch, are not exactly deprived of gun rights. The men do have licenses to carry concealed handguns outside their homes for hunting and target practice and self-defense in areas not “frequented by the general public;” one of their licenses also allows him to carry concealed for self-defense while traveling to and from work. Both, however, were denied unrestricted licenses to carry concealed because, neither of them established “proper cause,” or “a non-speculative need for armed self-defense in all public places.”  

Yet despite their distance from New York City, all Justice Alito could talk about at oral argument was urban danger—and “ordinary” Americans’ fear. For all his fixation with “history and tradition” in undoing Roe, Alito leapt back to the future of present-day New York in the name of gun rights. Unlike Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both Big Apple natives, Alito apparently has not lived or worked in New York. Rather, as we learned during his 2006 confirmation process, he was raised in Trenton, New Jersey, graduated from Princeton and then Yale Law School, and then began his public service career, first in the Department of Justice and then as a federal judge in his home state. Still, insisting that Manhattan’s “ordinary, hard-working, [and] law-abiding” workers are clamoring to carry concealed handguns, Alito asked New York’s lawyer:

So I want you to think about people like this, people who work late at night in Manhattan, it might be somebody who cleans offices, it might be a doorman at an apartment, it might be a nurse or an orderly, it might be somebody who washes dishes. None of these people has a criminal record. They’re all law-abiding citizens. They get off work around midnight, maybe even after midnight. They have to commute home by subway, maybe by bus. When they arrive at the subway station or the bus stop, they have to walk some distance through a high-crime area, and they apply for a license, and they say: Look, nobody has told -- has said I am going to mug you next Thursday. However, there have been a lot of muggings in this area, and I am scared to death. They do not get licenses, is that right?

. . . .

How is that consistent with the core right to self-defense, which is protected by the Second Amendment?

That lawyer sounded stunned. The answer to rising gun violence, she suggested, especially in public transit, isn’t removing limits on gun licenses. Indeed, “the idea of proliferating arms on the subway is precisely, I think, what terrifies a great many people ...[P]roliferating guns in a populated area where there is law enforcement jeopardizes law enforcement because when they come, they now can’t tell who’s shooting, and the ... shooting proliferates and accelerates.” 

MORE AT:

Why Supreme Court speculation about ‘ordinary’ folks endangers us all

Some justices’ assumptions about guns and pregnancy may shape the term’s biggest cases while revealing how little they know about who we are, what we need, and what we should have to endure.

June 1, 2022, 3:04 PM EDT

By Lisa Rubin

LOOKING FOWARD TO SENATOR JOHN FETTERMAN Keep in mind that Pennsylvania has "CLOSED PRIMARIES.” If Pennsylvania had Semi-Closed Primaries and independent voters were counted I believe Democrat John Fetterman would have an overwhelming lead.

People who don’t vote say. “My vote doesn’t matter.” I think the entire sentence is “My vote doesn’t matter because anyway you look at it I lose.” But if they could vote for John Fetterman their vote would matter a lot. 

John Fetterman is appealing to voters who are not liberal or conservative, who are not ideological and vote for both Democrats & Republicans. John is a true champion of the people.

 

If Pennsylvania had say, "Semi-Closed Primaries" John would tally the most votes. SEE BELOW.

 

"By day’s end Tuesday, Oz, the former heart surgeon-turned-daytime television star, was still leading former Wall Street hedge fund leader McCormick by 922 votes in unofficial returns. That lead equalled seven hundredths of a percentage points, with Oz at 31.21 percent, and McCormick at 31.14 percent.

“McCormick has been beating Oz in the mail-in count.” U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in an unrelated elections case out of Lehigh County, held that Pennsylvania’s date requirement - if all other aspects of a ballot are valid - is “immaterial” and should not be used to disqualify a vote from counting."

MORE AT:

 Pa. Senate recount update: McCormick seeks hand-count in scores of precincts

By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com

***

When the Republican Party owned Chester County PA not being registered Republican could get you fired from a county job. 

Democrats depended on not affiliated voters to win elections.

Business owners were told to register Republican so stuff would go well in court. Our courts are still Republican so I think that still holds. 

By the way:

LIFE MUST BE A LIVING HELL FOR A TRADITIONAL CHESTER COUNTY PA CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN.  

“NEW RIGHT” REPUBLICANS COULD BE PREPARING FOR THE GENERAL ELECTIONS BY STOCKPILING AR-15s & HOLLOW POINT BULLETS.

***

PENNSYLVANIA HAS CLOSED PRIMARIES

Democrats vote for Democrats

Republicans vote for Republicans

That's more the exception than the rule.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._states_(and_territories)_by_election_methods,_2016_(Democratic_Party).svg

“Open Primaries

In an open primary, voters of any affiliation may vote in the primary of any party. They cannot vote in more than one party's primary, although that prohibition can be difficult to enforce in the event a party has a primary runoff election. In many open primary states, voters do not indicate partisan affiliation when they register to vote.

One area of contention in open primaries is "crossover" voting. It most often involves voters affiliated with one political party voting in the primary of another political party to influence that party's nomination. For example, if a district routinely elects the Democratic nominee, Republican voters may vote in the Democratic party primary to attempt to influence the outcome. This could be a good-faith attempt to select a more conservative Democratic nominee who would be palatable to the Republican voters, or it could be sabotage, an attempt to nominate a weaker candidate who is easier to defeat in the general election.

Closed Primaries

In a closed primary, only voters registered with a given party can vote in that party's primary. States with closed primaries include party affiliation in voter registration so that the state has an official record of what party each voter is registered as.

Closed primaries preserve a party's freedom of association by better ensuring that only members of the party influence that party's nominees, but critics claim that closed primaries can exacerbate the radicalization that often occurs at the primary stage, when candidates must cater to their party's "base" rather than the political center.

In a few states, independent voters may register with a party on Election Day. However, they must remain registered with that party until they change their affiliation again. A handful of states even allow voters registered with one party to switch their registration at the polls to vote in another party's primary. In these rare instances, a closed primary can more closely resemble open or semi-closed primaries than the closed primaries of other states. 

Semi-Closed Primaries

In a semi-closed primary, unaffiliated voters may choose which party primary to vote in, while voters registered with a party may only vote in that party's primary. Representing a middle ground between the exclusion of independent voters in a closed primary and the free-for-all of open primaries, the semi-closed primary eliminates concerns about voters registered in other parties from "raiding" another party's nominating contest.

People who align with a given party may theoretically still vote in another party's primary if they are registered as independent. The potential for such tactical party registration is also present in the strictest of closed primaries.

FROM: 

FairVote

Open and Closed Primaries

Looks like PennDOT is finishing up Coatesville PA's Lincoln Hwy. & 1st Avenue intersection. When the intersection is finished the Gateway projects can be completed.

Construction June 1, 2022 view from MLK Blvd. & 1st Avenue Coatesville, PA:

https://images1.loopnet.com/d2/f9pgZLvZ4yY5Oktxckzvit-dVDLyP4n4cEcBgIa8nac/document.pdf

https://app.box.com/s/9xh95vip66jg0ewdti15v44husoatrxs

https://app.box.com/s/9xh95vip66jg0ewdti15v44husoatrxs

https://app.box.com/s/9xh95vip66jg0ewdti15v44husoatrxs

The children’s bodies were mangled & blown apart. DNA was needed to identify them. "Perhaps, there is an opportunity to increase regulations on ammunition…” "The use of expanding rounds on the battlefield is a war crime."

"Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, purchased 375 expanding rounds. In 2019, a 21-year-old gunman in El Paso, Texas, bought 1,000" expanding rounds for his Walmart rampage…"

"Right-leaning media is now again straining to find any solution to mass shootings — anything other than increasing regulations on guns. Perhaps, there is an opportunity to increase regulations on ammunition instead.

As the Center for American Progress previously suggested in 2019, after numerous mass shootings that year, the use of hollow points — as well as any other novel ammunition — could be controlled through background checks, seller licensing, age limits, and bulk-sale reporting.

It would be a tiny step toward addressing the mass killings, but it would be more than what was done after the previous 26 school shootings this year so far."

MORE AT:

We All Know Mass Killers Love the AR-15. Now Meet Their Favorite Bullet.

After Uvalde, there’s still no gun control on the horizon. We can start by regulating hyper-destructive expanding ammunition then.

Miroslav Macala

May 28 2022, 6:00 a.m.

"Research into gunshot wounds in the USA is hampered by lack of funding. Federal-funded research into firearm injury, epidemiology, violence, and prevention is minimal." 

"Pathophysiology

The degree of tissue disruption caused by a projectile is related to the cavitation theprojectile creates as it passes through tissue. A bullet with sufficient energy will have a cavitation effect in addition to the penetrating track injury. As the bullet passes through the tissue, initially crushing then lacerating, the space left forms a cavity; this is called the permanent cavity. Higher-velocity bullets create a pressure wave that forces the tissues away, creating not only a permanent cavity the size of the caliber of the bullet but a temporary cavity or secondary cavity, which is often many times larger than the bullet itself.^[19] The temporary cavity is the radial stretching of tissue around the bullet's wound track, which momentarily leaves an empty space caused by high pressures surrounding the projectile that accelerate material away from its path.^[18] The extent of cavitation, in turn, is related to the following characteristics of the projectile:

• Kinetic energy: KE = 1/2mv² (where m is mass and v is velocity). This helps to explain why wounds produced by projectiles of higher mass and/or higher velocity produce greater tissue disruption than projectiles of lower mass and velocity. The velocity of the bullet is a more important determinant of tissue injury. Although both mass and velocity contribute to the overall energy of the projectile, the energy is proportional to the mass while proportional to the square of its velocity. As a result, for constant velocity, if the mass is doubled, the energy is doubled; however, if the velocity of the bullet is doubled, the energy increases four times. The initial velocity of a bullet is largely dependent on the firearm. The US military commonly uses 5.56-mm bullets, which have a relatively low mass as compared with other bullets; however, the speed of these bullets is relatively fast. As a result, they produce a larger amount of kinetic energy, which is transmitted to the tissues of the target.^[19][20] The size of the temporary cavity is approximately proportional to the kinetic energy of the bullet and depends on the resistance of the tissue to stress.^[18] Muzzle energy, which is based on muzzle velocity, is often used for ease of comparison.
• Yaw: Handgun bullets will generally travel in a relatively straight line or make one turn if a bone is hit. Upon travel through deeper tissue, high-energy rounds may become unstable as they decelerate, and may tumble (pitch and yaw) as the energy of the projectile is absorbed, causing stretching and tearing of the surrounding tissue.^[19]
• Fragmentation: Most commonly, bullets do not fragment, and secondary damage from fragments of shattered bone is a more common complication than bullet fragments.^[19]"

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Gunshot wound

"As parents waited in anguish for news about their children following the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, they received a chilling request from police. Officers asked for DNA samples from parents to help establish the identities of the children who had been killed in the massacre, the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

The request pointed to the obvious, horrifying conclusion that many of the children who had been killed were so grievously injured that it was likely impossible to identify their bodies.

How we got here should be obvious: the AR-15 rifle."

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AR-15s Were Made to Explode Human Bodies. In Uvalde, the Bodies Belonged to Children.

Parents awaiting word on their kids were asked by police to provide DNA samples to help identify the children.

Murtaza Hussain

May 26 2022, 5:31 p.m.