Views from Point Breeze

There is a candidate in the U.S. Presidential race that spews a ton of rhetoric.  I really don't think that this person is well schooled in the art of diplomacy.  I also do not think that he has studied history in a definitive nature.  Recently, a question was asked about the ongoing crisis in Iraq.  This person has continuously referred to radical Islamic terrorism as though all Muslims are just ready to blow someone up.  Islam is the largest religion in the world.  At this point, the atrocities committed by ISIS as it is being pressured in Mosul are horrendous.  They are summarily executing people and using people as human shields.  They are losing territory at a rapid rate.  The candidate I am referring two did not state that ISIS is currently losing this battle.  The casualties are horrendous and it will not happen overnight.  He stated that Iran will really benefit in this battle and I knew I had to fact check another stateme...

We are less than two weeks away from the Presidential election in the United States.  November 8th will be a pivotal day in the annals of American history.  On one hand we could have the election of the first woman to the office. This could be historic based on the fact that only white male landowners could vote when our constitution was ratified.  The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920.  It will have been 96 years since women could vote that they could elevate one of their own.  We have seen the first African American President serve eight years.  President Obama also represents the growing number of biracial Americans in this country.  He has roots in Kenya also and, as many of us, has DNA that comes from a number of sources. The Make America Great Again movement is puzzling.  It is led by a very rich man who seems to be mad about everything.  The New York Times published all of his angry tweets rece...

We are less than a month away from the 2016 Presidential election.  The second debate between nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was held last night in Saint Louis.  It was a town hall style meeting with some questions posed by the audience and some coming from the moderators.  It was generally perceived by most observers that Hillary Clinton won the first debate.  I am a Democrat so I might be biased.  I concur with the overall assessment of the first debate.  Hillary was well prepared and stayed on topic.  I think she won last night also. One of the hot topics that is ripping apart the Republican party was the hot mic conversation that Donald Trump had with Billy Bush in 2005 on his was to a cameo appearance on a soap opera.  He waxed eloquently, or not so eloquently, about his aggressive tactics towards women that he was interested in.  He popped a few tic tacs in advance of meeting one of the soap stars.  He said that he us...

As a political observer I realize that any candidate for political office must espouse viewpoints that will help them to get elected.  When I ran for City Commissioner back in 2011, I advocated for a mobile voting machine and updated voting lists.  Even without the money and the backing of the Democratic Party, I was able to garner over 30,000 votes.  My team got on street corners and grinded.  According to his own proclamations, Donald Trump is super rich.  According to his running mate, Mike Pence, he has donated millions of dollars to charity.  The problem is, he won't submit his tax returns to validate anything that he says.  It is a fact that he has not personally contributed to the Donald Trump Foundation since 2008.  Other than that, his statements are pure conjecture. Recently, Donald Trump came to the realization that he was going to need African American voters to win the Presidency.  Initially, most of his proclamations about th...

I am absolutely stunned by the violence directed towards police in Philadelphia this year.  I empathize along with the rest of the country over the innocent people killed by police officers.  Eric Garner, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice and Philando Castile all suffered terrible fates at the hands of officers of the law.  The circumstances of the shootings led many neutral observers to wonder what kind of training these officers received before receiving a shield to protect and to serve.  The Black Lives Matter movement was spawned because of the rising rate of innocent civilians of color losing their lives in encounters with men and women in blue. On January 7th, 2016 a gunman shot police officer Jesse Hartnett while he was sitting in his police cruiser in West Philly.  He was severely wounded but was able to get out of his car and shoot the fleeing suspect.  The suspect was unemployed and supposedly committed the crime in the ...

Hurricane Hermine will not go down as one of the major hurricanes to have affected the United States in the last few years.  It did affect vacation plans for millions of Americans along the east coast though.  My Family and I had planned to spend some time on the beach in Atlantic City soaking up some rays and barbecuing.  We found a place on Maine and New Hampshire that is the closest thing to a private beach that you will find.  The weather has been spectacular in Philadelphia.  I enjoyed a block party on Manton Street yesterday and today was a perfect day to watch Power and a few episodes of Bond.  I watched Bridge of Spies and was impressed by Tom Hanks in his role as a hostage negotiator. Hurricane Hermine started out as a Tropical Storm.  It revved up some spectacular waves and caused at least three deaths.  Thankfully, once it got up to New Jersey and New York, it veered west instead of east.  Many merchants bemoaned the fact that G...

As many people know, Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of poverty of a major city in the country.  Many low income people struggle to just put food on the table.  I have been on the side of the aisle in which I am wondering where resources are coming from in order to feed my family.  It is why I often wonder at the power of some of our local labor unions.  One in particular is Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Unions.  The length and breadth of their financial largesse is astounding. I first became aware of the power of this union when I was working in the housing arena.  Davis Bacon regulations were intended to have prevailing wages be paid by developers/contractors on publicly funded projects.  Being union was not a requirement if a contractor could pay the wage.  Laborers would get paid approximately $19.00 an hour plus benefits.  On the high end of the scale, Plumbers would get paid approximately $39.00 pl...