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political nasty season has completely bloomed in east whiteland….

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Yeah so I guess we know what the big “rally” was for in Burke Park last evening was for, right? To vomit their uniparty lawn signs right? Is this the work of good old Jerry and Bill or others? Not that the East Whiteland Republicans are showing any additional intelligence on this issue compared to the Great Valley Democrats who are out burning shoe leather more than kids playing ding dong ditch.

These people are even depositing signs on church lawns which of course could but a church’s non-profit status in jeopardy.

They are also putting them in right of ways blocking sight lines. But what do I expect? Not much.

Now, if you were not convinced that voting for two more supervisors was the right thing already, look no further than these screenshots below to know that you ARE doing the right thing. And why does she care that people care enough about their community to try and enact POSITIVE change?

As we have seen recently, both political parties in East Whiteland are seeming to be aligned against representative democracy, and then you have this woman saying that if you’re against a data center or you want two more supervisors, you’re just NIMBY? I mean for real? The Huddler is a wee bit obvious isn’t she?


At least one particular Supervisor from East Whiteland Township is a top contributors in her group, correct? So what’s that phrase in the Bible about Beware the false prophets?

Oh wait here it is:


Matthew 7:15: Jesus warns, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”

Anyway, she’s always going to do her and I’m always going to do me. If people don’t vote next week to choose yes on the ballot referendum for two more supervisors then guess what? This township gets the representation residents deserve. It is that simple.

And don’t believe both political parties when they tell you that people aren’t interested in being supervisors because they are.

The fact that both political parties are kicking up such a fuss tells you that it’s time to do this. It doesn’t get any more simplistic than that.

And if some woman who’s not that much further away from where the data center will be wants to say that people who don’t want the data center are NIMBY and people who want five supervisors are NIMBY should simply make you wonder what does she get out of it for saying so? I mean besides atta girls for sucking up to the township? Is she bucking for public information officer?

This woman certainly does not get the admiration of her neighbors does she? Someone should drive one of those trucks that play data center sounds up and down her street. She would change her tune quickly in my humble opinion.

Now in case the screen shots show fuzzy wherever you read this blog here is the verbiage verbatim:

OCTOBER 23, 2026:

A different point of view on the people behind the data center activism and why our township now needs to spend money to combat the barrage of attacks and misleading information.

Our current BOS mostly ran uncontested and were elected. They are not politicians. They are our neighbors.
Our neighbors!
Who raised their hand to help.
Did you? Did your raise your hand to help?
Think about that before you sh*t post about the very few people who actually cared enough to do this ”.job” on top of their real job and in addition to all of the other responsibilities in their life. They chose to represent and help our township for no other reason than service to our community.
Can you say the same? Have you helped our township? How? Have you run for a BOS position?
The data says no. Yet, when a NIMBY issue comes up, people suddenly care.

Now the August post:

AUGUST 3rd, 2026:

The discussion around increasing the BOS from 3 to 5 people has come up from time to time in the past. To date, most of the elected positions have run unopposed. The township could barely get 3 people to run out of almost 15,000 residents.

The recent scramble to try to increase to 5 people, simply because of the data center issue, gives me pause. It’s a NIMBY excuse to get involved. Would the people suddenly interested in running care about everything else in the township? I’m skeptical.
The interest now is too little too late in my opinion. The contaminated sites in our township are not new issues. Neither are the discussions about what to build on them or next to them. And if everyone cares about open space they should have gotten involved a decade or more ago.
There are brand new townhomes in Anfield next to an old landfill selling for nearly $1 M. Atwater was built next to a dangerous quarry lake. The new development on Flat Rd was placed on risky sinkhole land next to an active quarry. Many homes are across from ugly commercial properties in
EW. And the prices don’t go down. The development in the county was purposefully planned to be in EW to save open space in other townships.
It would be nice to have five BOS seats filled with people who truly care about the entire township.
But knowing the constant harassment that comes with occupying elected roles here, who in their right mind would run? And why? Ask why!
Thank you to the three brave people on the BOS, out of 15,000, who raised their hand to help. You cared before you had to and I appreciate your service. If you get two more to join you, I hope they are joining for the right reasons.

Shall we also say with SHE (The Huddler) gives a lot of us pause? The way she is so trivial about contaminated land in East Whiteland Township and someone told me she is a breast cancer survivor? As a breast cancer survivor personally, I can’t quite fathom that.

The interest now is too little too late in my opinion. The contaminated sites in our township are not new issues. ~ The Huddler August 2026

She calls people who don’t want a data center NIMBY? She calls people who wish to expand the board of supervisors NIMBY?

She does a lot of talking, mostly out of her backside. (And what does she not get that supervisors ARE politicians?)

She talks about uncontested supervisor races. Actually not all were, but the last time the East Whiteland Republicans ran a winning candidate was Rich Orlow. Rich was then beaten by quite a lot by Scott Lambert (838 to 560) who did the work and went door knocking. I do not even remember him being extra supported by Great Valley Democrats back then but to his credit, he did the work.

Interesting political history is when Bill Holmes initially ran, he ran against Rich Orlow. He only won 911 to 903. (When he ran in 2013 Holmes only defeated Maureen Martinez by ten votes – 892 to her 882. She would have made a terrific supervisor by the way.)

So anyway, Bill Holmes stepped off of the board of East Whiteland Township Supervisors around the same time Brian McGinnis did (now we won’t get into his other issues and feud with Bill Holmes’ pal Michele Vaughn) – they both worked for Vanguard back then. But then Rich Orlow, formerly a Republican, switched political parties from Republican to Democrat to complete Bill Holmes’ term and then stayed in office until 2025 I guess it was when he retired…as a Democrat and Clinton Smith became the third supervisor.

Sorry don’t mean to meander, but context is important when looking at the big picture of nasty East Whiteland politics this year, right? Also interesting to note that Bill Holmes never did prevail by sweeping margins did he? Again…The Huddler talks about people running unopposed and that has not quite been true, just in a lot of cases the East Whiteland Republicans literally ran any body they could prop up like whatever the guy’s name was who ran against Clinton Smith last year. Oh wait, I looked it up – George Sabo who lost to Clinton Smith – Smith votes were 2991 and Sabo votes were 1232. Sabo was a nothing burger so he tanked and truthfully the Republicans didn’t go out of their way for him did they?

So The Huddler wants to paint the boogie man picture of it’s so bad to add two more seats? On what planet? To quote the little website (https://www.eastwhitelandseats.com/) the resident spearheading this initiative put up:

Increasing from a 3-member to a 5-member board of supervisors provides broader geographic representation, prevents power concentrations, changes how majority votes work, and distributes workload.

Then there is the reality: East Whiteland has just shy of 15,000 residents. Easttown has a little over 11,000 residents and 5 supervisors. East Brandywine has a little over 10,000 residents and 5 supervisors. Schuylkill has just shy of 9,000 residents and 5 supervisors. Charlestown (another municipal neighbor) has just over 6,000 residents and 5 supervisors. And this has not been a recent occurrence.

So can we be honest and say that residents waking up to the data center was a motivator to add two more supervisors which is allowed under the 2nd class township code? I mean D’OH of course it was but it is not the only reason or motivator. Elected officials shape how a municipality moves forward, correct? East Whiteland residents have felt let down over more than just a data center. Look at other things like Bishop Tube for example and other developments and even billboards where they felt helpless and powerless, right?

This vote has not and never will be about either major political party. It is about residents NOT feeling heard and wanting more representation given how East Whiteland has grown over the years. I even heard that former supervisor Rich Orlow signed the petition to get this referendum on the ballot? This ballot is about how we are governed in the future. That is not up to the political parties, it is up to us.

But the political parties in East Whiteland, the uniparty uniquely similar to Pat the former Saturday Night Live character, is objecting to this. So here we live in a purported democracy with our two pillar political parties literally objecting to representative democracy?

They want to tell you it’s money and being able to find qualified candidates. Well if they were truly concerned about money would they be popping up with lawn signs against the referendum? The answer is no.

Can it be hard to find candidates? Sure but in my opinion in East Whiteland that mostly has to do with the parties themselves. East Whiteland Republicans seem to still love their MAGA events with their not so cute hats and cheap purses, but they have not really put a lot of effort into candidates for YEARS have they? Great Valley Democrats run their party like a little social club meets the middle school lunch table and either you are in or you are out and heaven forbid you don’t do what you are told every minute of the day, correct? In order to break their cycles of bad, there needs to be change pure and simple.

The chair of the East Whiteland Republicans at present has told people they are against 2 more supervisors because they are going to take the board back over in it’s entirety and what planet does she live on? All of the supervisors are not even on the same cycle.

But hey they love their memes:

So yeah that’s who the Great Valley Democrats are in bed with in East Whiteland to defeat this referendum which makes me 1000% question them.

Interestingly enough, both the East Whiteland Republicans and Great Valley Democrats are both working hard on their socials to NOT show they both have sample ballots and signs that are AGAINST the referendum.

The Great Valley Democrats view the referendum as a threat to their power structure and control don’t they? After all look at one of the loudest voices that unctuous old turd former vice chair of the Chester County Democrats Jerry Pyne who was also assistant zone leader, zone leader in the Great Valley Democrat of it all? (He can still be found on the Chesco Dems website as Vice Chair although he is not https://chescodems.org/teams/jerry-pyne/)

Pyne is also the Vacancy Board Chair at present in East Whiteland. The Vacancy Board Chair acts as an independent or neutral tie-breaker if the Board of Supervisors fails to fill a vacant seat on the board within the statutory timeframe mandated by Pennsylvania second-class township code. Yeah that potential power trip gets VASTLY diminished if there are 5 supervisors, doesn’t it? And whom do I think he would appoint if something were to happen on the 3 member board? In my opinion, former supervisor Bill Holmes, the other ardent data center admirer and hate of representative democracy…and I can have that opinion and it’s not so far fetched considering, is it?

The Huddler loves to stir the pot. Full disclosure? She will insert herself when it suits her to raise her own profile and I can also have that opinion because it is not the first time is it? I mean seriously, what will she get out of being cheerleader for these issues? Certainly not community respect right? I mean what did she actually do on parks and rec?

I will note that I used to help out the Great Valley School District Education Foundation for a while as a volunteer on some of their things they were putting out, but I just did it quietly and without fanfare as a favor to someone involved there at the time. I help out with lots of things here and there quietly, that is paying it forward and being a true part of a community and extended community. The Huddler doesn’t get that IMHO, does she?

Criticizing residents for wanting better for their communities and calling them NIMBY is as old as politics in general. It’s neither new nor original. It’s not NIMBY to care, but it is being a righteous bitch for saying that about the people where you live. And she thinks all of the development is ok?

There are people interested in running for supervisor. And I believe if people are smart and vote YES on the referendum in East Whiteland more will follow.

As https://www.eastwhitelandseats.com/ website says, board size alone does not guarantee better decisions. Preparation, transparency, responsiveness, and resident participation matter with three supervisors or five. But the reality is we can’t continue as we have been so why not try something different that works well in municipalities both larger and smaller than East Whiteland?

Today is the last Friday before election day. If you care in East Whiteland you will tune out the narcissistic and opportunistic mosquitoes and vote YES on the ballot referendum to add two more supervisors. Just my opinion of course, but it is what I did proudly when I cast my vote (which is already in and counted.)

In order to make an omlette, sometimes you have to break some eggs. This is no different. Change is not always easy but it is derived from common sense isn’t it? Be peaceful and vote YES on Tuesday.

it’s not the taylor swift effect, it’s just molly mark up greed.

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So the Taylor Swift Eras book is out. It’s being sold exclusively at Target and do we remember when Lily Pulitzer first hit the racks at Target?

OK, if you’re forgotten, I’ll refresh your memory: hordes of people buying as much as they can and reselling it on eBay and elsewhere for the Molly Mark Up ridiculous prices.

It’s the Target Effect . And this is the latest piggy thing that people are going to do with Target purchases this year. 

The book is $39.99 at Target.

Behold a listing I saw on Facebook today:

As May West once said “Welcome Suckers!”

And somebody bought it.

I’m just shaking my head because you can actually get it at Target online right? Do you even get free shipping if it’s over like $35 for a purchase.

Here are some Facebook marketplace listings:

Facebook will ding you for having a post that shares a traditional media publications article about naked bicycle riders that was posted in 2018, but they allow people to price gouge things available at Target for a fraction of the price.

Then there’s eBay:

Taylor is this what you intended? You don’t even get any profit on the Molly Mark Up for holiday 2024. Neither does Target.

And meanwhile, all of these vultures are literally flocking into all the stores and buying all the books up for at a time because that’s all you’re allowed to buy and some little girl somewhere who wants this for Christmas. Might not get it because her mother might not be able to afford the Molly Mark Up.

People this is big BS bag of wrong.

9/11 turns 22

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Please use this day to remember all of those Americans who died on 9/11. Multiple races, ethnicities, walks of life, and more. Remember all of those people who died on this day to help protect our freedoms.

Honor America by actually remembering who we are, not what some try to dictate whom they say we should be.

On September 11, 2020 it was the 19th unbelievable anniversary of 9/11. One of the things that 9/11 taught us, as journalist Harry Smith on NBC’s Today Show had pointed out then on the morning news is in this great country if we look, there is more that unites us versus divides us, and we learned that from 9/11. He also remarked that it’s hard for us to see it now and it is. We are a country divided.

We can’t remain a country divided, and this somber anniversary is the best example why.

Yet we are a country still divided, even more divided I feel. Full of zealots wound up in their own hatred determined to pummel us with what they feel are their superior views. I was reminded of that this weekend when a woman I wrote about decided to get quite literally in my face so I knew who she was or saw her.

We were at a ceremony marking the history of a cemetery and a church ruin. Was that her appropriate moment? No of course not, but what she didn’t get is that I already saw her before seeing her inches from my face and it cemented my sense of what she did being wrong all over again. I told her that I don’t speak to people like her and walked away.

But these people like this woman? They don’t understand that they get their very rights to try to remove the rights of others in this country because of our forefathers, and again because of the people who lose their lives for being Americans. Like 9/11.

On 9/11 Americans were targeted for violence and death for being American. And any other person who was from any other part of the world who died that day in NYC, Washington DC, or Shanksville, PA died for being in the US then for whatever reason.

Yes, there is always more that unites us versus divides us, and we learned that from 9/11 and that is often nearly impossible for us to see in today’s world . We are still a country divided. We can’t remain a country divided and the anniversary of 9/11 is the best example why.

Today also marks day 12 that an escaped murderer is on the loose in Chester County County. Here’s hoping Danelo Cavalcante is apprehended today. Here’s a video from a guy from this morning about this:

I think they totally don’t know where this guy is at this point and that bothers me because today is 9/11 and there are ceremonies everywhere even in Chester County.

Back to 9/11.

The news is once again full of stories of families who lost people on 9/11. Children who grew up without parents because they died on 9/11. This is unimaginable loss, and all of these people have gone forward with their lives which has to be so hard at some moments. Graduations, weddings, first days of school, first steps of children and grandchildren and more.

Again on 9/11, I am also going to pause and remember two men I went to college with. I’m not going to be some kind of weird death hypocrite and say I really knew them or they were my close personal friends because they weren’t. They were both people I met a couple of times, but people I never really knew who were close to people important to me to this very day. They lost their lives on 9/11.

9/11 Memorial in New Jersey – my photo.

Doug Cherry worked for AON. I remember when I found out that he had died in the trade center because I worked for then Wachovia Securities, and AON had a large office literally across the hall. Someone I knew from that office had oddly remembered I went to Ohio Weslyan. So they told me when they learned the names of those who had died in their company. But that wasn’t on 9/11 that was in the days that followed. I remember afterwards the days that followed when you started to see the roll call of names of people lost.

I remember when I heard about Doug I kind of felt old and felt my own mortality for the first time. He was my class, and although he wasn’t a close friend or somebody I even really knew back then, we went to a small school, so you remembered the faces even if you didn’t remember the people.

That was the case with Ted Luckett. He was the class ahead, and again somebody I didn’t know but remembered. But I remembered back then is he liked to sail — there were a lot of guys who went to Ohio Weslyan who were amazing sailors. Even on America’s Cup crews.

I remember when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. It was at this moment I was pulling into my garage back then where I worked for then Wachovia Securities in Conshohocken. I was listening to the radio. I remember the tears just starting to roll down my face because I knew, I knew they (terrorists) came back because I had walked out of the World Trade Center shopping concourse in 1993 when they blew up the garage.

And when I say I remember exactly when it was as the bomb detonated in that garage in 1993. I was standing on the sidewalk outside looking at Century 21. If life has been different I might still have been working in New York City on September 11, 2001.

I also remember as I walked into my office that fateful day in 2001, and all the brokers were riveted to television screens in their offices and their computers, at that point in time most people didn’t believe those were terrorist attacks. They just thought like a small plane had gone into the trade center. It was a crazy surreal morning as the news started to unfold. It’s crazy how clearly I can still remember it. I think this is like it was for our parents the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. You remember where you were and what you were doing.

I also remember calling my late father, who was on his cell phone on an Amtrak train to New York for some kind of an appointment, and when he answered the phone I remember saying “Where are you? Where are you?” And he told me they had just stopped at Metro Park, New Jersey, and I told him get off the train. Take another train back. And he told me oh no the AMTRAK conductors said it’s fine, it’s nothing and he would be back that evening. With the aftermath of 9/11 in NYC, he couldn’t get out of that city for days.

So it’s been 22 years, what have we learned? I ask that ever year.

Another of the other things I remember on this day now twenty years ago, two sisters I grew up with who were close childhood family friends and still are. One, at the time, worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The other I think worked for Marsh and McLennan at the time (can’t remember for sure), but she did work somewhere in the World Trade Center. I remember being in a panic for days until I found out they were OK. One or both were out of state visiting their parents. And one sister had actually just left her job to go back to school or she definitely would have been there.

One of the sisters, if not both, were posted on missing persons lists that kept coming out back then at a rapid-fire pace. You have no idea how surreal it was to see familiar names on these lists. Especially because at this point the missing persons lists were also presumed dead lists.

On the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, I am also going to once again pause for a moment to remember the OTHER terrorist attempt on the World Trade Center. February 26, 1993.

In 1993, I worked in New York at that time at an office located downtown in the financial district. 44 Wall Street. Gabriele, Hueglin & Cashman.

On that day, I had accompanied my office friend Deirdre to the World Trade Center to grab an early lunch and to check out some stores in the shopping concourse above the garage. We were back outside of the World Trade Center buildings, getting ready to cross the street, when suddenly the ground shook and moved. I remember that we were looking directly across the street at Century 21, a department store in Lower Manhattan.

Then something happened that rarely happens in New York: Everything went eerily still and quiet. We looked up at what we first thought were snowflakes beginning to float and fall from the sky. After all, it was February.

Then car alarms began to go off one by one like the cacophony of many distorted bells. The snowflakes, we soon discovered, were in reality ashes.

People began yelling and screaming. It became very confusing and chaotic all at once, like someone flipped a switch to “on.” At first, we both felt rooted to the sidewalk, unable to move. I remember feeling a sense of panic at the unknown. 

We had absolutely no idea what had happened, and hurried back to our office. Reaching it, we were greeted by worried coworkers who told us that someone had set off a bomb underground in the World Trade Center garage. That much had come over the Bloomberg machine.

I will never forget the crazy kaleidoscope of images, throughout that afternoon, of all the people who were related to or knew people in my office who sought refuge in our office after walking down the innumerable flights of steps in the dark to exit the World Trade Center Towers. They arrived with soot all over their faces, hands and clothes. They all wore zombie looks of shock, disbelief and panic.

Of course, the oddest thing about the first terrorist attack on New York City is that I don’t remember much lasting fuss about it. I do remember that President Bill Clinton was newly sworn into office, but I don’t remember him coming to visit New York after the attack. (I found out later he did not visit New York after this attack.)

Everything was back to normal in Lower Manhattan in about a month, maybe two. After a while, unless you had worked in New York, or lived in New York, you simply forgot about this 1993 “incident.”

Except if you were there, like I was, you always remember that day as well. And I am sure I am not the only one who was in New York City downtown in February 1993 who felt as I did on September 11, 2001: that immediate “they came back” feeling.

Within the past few years I found my work friend Deirdre again, and we are reconnected. She still in the New York metropolitan area and has a beautiful family.

Life must go on and time can’t stand still, but all in all I can’t help but wonder: What have we learned since about our country and about ourselves? TWENTY TWO years after 9/11 what have we learned and what have we forgotten? What do we need to remember?

We never forget this day and never should. But what have we learned? I think we need to pay it forward as a country in memory of all of those first responders and others who lost their lives. We need to be better versions of ourselves. We need to come together as a country. 

We need peace, and less racial divide and polarizing, divisive politics. Is that possible? I don’t know. But we can try.

I don’t really have that much else to say about 9/11 today, other than this isn’t Taylor Swift’s 22.

I will close with it is so almost inconceivable to me that 22 years have gone by in a blink since 9/11 happened. Here’s wishing for a better world… and remembering those who lost their lives and gave their lives on this day as well as those who were in our lives then, but are not now.

#NeverForget

9/11 Memorial in NJ