My Take on the College Football playoff seedings

 Well. College Football fans, here is how I see it. But I start with a question: What two teams are undefeated this season, after playing a thrilling bowl game in January that wasn't decided until the final seconds? The answer is Georgia beating Cincinnati 24-21 in the 2021 Peach Bowl. My rankings are thus:

1. Georgia

2. Cincinnati

3. Michigan

4. Oklahoma State

5. Notre Dame

6. Alabama

First, I have watched Alabama play almost every week, and their offensive line isn't as good as the 5 teams ahead of them. They have benefited from their reputation, and their loss to Texas A&M, along with the multiple near losses and the should have lost to Auburn have me putting them at 6. They will lose to Georgia in the SEC Chanpionship game and hopefully finally be out.

Cincinnati gets Houston in their league Championship game, and I think that a win there, while not certain, locks them in, strength of schedule be damned, they did beat Notre Dame at South Bend. In my book, the two undefeated teams should be the top two seeds. Then comes Michigan, at 11-1, whose only loss is a 4 point nail biter to instate rival Michigan State. My fear here is that the tough Iowa team show up in the BIG conference champ game and upsets them. That opens the door for Notre dame and a truly UNDESERVING Alabama team, that might get in another way if.....

BAYLOR Knocks off OK STATE in their champ game. It is all still wide open, but this is the order of my top six, FOR NOW. Feel free to give your own opinions.

The Truck Stop Tango in Upper Macungie

       If you live anywhere in Upper Macungie, Pennsylvania, you endure constant, and yes, perilous Semi tractor trailer traffic everyday, and everywhere. Those of us who have resided here for a decade or two remember back in the 1990s before all the warehouses were built. Some of us even remember route 100 as a two lane road thru Trexlertown. For decades, residents begged their Township Supervisors to stand up to the Jaindl family and resists their never ending zoning demands. 

       That never happened. Instead, they produced a series of zoning proposals that were, in all cases, as ineffective in controlling the excess development as fly swatters against the swarms of flies that used to congregate on the many piles of cow crap that long ago ruled the area. You know, back when farm land was considered open space, unlike now, when they count the drainage ditch between your home and the road as defining that. 

      So we have trucks everywhere all the time, intermingled between the overpopulated mcmansion lands and the denizens access to the super highways that get them to their jobs the next state over. The trucks clogged the overcrowded roads, and park anywhere they can get away with. Traveling the roads in our township is a dangerous dance at almost any time a day. Building two what will be very busy Truck facilities on both sides of a heavily traveled highway is one dance Tango that will not be for the faint of heart. Pedestrians and bicyclist can barely get across the bypass now with a traffic light to help them. The kids at the elementary will eventually try. Trucks doing 65 or better roll thru that intersection regularly now. It IS a recipe for calamity.

        You would think the cure to this would be to build Truck stops and provide adequate parking. So when you have dueling proposals for just such things in close proximity to each other, you would think "Hey, this is a win-win!"

         The Rutters Chain wants to build one of their full service truck stops in the last remaining cornfield along the bypass, at the South West corner of the bypass and the intersections of Cetronia and Grange road. The Sheetz Chain wants to build at the North East corner of Cetronia and Trexlertown roads, on the site of where there used to be a grain processing facility, silos and all. That all was razed about a decade ago, after most of the farmland had been paved over for warehouses and mcmansions.

          If you think building these facilities will solve the problem, you are wrong. Because nature abhors a vacuum. Once you expand truck capacity, more trucks will come to fill it. Traffic is bad now, but I guarantee it will get worse. I wish it would stop, but it won't, and I hate to say it, but the fix is already in. All those large supply chain management companies that call the area home, as well as Nestle Waters, Bimbo Bread, and the Brewery folks, all of whom need the constant access to the large aquifers under the township for their production, they will not be cutting back their truck capacity. They all want to expand it. Fed Ex, Amazon, Home Depot, and Shop Rite all want more parking for Trucks with appointments at their facilities to stay off site. They all want to add MORE capacity. They also love pointing out how many more jobs they will have, creating even MORE traffic. 

       This is a done deal. Residents will get their bitch and moan day. The Supervisors will nod like the bobbleheads they are in agreement. Then they will vote to approve, and give perfectly good reasons to justify it. "it will cost too much to fight, and we can't afford it", or they will point to zoning laws and say they have to abide by them. There will always be some excuse.

         The truth is, this battle was lost 30 years ago when those supervisor boards got in bed with their developer buddies and set this course when this outcome hadn't been thought out. Even ten years in they claimed it wouldn't get this bad. Yet here we are. Sheetz and Rutters will both get built eventually. I bet they are both open and operating before the end of 2023.

        I wish it weren't so, but I am a realist. The battle was lost decades ago. The only choice now is how we will all learn to cope with it. 

53 Years after his Assassination, words from Martin Luther King's last speech still ring true

      (Taken from the CNN news site) "In King's famous final speech, he urged Americans to "stand with a greater determination" to make America what it ought to be. "We have an opportunity to make America a better nation," he said. King's words are still inspiring -- and a reminder that our nation's struggle against toxic White power is yet to be won."   

    A shot did ring out in Memphis on April 4th, but it did not silence that voice or the message, We can be a better nation. We may have to drag the Trumpublicans down the road to it, but it can be done.

      

Electronics recycling day In Upper Macungie!

      This upcoming Saturday, April 10th, is a day you can finally dispose of those old electronics, LEGALLY! If you live in Upper Macungie and have ID to prove it, bring your electronic junk to GRANGE RD PARK between the hours of 9 AM and 2 PM. The Township will gladly take it off your hands rather than have you try and sneak it thru the regular trash and have it end up in a landfill.

       I missed last years festivity, but this year I will be up early and in line when it opens, with a Dunkin coffee in my hand, and my truck bed full of old TVs and computers that have been taking up space in the basement for more than two decades, in a few cases.

Profiles in Republican Hypocrisy

 I find it difficult to fathom how members of what calls itself the Republican party intend to retain their self appointed role as the "Law and Order" party. When you practice fealty to a now out of office President who never saw a law he couldn't ignore, it calls into question what you truly believe in. How do you portray yourselves as beacons of Justice and light when in practice, you abetted a man intent on ignoring our most Democratic traditions and came damnably close to discarding them in your insatiable quest to retain political power? 

      To stay silent in the face of injustice is to give an implicit approval of it. Whether it be the trampling of basic human rights or openly working to overthrow the legitimate Democratic process to instill your own preferred leadership, Republicans in concert with Trumpism have drifted to embody a Fascist party wannabe. 

       You can disagree with the New President and his policies, but 8 million more citizens voted for him than for your con man. What had made you so indifferent to the plight of the common citizen? Are you so fat and happy in your current situation that you feel letting a Pandemic run loose and allowing the economy crash, leaving millions of your fellow citizens sick, hungry, and fearful of their future is a situation you find bearable? 

     We know the former President had no empathy, but do you have to emulate that trait as a group as well? At this most dire hour, Senator Mitch McConnell is still holding up the Democratic process, stalling Senate confirmations of the New President's cabinet. McConnell is demanding power that he himself would never have granted. The simple Question is this, Why can't Republicans put aside their own selfish concerns and work for the good of the country? 

      NOW they want unity. Marco Rubio of Florida is the current media face of that hypocrisy. The Same man who wanted Hillary Clinton crucified after 4 Americans were killed in the Benghazi disaster is saying Trump should be forgotten after 5 dead in the Capitol Insurrection. By that standard, the only thing that matters is what party you belong to.

    A Capitol Police officer is dead, beaten to death by the mob, so where are the Republicans on "Blue Lives Matter" now? When one of their own is the instigating culprit, their reluctance and silence is damning. There probably are not 67 votes in the Senate to bring Trump to a deserved sentence. 

      History has a way of rendering verdicts that are permanent and never ignored or overturned. Senators like Hawley and Cruz, plus the more than a hundred Congressional lemmings who preached the great lie will not write the history of this tragic area, but they will be the ones it is written about, and it will not be flattering, it will be damning. Their only good fortune is they will not have to live that long with it, as it will live in infamy long after they have all passed.