It's been an absoulte stunning and shocking experience for me to travel through the underground corridors of politics in Lackawanna County. If I were to write a book about it I wouldn't be quite sure where to start.  The intrigue is an addiction magnet, but what's prominently intriguing is the blatant nature of the audacity these public officials have adopted as status quo. Everything in this county/city is controlled by something political. Everything.

The legal system

There was a time, like before I got my feet wet in the legal system, that I was of the naive belief that a judge's duty was to ensure that the truth prevailed. Now, I know that the truth has nothing to do with their duty. Now, I know that the judge's duty is to do what the political machine wants it to do. Well, at least at this level. In Cordaro, I encountered dirty judges here, dirty judges in Commonwealth Court, but clean judges in the Supreme Court. As in many of the cases I've filed, there were hundreds of lawyers who already knew what I found out, yet not one of them stepped forward to right a wrong. Lawyers I've argued against, like Carl Greco, Tim Hinton, Tom Helbig, Jim Tierney, Gene Hickey, Joe O'Brien, George Reihner, Joe Toczydlowski, Brian Yeager, Chris Cullen and Dave Rinaldi have absolutely no problem blatantly lying in pleadings and repeating them in court agruments.Noshame whatsoever. No dignity whatsoever.  Not only does nothing happen to them for lying, the judges rule in their favor based on their lies. And what happens to dirty judges? Nothing. They have absolute immunity. It's heartwrenching to know that no matter how you plead the truthful facts, a local judge is going to rule as he's told. They are the guardians angels of all things corrupt around here.

The people.

My first definition of "cancer" in this area was that it was the politicians. After two years, I switched to the media for the way it protects it's chosen ones. But, five years into this experience, there's no question that the true "cancer" is the people who live here.  It's this 'cancer" that changes a public servant into a self-servant. Why? Because even a good public servant in office long enough experiences that he/she is fighting for people who don't care. Fighting for people who won't fight for themselves/get their hands dirty.  The fact of the matter is this; the corrupt element of our society shows more appreciation and loyalty to a dirty public official than the public shows to a clean one.  It's a thankless job fighting for the people in this area. I know. I've been doing it for five years now. The people in this area are more than happy to let someone else do the dirty work. Worse than that, they won't even vote. I like the battle of taking down the corrupt public officials, exposing them and humiliating them. Any benefit to the people is a natural collateral consequence of my own personal agenda. The people here deserve Chris Doherty, Ken McDowell, Mike Washo and their like.  There's no question about that, but that's not a good enough reason to allow them to go unpunished.

Masked public officials

We have them everywhere, from City Hall to the Courthouse to the SSD, posing as concerned public officials. Flying under the radar, so to speak. County row officers come in at 10 and leave at three. We have a DA who is dirty to the core,yet he was unchallenged last election. Rose Novembrino, our city controller. She controls nothing. She's sat behind that desk for 20 years and did not one audit. She's paid out millions with no clue what she paid for. She's single-handedly ruined this city. TheSSD is just a whorehouse, a job clearinghouse for anyone connected to any of the board directors. The SHA, SRA, SPA, SSA and Rec. Authority have unfetterd power to spend us into oblivion, and answer to no one. And what will the people do about it? Not a thing, but keep on paying out the ass. 

Fat Farm

It sucks to live here, it really does. Insulting to walk among the people. The ethical standards of the people who live here are practically non-existent. Not all of them, but most of them. Sufficient in number for the media to be motivated to baffle them with any kind of bullshyt it pleases. And, they're stupid. They believe what the media tells them. Like the rest of the country, NEPA is a big Fat Farm. Fat on entertainment and conveniences. Electronically paralyzed with a cell phone and a remote, fascinated by texting, playing video games and watching men playing with a ball, any ball, while government feasts on their wallets and oppresses them. But, no problem propogating, raising children who will grow up to be equally as fat, or fatter, unable to even process the corruption around them, let alone take a stand against it.

"Bruce, when the forest becomes so overgrown with brush, the time comes when it must be set on fire for the forest to survive" - Batman   

Fear of retaliation

Rich or poor, the people here are afraid of their own shadows. So many jobs here are so connected to something political somewhere that the fear of retaliation in the form of losing that job silences them. And if it not the fear of losing a job, it's the fear of somehow "being in the paper".  And if it's not either of them, it's the fear of the dreaded "black helicopter" or "big brother". 

Thus, the vital importance of this site, somewhere to go anonymously to participate in exposing things corrupt.  DD has imposed itself on both the corrupt public officials and the "cancer", the people. We've flexed our free speech muscle in collective strength and it has proven sufficient to rid us of many dirty public officials, overcoming apathy in the process.  It's not quite as effective as burning Scranton to the ground, but we've publicly burned enough public officials to put the fear of DD into them.

It works, as we have experienced. We've appropriately taken our place in history, so let's keep writing it. I'll keep this canvass available, you keep on painting. The formula for success, however, is to get more and more voters out in elections. That's what "they" are doing at the moment, by the way, recuiting more voters.