By: Adam Reuter

Attention foodies and gut-health conscious folks! A new home-scale business is tearing up the Sparrows Point food scene inside Baltimore County. Mandy Leeuwen launched Bear Creek Breads in January 2026. She built her brand by handing out free sourdough loaves to neighbors. Her grassroots strategy sparked immediate community demand. Listen to our interview with Mandy at the top of this article or keep reading.

The backyard business exploded after a single post on a local Baltimore County community Facebook group. Mandy expected five neighbors to respond to her post-blizzard update. Instead, the community dropped over 200 comments within two hours. Orders flooded her kitchen immediately. She logged 18 massive pre-orders last weekend alone beside her routine cash-and-carry stock. This hyper-local hustle requires serious stamina because Mandy still logs hours at a full-time day job.

Mandy’s husband serves as the foundational bedrock for the lean infrastructure. He handles the raw construction of physical assets like the backyard distribution shed, located near the Seahorse Inn and Blue Fins Bait & Tackle shop. Mandy drives the final branding and design. The strategic setup keeps her residential home secure while allowing direct neighborhood access. Bear Creek Breads is a fully insured and legal run operation.

Real sourdough offers a clean gut-health alternative to chemical-heavy commercial bread. Mandy relies on a natural fermentation process to build good bacteria in her dough using clean ingredients like organic King Arthur flour and local cage-free eggs. Store-bought bread is often a counterfeit product — factories pump fake sourdough full of vinegar and chemicals to trick consumers into buying mass-produced deception. The author initially feared poisoning from the sample loaf, but it gave an erratic stomach absolute zero digestive issues.

Mandy recently hit two massive milestones by surpassing 1,000 social media followers and acquiring an industrial-grade double oven. Yet her flat refusal to move to bulk-dough batching creates a beautiful operational tension. Her insistence on strict hand-mixed quality control mirrors the meticulous work of single-tape media transfers versus automated multi-machine processing. It’s a classic craft-versus-scale dilemma that keeps her connected to every single loaf.

The contrast between Mandy’s low-tech operations and her sudden TikTok traction provides pure gold for local readers. She rejects expensive automation software, choosing basic manual copy-and-paste text chains to manage her customer workflow. Her Dollar Tree hack went viral with 1,800 views after she swapped professional proofing baskets for cheap dollar-store alternatives. She uses burger-sized square parchment paper and disposable liners to achieve a high-yield, cost-effective operation.

Mandy runs her entire weekend pickup system on a strict honor system inside the unlocked shed on Waterview Road. Customers walk into the structure, find their labeled bags and send digital payments. She processes transactions through Zelle, Venmo and Cash App. A hand-painted sign inside warns thieves to stay away but promises free food to neighbors facing real financial hardship. She reports zero thefts since opening her doors five months ago.

The menu rotates every Friday to keep local buyers spending cash. Palm-sized sourdough cookies sell fast at six for $10. Sourdough bagels and honey-oat loaves dominate her weekly baking sheets. The summer rush brings massive demand for specialty burger buns and hoagie rolls optimized for the local boating community. This high-yield strategy allows independent backyard bakers to earn money while evading heavy retail leases.

Mandy channels a fixed portion of her weekly kitchen surplus directly into Baltimore County community outreach. She delivers five fresh loaves of sourdough to a local Methodist church soup kitchen on the third Wednesday of every month. Regular snack donations support the monthly welcome breakfast at Epic Church. She recently supplied a massive inventory of baked goods to a Battle Grove Elementary bake sale to fund a fifth-grade graduation ceremony.

You can find Bear Creek Breads on Facebook. Text or call 443-941-5886 or email bearcreekbreadbarn@gmail.com for orders or other information. Located on Waterview Road by Blue Fins Bait and Tackle Shop.

On June 8, 2026, Ocean City zoning administrator George Bendler hand-delivered daily $1,000 citations to St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church. The offense? Operating an indoor shelter to keep vulnerable human beings from facing arrest under the town’s aggressive anti-homeless ordinances. This administrative overreach ignores basic human decency and walks the municipality straight into a federal buzzsaw. By targeting a religious shelter ministry, local bureaucrats are violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act–a reality they will soon face in federal court.

This dirty bureaucratic playbook is not new. A decade ago, code inspectors tried the exact same stunt against Patapsco United Methodist Church at the corner of Wise Avenue and Church Road in Baltimore County. The government slapped that congregation with a massive $12,000 zoning fine for simply letting unhoused people sleep on outdoor benches and camp on the grounds. But once the local community fought back and the media exposed the cruelty, the politicians folded and dropped the fines right before Christmas. George Bendler is running the same failed script, and he is going to get the same public humiliation.

If Ocean City tries to defend themselves in federal court, they will be flushing taxpayer funds down the Bendler which is fiscal malpractice. My advice to the zoning admin? Stop being a Grinch and let it be.

The following is an open letter sent directly to George Bendler.

Dear Mr. Bendler,

As a concerned citizen and editor of The Baltimore Informer, I am issuing you a symbolic personal fine of $1,000 per day. This mirrors the exact citations you hand-delivered to St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church over the last forty-eight hours.

“Ocean City” does not issue fines–bureaucrats like you do. Prioritizing zoning codes over keeping vulnerable people off the streets is pure cowardice. The church opened this indoor shelter because your local ordinances threaten unhoused people with jail time for simply trying to survive. Enforcing shutdowns against a ministry serving hundreds exposes a total absence of basic humanity.

Your office needs to halt enforcement, support actual shelter alternatives and stop wasting public resources on a losing battle against federal protections. Ever heard of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act? You will learn all about it soon. This fine is non-binding satire, but the public blowback heading your way is entirely real. You are lucky I lack the legal authority to freeze your enforcement budget permanently.

I urge you and the council to reconsider enforcement, support alternatives or work with the church instead of against it. Obey federal law as mandated by the Maryland Constitution.

Sincerely,

Adam Reuter
Editor-in-Chief
The Baltimore Informer

This brazen broad-daylight execution directly echoes the tragic road-rage homicide of 61-year-old John “Stan” Hasty exactly one year ago. Hasty died on June 5, 2025 following a vicious road-rage assault on Holabird Avenue near the southeastern county border. His killer, 18-year-old Jayden Simpson, was given a pathetic 90-day jail sentence last October through a controversial plea deal that left local families furious.

The massive media blitz surrounding the Towson Circle shooting exposes a glaring double standard in local news coverage. Every local news app, TV station and the government itself flooded the internet with breaking text alerts about the roundabout shooting. Flip the calendar back to June 2025 and the press barely yawned for John Hasty’s death. Only WBAL and The Baltimore Sun provided major coverage of that working-class homicide when it actually occurred. The media elite pick and choose which county lives matter based on zip codes and real-estate values. They ignore steady community decay until it interrupts high-dollar commerce.

A rigorous audit of local broadcast archives confirms that not a single Baltimore television or radio station covered the actual execution of Jayden Simpson’s plea deal when it officially went down on October 17, 2025.

The county’s bloody weekend did not stop at Towson or Essex. On Sunday June 7th at 8:50 a.m. Baltimore County Police Precinct 4 officers answered an indecent exposure call on a public trail off the 900 block of Milford Mill Road. An armed gunman immediately ambushed the responding units, sparking a wild shootout that sent a County officer, an innocent bystander and the suspect straight to Shock Trauma.

County Council members keep talking about public safety initiatives while citizens dodge bullets during their afternoon commutes. The local police department scrambles to keep pace with the madness as the blacktop cooks. Real accountability must replace political lip service before more young people lose their lives on our roadways. The Baltimore Informer hopes for a less violent summer now that the temperatures are rising and for a speedy recovery for the injured officer and innocent bystander who are recovering at Shock Trauma hospital. As for the suspect? We hope the full weight of justice banzai drops him.

JD Urbach, a Republican candidate for District 9’s Baltimore County Council seat, flashes a highly polished resume to Baltimore County voters. He parades his 2024 “Dundalk Citizen of the Year” title and a Johns Hopkins MBA to manufacture local credibility. His campaign website leans heavily into his tenure as Board Chair of the Community College of Baltimore County. He highlights his Scouting America affiliations and Catholic parish activities to paint a picture of a devoted neighborhood volunteer.

The official state campaign finance ledgers obliterate that manufactured image. The cash fueling his run exposes a candidate bought and paid for by out-of-district developer syndicates. Corporate entities earn money by bulldozing local communities like Fort Howard and Sparrows Point. They need a compliant insider in District 9 to sign off on all the permits. He sells voters on his community service record while depositing checks from the Venable LLP lawyers who stripped Fort Howard of its zoning protections.

A microscopic look at fresh pre-primary campaign finance reports exposes J.D. Urbach’s role as a hand-picked frontman for the real-estate syndicate buying up the Southeastside. These documents filed with the Maryland State Board of Elections reveal how big money moves through hidden networks. Special interests want absolute control over the District 9 Council seat to protect lucrative development deals.

The most damning piece of evidence operates right out of a kitchen table. On New Year’s Day, the Urbach campaign recorded a $1,500 expenditure for website design to Sage & Rose Designs. State property records confirm this vendor operates out of the primary residential address of incumbent Councilman David Marks. Follow the money. Urbach’s campaign cuts a check for $1,500 to Marks’ wife–political donors fund Marks’ committee–Marks’ committee funds Urbach’s run for $6,000. It’s a self-serving financial circle designed to enrich a politician’s household budget while installing a compliant successor.

“Your committee (“Marks, David Friends of,” Filer ID: 1011405) executed a maximum legal transfer of $6,000.00 to “Urbach, JD Friends of” on January 16, 2026. This transaction occurred precisely two days after the close of the 2026 Annual Report transactional window on January 14, 2026.

This move kept voters and investigative journalists like yours truly in the dark for five months. When hit with an official press inquiry regarding the calculated timeline of the $6,000 transfer, specifically “Was this timeline calculated specifically to keep this major institutional transfer hidden from the public record until May?” Councilman Marks issued a one-word: “No”.

However, Marks openly defended the domestic cash circuit, stating, “My wife is a graphic designer with over 15 years of professional experience. I confirmed with the Maryland State Board of Elections both last fall and today that it is entirely appropriate for her to be paid by any candidates for work she has done.”

The State Board of Elections might police raw transaction caps, but they do not police the ethics of a circular pipeline that funnels campaign donor capital directly back into a sitting politician’s home address.

This closed-door financial loop perfectly matches Marks’ track record of backroom legislative favors. Look at his history of slipping targeted zoning codes through the council without public debate. Last year, he quietly pushed Bill 16-25 through the chambers. That legislation contained the hyper-specific Holt Amendment. It allowed a computer software company to operate on protected agricultural land in Kingsville under the guise of a farm. Marks conveniently failed to disclose that the property owner benefiting from this precise loophole was Ken Holt–his long-time political ally who led the slate during Marks’ initial 2010 run for office. Politicians write the loopholes, their allies earn money off the real estate and the voters get kept in the dark.

Now the machine needs to protect that exact system. Councilman Todd Crandell leaves his seat empty this year. The Towson establishment cannot risk an independent outsider taking over District 9 and asking questions about backroom developer deals or the developer impact fees tied to Bill 16-19 and Bill 41-19. They need absolute obedience. Marks recently pushed Bill 19-25 to codify councilmanic courtesy–a rule giving individual councilmen absolute veto power over zoning changes in their districts. If they install their hand-picked guy in Crandell’s vacant chair, the syndicate controls the entire Southeastside block. Urbach gets the seat, Marks keeps the power and the developer cash keeps flowing into their household accounts.

The Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System (MD CRIS) paper trail confirms that J.D. Urbach isn’t just running a parallel establishment campaign–he is a direct corporate franchisee of the David Marks political machine. Official filings with the Maryland State Board of Elections reveal that about one week after purchasing website development services from his wife, Councilman Marks and his son Nicholas personally financed Urbach’s early campaign launch by purchasing entry tickets for his kickoff event on January 9, 2026.

This isn’t a casual alignment of two independent conservative operations; it’s a synchronized baton pass executed with institutional capital. The sitting councilman used his massive $386,000 war chest to hand-pick and bankroll his desired successor, guaranteeing that the keys to the district remain within a tightly controlled political circle.

The aforementioned $6,000 contribution from Councilman Marks’ campaign committee covered the $5,390.36 expenses for automated text messages, postcards (prefabricated mailers), yard signs and door hangers. These are Urbach’s biggest on-the-ground marketing expenses.

The true depth of this political marriage shows up when you cross-reference the special interest groups backing both candidates. The exact same syndicate of real-estate developers, land-use lobbyists, and high-powered zoning attorneys are cutting identical checks to both campaign accounts to maintain their corporate stranglehold on the Southeastside.

Powerhouse Venable LLP attorneys Robert Hoffman, Chris Mudd, and David Karceski all dropped matching $500 checks into Urbach’s war chest after previously flooding Marks s’ ledger with thousands of dollars in aggregate contributions. Chris Mudd is the exact lawyer who represented developer Himmelrich to secure the devastating HB 538 amendment. That state-level loophole strips Baltimore County of its local zoning authority over historic waterfront land at Fort Howard. Former County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. signed his official support letter for the bill on February 20, 2024–the exact same day Venable LLP submitted the developer carve-out.

They are joined by the region’s dominant development firms, including Caves Valley Partners and CRD Golf LLC. This corporate entity operates as a subsidiary of Craftsmen Developers–the outfit currently obliterating the former Sparrows Point Country Club to build the high-density Country Club Estates subdivision.

Even Allegis Redwood Maxim Public Affairs, the primary lobbying firm for the billionaire owners of Tradepoint Atlantic, injected $1,000 into Urbach’s run after pouring $4,500 into Marks’ account to lock down a 40-year corporate property tax break.

The Fort Howard Development

This developer pipeline links directly to the current infrastructure crisis unfolding at Fort Howard. Citizens fear a massive takeover of the 80-acre historic military reservation by developers looking to build hundreds of high-density housing units. Local neighborhood groups warn that unchecked construction will paralyze peninsula traffic along North Point Road. Gridlock already traps residents during rush hours, and adding massive apartment complexes will completely isolate the community.

The push for high-density units stands as a direct violation of the federal consent decree protecting Baltimore County’s failing infrastructure. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) hauled the county into federal court under Case No. 1:05-cv-02028-AMD due to raw sewage overflows. Baltimore County DPW sends its wastewater through pipes directly to the over-burdened Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant. Local public works officials just admitted catastrophic system failures, pushing compliance deadlines out to 2046 because the infrastructure cannot handle current capacity. Shoving hundreds of new toilets onto an already penalized sewer grid directly defies the federal court order.

Urbach’s corporate day job as a Director at Edwards Performance Solutions turns this race into a massive conflict of interest. Edwards Performance Solutions operates as a heavy-hitting government contracting firm out of Columbia. They specialize in cybersecurity, IT infrastructure and educational training services. They earn money by securing lucrative public contracts from government agencies and state institutions.

When the Chief Technology Officer of a major government contractor directly funds your political campaign–the red flags go up immediately. This fits the exact pattern Urbach established as Chair of the CCBC Board. While sitting on that community college board, Urbach routinely utilized hidden Consent Agendas to rubber-stamp millions in Baltimore County taxpayer contracts without a single second of public debate. Mr. Urbach was invited onto The Baltimore Informer Podcast on December 29, 2025 via his official campaign e-mail account, but we have yet to receive a response.

THE LEDGER SPLIT: Towson Syndicate Capital vs. Peninsula Neighborhood Cash

The stark financial reality between a corporate-backed insider and a neighborhood campaign shows up clearly on the state ledger sheet. This isn’t about favoritism. It’s about following the cold cash trail. While the establishment candidate builds a war chest with heavy institutional capital, his primary opponent runs a bare-bones operation on double-digit checks from working-class residents.

The official data from the Maryland State Board of Elections outlines the exact funding gap:

Voters can track this unvarnished contrast across the pages of the official state filings. One campaign draws its strength from the moneyed boardrooms of Towson, Hanover and out-of-state utility interests looking to profit off rapid residential development. The other campaign operates on a shoestring budget built by individual homeowners living along Cuckold Point Road, Sandwood Drive and Millers Island Boulevard.

The corporate special interests want to control the local zoning gatekeeper to keep building high-density developments regardless of failing sewer infrastructure or clogged peninsula roads. The paper trail exposes exactly who answers to the developers and who answers to the neighborhoods. The public record outlines a clear choice for voters: District 9 can elect a candidate explicitly funded by the Towson boardroom cartel or choose a bare-bones neighborhood campaign financed by working-class citizens.

You won’t find any mention of these backroom developer deals or circular family pipelines listed on Urbach’s official campaign website or social media pages. His glossy portal displays a carefully curated image of community service, Scout leadership and civic honors to distract neighborhoods from the raw truth. But the unvarnished, black and white campaign finance report truth remains anchored in the public record. Special interests buy the influence, the politicians secure the borders and everyday communities get stuck with the bills. Mr. Urbach still has an open invitation on The Baltimore Informer podcast if he would like to answer some of our questions.

The Video Proof

The unredacted surveillance evidence shatters that legal fiction. The actual sequence of events shows Stan Hasty exited his vehicle, gestured angrily toward Dundalk Avenue and pointed down at the gas station pavement. He then turned his back, reached into his car and retrieved an item. At exactly 16:29:58, a crossover coupe entered the video frame and pulled up to the gas pump behind Hasty’s vehicle.

Hasty looked towards their vehicle for a few seconds but refused to engage further with the suspects. He began walking to the cashier’s booth. He executed a textbook legal disengagement and completely ceased to be an active participant or an aggressor at this point.

The suspect group got out of their vehicle and yelled at Hasty, causing him to pause his stride. The group then advanced on the retreating senior citizen. As 18-year-old Jayden Marshall Simpson launched his fist, Hasty’s hands moved upward in an involuntary defensive flinch. His fingers appear to briefly brush Simpson’s shoulder only after the punch was being thrown. The fatal strike did not land as a blindside blow from the flanks. It came straight from the front.

Simpson did not deliver a standard punch. He locked his footing into a wide power stance, anchored his rear foot against the concrete and executed a rapid one-two physical combination. Dundalk resident Jayden Simpson landed the concussive punch and instantly drove his left hand forward into a secondary push. The shove quickened the unconscious grandfather’s fall and guaranteed additional skull trauma against the asphalt.

The violence did not stop when the victim hit the ground. The suspects offered zero medical aid and they never dialed 911. At exactly 16:30:22, Simpson stood directly over the motionless grandfather and taunted his unconscious body. Simpson then leaned down and spat straight onto the face of the dying man.

Criminal Misclassification

Why does this matter? Combined with Simpson’s push, the spitting serves as definitive proof of legal malice. Those additional actions after the lethal punch–along with their calculated flight from the crime scene–provides raw evidence that the State’s Attorney’s Office should have tried Simpson for second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.

The adult female driver functioned as the operational anchor for this entire homicide unit. She steered the vehicle into a deliberate detour loop off Dundalk Avenue to trap a pedestrian, marched onto the lot ahead of the teenagers to fuel the verbal assault and piloted the high-speed getaway vehicle behind Soprano’s Pizza to evade the police response grid.

It then took about 26 minutes for an ambulance to arrive on scene. Less than 24 hours later, John “Stan” Hasty was taken off life support and pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Constructive Denial

The truth remained buried for a year because of a calculated and unlawful administrative blockade at the Mitchell Courthouse. The Baltimore City Police Department stepped up and handed over the native case records properly. Meanwhile, Ivan Bates’ legal team sat on other video files/documents for 107 days and counting. DundalkTV producer and Congressional candidate Scott Collier and I have been waiting for these additional records, but they were never digitally delivered to either of us.

Custodian of Records Natasha Powell and the State’s Attorney’s Office ran out the statutory clock to insulate the file until the killer completed his brief timeout and walked free. Two months after gifting this killer a 90-day holiday, Ivan Bates released a slick taxpayer-funded public relations video promising that his number one goal was ensuring no citizen is left vulnerable to city violence. That empty marketing campaign is a grotesque insult to a grieving family. In my humble opinion, a second-degree murderer walked away with a three-month vacation while an adult getaway driver roams the community with total immunity.

Redemption

If the number one goal is to ensure public safety, The Baltimore Informer and DundalkTV are calling for charges to be brought against the getaway driver and the young female accomplice. Jayden Simpson cannot be tried in court again over this crime, but there is still time to correct this additional injustice. Had the grown adult stayed on Dundalk Avenue and kept driving home, John “Stan” Hasty would still be alive today.

There is a lot more to this story that needs to be told. Stay tuned to the Baltimore Informer for more in the coming days. Rest in peace, Mr. Hasty.




ALT Text

Split-screen graphic showing a black-and-white surveillance frame of homicide victim Stan Hasty lying isolated on the gas station pavement on the left and a color photograph of a smiling State’s Attorney Ivan Bates at a press conference podium on the right.

Caption

The Stark Divide: The raw reality of Stan Hasty’s final moments on the asphalt contrasted with State’s Attorney Ivan Bates’ celebratory public messaging.

Description

A high-contrast split-screen featured graphic designed for The Baltimore Informer. The left pane captures a haunting black-and-white frame from the Carroll Fuel security cameras, depicting retired postal worker Stan Hasty lying abandoned on the concrete after a kinetic assault. The right pane features a sharp color photograph of Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates smiling at a promotional press podium. The juxtaposition highlights the severe disconnect between community trauma and political positioning inside the city’s justice system.

The multi-million-dollar legacy media institutions operating across Baltimore County love to posture as neutral arbiters of public information. They run slick promotional campaigns claiming they exist to serve local neighborhoods, inform voters, and keep the democratic process transparent. But a cold look at the numbers exposes a vastly different reality. The corporate newsrooms on Television Hill function as aggressive political gatekeepers, actively deciding who gets a public platform and who gets completely erased from the civic conversation before a single ballot box opens.

When you juxtapose the absolute media blackout of the 2022 Baltimore County Executive Democratic primary against the saturated, red-carpet coverage of the 2026 cycle, the corporate bias transforms from an underlying theory into an undeniable fact. The corporate press doesn’t allocate airtime based on legal ballot qualifications or community relevance. They allocate it based on institutional alignment, campaign war chests and insider access.

The 2022 Blackout: Erasing an Independent Voice

Let’s be completely clear right out of the gate: you are damn right I have sour grapes about how the 2022 election was handled! Imagine a brand-new business opens its doors in a tight-knit community. The owners invest their own sweat equity, lay down their capital, meet every local regulatory requirement and open up shop ready to serve the public. Now imagine the local newspaper and television stations collectively decide to act like that business simply does not exist. They refuse to review it, they won’t print its name and they don’t include it on any local maps. That is not standard market competition–it’s a deliberate, coordinated boycott designed to starve that new venture of oxygen.

That is exactly how the major media monopolies treated the 2022 Democratic primary when an independent challenger from Dundalk stepped up to break the status quo. The establishment loves to hide behind lazy excuses, claiming they have to prioritize limited airtime because an election field is too crowded with fringe candidates. But that logic completely collapses under the weight of the actual 2022 ballot metrics. In many ways, that year was a social experiment for Baltimore County residents.

• The Reality of the Field: It’s not like there were six or seven confusing people cluttering up the race. It was just two primary election Democratic candidates. A clear, one-on-one choice between an entrenched incumbent and a grassroots outsider.
  
• The Infinite Airtime Paradox: The major network affiliates have hours upon hours of daily broadcast programming to fill across their morning, afternoon, and evening slots. Their reporters, camera crew and everyone back in the station wake up at the ass crack of midnight to broadcast around 4 or 5 AM. They possess a massive, continuous spectrum of public airwaves for many hours each day of the week. Yet, they could not carve out a single thirty-minute block to let the taxpayers hear a head-to-head debate.

Pardon the third person perspective coming up…it’s necessary. The specific question of how many times challenger Adam Reuter’s name was mentioned in big media outlets between February 2022 and July 2022 yields a definitive, documented metric:

Absolute zero.

Major corporate broadcast operations–including WBAL-TV, WJZ-TV, WMAR and WBFF Fox45–completely frozen out the race, dedicating zero news segments or policy interviews to the active primary contest. Print giants like The Baltimore Sun and The Baltimore Banner followed the exact same blackout protocol. The challenger’s name was buried deep within sterile, automated candidate listings published by the State Board of Elections, stripped of all qualitative analysis or journalistic context.

The Banner were probably the disappointment. They launched in 2022 with a massive multi-million-dollar bankroll and endless promises to rescue local journalism. They postured as a fresh alternative to the dying legacy monopolies. But the newborn newsroom fell straight into the exact same corporate cash trap before their digital ink even dried. Their wealthy boardroom executives immediately prioritized institutional clout, access-driven reporting and big-money donors over real grassroots coverage. They completely ghosted Adam Reuter from their 2022 coverage windows, choosing to protect their political relationships instead of informing the public. They proved that a new logo changes absolutely nothing — dollar signs dictate the news judgment in Baltimore every single time.

Back to TV Hill. The corporate gatekeepers completely refused to air or cover a single debate or candidate forum for the Baltimore County Executive primary during the entire 2022 cycle. While they happily funded and produced prime-time broadcast hours for statewide races, they unilaterally decided that the county’s highest office was an uncontested coronation. By denying the public a televised stage, the media insulated the incumbent from defending his record on developer impact fees under bills 16-19 and 41-19, or facing direct cross-examination on major administrative procurement scandals.

This also happened during the general election as well. One debate was held and WBAL-TV gave it a couple minutes in a news package coverage but that was it. Credit where it’s due, that is better than nothing. The other three TV stations didn’t give two shits about a race affecting 800,000+ residents.

The corporate press preferred to act as the political opposition themselves, running independent investigative pieces on the administration’s controversial $4.2 million Peterbilt dump truck purchase or the Green Spring Valley zoning favors exposed by the Inspector General. They completely cut the actual primary challenger out of the loop, using his name only retroactively as a single-sentence transitional clause to summarize the incumbent’s inevitable victory.

When CBS Baltimore finally dropped a post-election wrap-up, their complete lack of basic journalistic standards hit a new low. They couldn’t even bother to copy my name verbatim off the official ballot — instead printing it as “Ivan Reuter” while butchering County Executive Johnny Olszewskis last name in their own web address and headline.

Despite this total lack of media stimulation, televised exposure, or corporate backing, the grassroots reality broke through the static. On primary election day, outsider Adam Reuter managed to still capture 12,656 votes, pulling 13.57% of the Democratic electorate. Over twelve thousand local taxpayers walked into a voting booth and explicitly rejected the incumbent, choosing a name they had to research completely on their own without a single shred of assistance from the Television Hill monopolies.

The Institutional Exceptions

It is a matter of historical record that the media blackout was not 100% total, but the outlets that actually stepped up to do real journalistic work further highlight the bias of the corporate giants. While the multi-million-dollar broadcast stations looked the other way, alternative platforms actually bothered to give the public a choice:

• WCBM 680 AM: The local talk radio station broke the corporate blockade by bringing the independent challenger on the air, allowing an open microphone to discuss government transparency and accountability directly with the working-class audience.
  
• WBAL Radio’s The Kim Klacik Show: Even within the broader legacy radio framework, individual syndicated programs like Kim Klacik’s show recognized the value of actual electoral competition, conducting a live interview with the challenger.
  
• The Patch (Perry Hall): Niche digital neighborhood networks like The Patch recognized that local government matters to local communities, publishing a dedicated campaign story to detail the platform of the outsider candidate.

Because these alternative outlets are not considered “major media” by the political class, the establishment completely ignored their coverage. The major television networks operated like if a candidate didn’t exist on their specific broadcast signals, they didn’t exist at all.

Now, you may ask why I didn’t provide my own video coverage of the candidate forums since there are some broadcast quality high definition cameras in the arsenal? I tried…cameras weren’t allowed into the private events! I did manage to make a bootleg audio recording at one of them, but that was it.

The 2026 Red Carpet: The Open-Seat Media Frenzy

Fast-forward to the 2026 election cycle and the corporate media apparatus has turned around like an illegal Baltimore U-Turn. Because there is no incumbent gravity to protect, the major networks have completely abandoned their 2022 silence, unleashing a massive torrent of prime-time coverage, candidate profiles and heavily produced public debates.

The comparative data from the period of January 2026 through June 1, 2026, exposes an entirely different tier of institutional treatment for the chosen Democratic candidates:

• The Televised Circuit: The 2026 field has already been handed multiple high-profile platforms. The League of Women Voters hosted a comprehensive forum at Goucher College on March 26, which was widely streamed to the public. This was quickly followed by a dedicated economic forum hosted by the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors on April 29.
  
• Prime-Time Town Halls: The absolute peak of media investment occurred on May 15, 2026, when WBFF-TV (Fox45) broadcasted a full, prime-time “Your Voice, Your Future” televised Town Hall debate. The network cleared its lucrative commercial scheduling to let candidates like Julian Jones, Izzy Patoka, Pat Young, Nick Stewart and Mansoor Shams square off live on-air over public safety and Towson crime data.
  
• Continuous Earned Airtime: Major networks like CBS News Baltimore and WBAL have routinely brought these candidates into their studios for soft, policy-driven interview segments. Corporate candidates like Nick Stewart are given uncritical, premium afternoon blocks to pitch their campaign brochures directly to a county-wide audience, framing their corporate law backgrounds as a “fresh start” for the jurisdiction.

The Structural Contrast: Capital over Community

The corporate television conglomerates love a high-stakes cash race because it helps them rake in money on campaign commercials. The 2026 filings show Julian Jones raised a staggering $1,347,879, while his council colleague Izzy Patoka pooled $1,118,000. Even political outsider Nick Stewart reported a hefty $710,080 war chest. TV Hill hacks only care about heavy capital and corporate law connections. They track who holds the million-dollar treasuries and reward those chosen insiders with free broadcast exposure because they are labeled “viable candidates”.

When you lay the raw metrics of 2022 and 2026 side by side, the systemic corruption of the media gatekeeping process becomes completely undeniable. The core difference in how these two elections were covered has absolutely nothing to do with news value or civic importance–it has everything to do with campaign capital and insider status.

The corporate media treats local elections like a premium playground reserved exclusively for insiders who can amass million-dollar war chests. In 2022, they utilized their editorial power to enforce a total blackout, actively engineering a self-fulfilling prophecy of non-viability against a grassroots campaign. In 2026, they open up their broadcast signals because the wide-open race features multiple establishment figures pulling in massive private equity and developer dollars.

The Baltimore Informer was built to permanently shatter this exact media monopoly. The TV Hill hacks can keep chasing their corporate cheese, ignoring raw public data about who the candidates truly care about and waiting for easy police scanner news tips to fill their airtime. We will keep dropping the primary-source receipts directly onto the digital doorsteps of the community. All that we ask is our articles get shared so Baltimore County is an informed county.

The Baltimore Informer operates on the ground and in the attic to shatter this corrupt gatekeeping racket across our county. If we have the time to interview all candidates, so can the multi-million dollar TV Hill and York Road operations.

WBFF-TV Town Hall Debate Footage

Official 2022 Baltimore County Election Results

2026 Maryland County Executive Elections Record

Baltimore County Campaign Coverage 2022 vs. 2026

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The Working Families Party PAC’s latest multi-thousand-dollar campaign targets Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger ahead of the June 23 primary election. They count on regular working people being too exhausted by a skyrocketing cost of living to investigate their claims.

The biggest scam on these flyers involves the total absence of a real alternative candidate. This Brooklyn-based PAC spends massive amounts of cash just telling people to vote “no” on the incumbent. They completely hide the names of the actual challengers running for the office. This tactical blackout leaves voters stranded at the ballot box because a primary election requires a positive choice for a real person. The out-of-state operatives want to hollow out our local justice system without taking responsibility for whoever fills the executive vacuum.

The first flyer weaponizes a Fox 45 News report from July 19 2024 to manufacture unearned outrage. The New York handlers cite a quote about Shellenberger making a phone call to immigration officials. The primary-source material exposes their deep intellectual dishonesty. The case involved a dangerous child sex predator who stood to walk free into Baltimore County neighborhoods due to soft sentencing guidelines. Shellenberger used federal law enforcement coordination as a final line of defense to deport the monster. The PAC stripped this horrifying criminal context out of the narrative because protecting children ruins their open-border agenda.

The second mailer features a dramatic red-carpet graphic and points to a Baltimore Banner report from December 23 2024. The out-of-state group claims Shellenberger went behind the backs of local officials to ignore county anti-cooperation rules. They also claim he backed a pro-ICE candidate for County Executive based on data from the Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System. The PAC changed their search access date to April 30 2026 but they still refuse to publish the name of the candidate or the transaction ID. They use official-sounding footnotes to launder political gossip through a state database containing hundreds of thousands of blind entries.

First, let’s address some of the claims:

Claim 1: “Supported a County Executive candidate who wanted to expand cooperation with ICE”

The Scam: The people who made this flyer still refuse to print the actual name of the candidate Shellenberger allegedly backed. By citing a specific Baltimore Banner date alongside the campaign finance portal, they create a fake trail of breadcrumbs. They know damn well that 99% of people won’t spend their nights or weekends digging through old articles or tracking down disclosure filings. Leaving the name blank lets them run a generic guilt-by-association play, allowing the voter’s brain to insert whatever political villain they already hate into that slot.

Claim 2: “Wants to use ICE and deportation to fix public safety”

The Scam: Once again, the PAC are reusing the exact same quote from the first mailer but twisting the context to make it sound like an obsessive fixation. A State’s Attorney handles state criminal prosecutions. They do not have the legal authority to deport anyone. Shellenberger’s point in the original interview focused on how notifying federal immigration authorities about non-citizen violent offenders or child predators keeps them from getting released right back onto local streets. The PAC spins basic public safety coordination into a cartoonish narrative where a prosecutor relies on deportation as a fix-all tool for local crime.

Claim 3: “Went behind the backs of local officials to work with ICE, ignoring county policy”

The Scam: This represents the most malicious lie on the page because it relies on the public’s ignorance of basic constitutional law. Baltimore County has internal administrative policies regulating how county police and correctional facilities handle non-judicial ICE detainers.

But here’s the reality: the State’s Attorney is a constitutionally independent officer elected by the people. He does not answer to the County Executive, he doesn’t report to the County Council and he isn’t bound by local agency guidelines. He answers directly to state law and the federal constitution.

Communicating with federal law enforcement isn’t “going behind the backs” of local bureaucrats. It’s an independent official exercising legal authority that the county machine has absolutely zero right to restrict! The PAC frames a foundational constitutional separation of powers as a shady backdoor betrayal. They’re liars and they are lucky that The Baltimore Informer doesn’t have thousands of dollars to burn like they do to counter the lies. We do have hundreds of dollars to pay for web hosting, electricity, computers and an internet subscription, thus this article exists!

Now, let’s get to other matters of the law.


Sanctuary policies put local government workers in extreme legal jeopardy. Under Title 8 U.S.C. Section 1324, concealing, harboring or shielding an illegal alien from detection constitutes a federal felony. Local politicians who command County employees to ignore federal warrants face real prison sentences, not simple administrative fines. The Baltimore County Council cannot rewrite the United States Code to satisfy out-of-state political bosses.

Every Baltimore County reader and voter is encouraged to research the State’s Attorney candidates very carefully. They along with the Baltimore County Police keep our neighborhoods safe. Don’t just take my word for it…but do question why these attack flyers are landing in our mailboxes. Actions speak louder than words.

I may not be Shellenberger’s biggest fan due to civil asset forfeit issues stemming from a 2011 case, but the man does takes serious crimes like murder seriously. That’s what matters most. If you compare how Baltimore County handles those cases to Baltimore City, it’s night and day. See sources below for more information. Don’t let some random deep-pocketed New York City residents control our Baltimore County elections!

Campaign Verification Links

• Working Families Party PAC Federal Election Commission Data
• Fox 45 News July 19 2024 Report on Court Sentencing and ICE Cooperation
• The Baltimore Banner Local News Portal
• Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System Portal
• Title 8 U.S.C. Section 1324 Federal Statute on Cornell Law

Nick Stewart wants voters to think he’s a wholesome family man and a progressive outsider running to clean up Towson. He capitalized on the pension grab pulled by Izzy Patoka and Julian Jones to position himself as the ethical choice for Baltimore County Executive. The marketing literature drops paint a picture of grassroots reform. The latest raw campaign finance data from January tells a completely different story. Stewart’s official “Stewart, Nick Citizens for” financial disclosure report reveals a massive cash stockpile bankrolled by a network of corporate lawyers, venture capital syndicates and real-estate developers.

The mainstream news desks–specifically the Baltimore Banner, the Baltimore Sun and WBAL Radio–completely failed the public by skipping basic due diligence on Nick’s 2026 campaign file. The entire Towson press corps chose to run soft campaign stenography instead of executing a real data audit. That’s not how The Baltimore Informer operates. They print his polished quotes about housing reform without checking his state financial disclosure files to see which real-estate cartels are funding his run. This lazy reporting allows a corporate-backed attorney to masquerade as a neighborhood savior while private equity syndicates build a multi-thousand-dollar fortress around his primary bid.

The charade ends today, here are the receipts:

Stewart accumulated a total of $400,739.41 in campaign receipts–leaving him with an ending cash balance of $239,530.22 at the start of the election year. You don’t collect a quarter-million dollars by holding neighborhood bake sales. This money represents a coordinated institutional buy-in. His own employer–the corporate law firm Duane Morris LLP–uses his campaign account like a corporate parking spot. The Duane Morris Government PAC dropped a legal maximum $6,000 check into his ledger. Individual corporate attorneys from the firm flooded his campaign with high-dollar contributions to secure direct access to the County’s executive office.

The financial ledger exposes a massive bundled cash operation tied directly to out-of-state venture capital interests. Wealthy executives from Ecphora Capital poured thousands into his war chest on the exact same day. Deborah Hemingway dropped $6,000. Frank Hemingway contributed another $6,000. The corporate entity itself matched those with a separate $6,000 check. Four other family members–Alexandria, William, Lilian and Carlisle Hemingway–each dropped $1,500. They executed a targeted capital injection from wealthy elites who intend to earn money off Baltimore County land-use policies. Ecphora Capital is a Baltimore-based medical-technology venture capital firm that oversees tens of millions of dollars in investment funds.

Out-of-state financial managers flood this local primary with cash to influence local policy. Stewart took $6,000 from JPMorgan Chase manager Robert Dorfman in New York. He pulled another $6,000 from tech executive Zachary Gidwitz in New York. He pocketed $5,000 from Connecticut executive Josh Smith.

Stewart doesn’t just drain his own firm’s political action committee. He pulls highly coordinated capital from competitor law firms like Saul Ewing LLP and Venable LLP. Saul Ewing acts as the supreme architect for Maryland Real Estate Investment Trusts. Venable specializes in structuring aggressive roll-up funds that swallow commercial properties. These competing firms fund him because his centralized HousingStat policy removes local zoning hurdles for their corporate clients.

The massive cash injections from mega-developers like Merritt Properties and Stonewall Capital expose the endgame. Merritt handles massive industrial expansion and recently secured a $400 million private equity injection. Stonewall Capital executes high-risk speculative land development and utilizes heavy government lobbying in Towson. Southern Management Companies dropped $1,000 as well. SMC operates massive multi-family housing complexes across the Mid-Atlantic. These developers need a fast-track permitting process to earn money. They back Stewart because he promises to dismantle the neighborhood associations standing in their way.

GreenVest LLC represents the most cynical play on the board. They don’t build houses. They manufacture environmental mitigation credits. When developers pave over Baltimore County green space, the law forces them to buy ecological offsets. GreenVest sells those exact regulatory permission slips. They fund Stewart to ensure the county keeps approving the destructive commercial developments that drive their entire profit model.

Elite institutional risk analysts are financing this local county executive race. Brian Bailey dropped over $4,700 in in-kind campaign hardware like software and teleprompters. Bailey previously served as a senior commercial real estate advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Wall Street is actively monitoring Towson’s zoning authority.

Heavy industry and real-estate developers bankroll this campaign for a specific reason. Kirby Development LLC handed over $6,000. Ecology Services Inc cut another $6,000 check alongside a personal $6,000 max contribution from its owner, Peter Osborne. These firms expect a massive return on their investment, no doubt about it. Nick Stewart’s “One County Initiative” serves as a corporate blueprint to fast-track commercial permits and streamline development. He plans to dismantle councilmanic courtesy to eliminate neighborhood resistance. His proposed “HousingStat” policy shifts zoning control away from local communities and hands it to unelected bureaucrats.

Let me state that again. Under Nick Stewart’s “One County Initiative” he packages HousingStat as a brilliant tool for transparency and accountability, but that’s just polished political marketing. His website explicitly states he wants to overturn local housing bans, fast-track mixed-use projects and establish density bonuses using massive tax abatements like TIFs. When he centralizes all that data and approval power into HousingStat, he yanks the steering wheel away from local neighborhoods. Instead of community groups pressuring their specific council member to block a massive corporate build, the developers bypass the council entirely.

Right now, there’s a big fight over land use rights in Fort Howard. HousingStat would directly affect that fight! When Stewart brags about his extensive public service record, he deliberately leaves out the fact that he completely bypassed the ballot box to get there. He has never been elected to office. He’s a corporate insider who played the elite appointment game. In case Citizens for Nick Stewart try to modify his plan, it’s archived here on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Stewart is deeply tied to former Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, who controlled the county from 2002 to 2010. Smith formally endorsed Stewart at a highly publicized press conference in Essex, where he aggressively slammed Stewart’s council opponents–Julian Jones, Izzy Patoka and Pat Young–as career legislators who lack any executive capability. Stewart treats Smith like a blueprint for his administration, explicitly stating in his policy platform that he plans to “reinvigorate the plans created by County Executive Jim Smith under his Renaissance initiative” for regions like Randallstown, Essex, Dundalk and Towson. Smith is actively using his political network to legitimize Stewart as the establishment heir.

The wholesome reformer narrative functions as a calculated smokescreen. Nick Stewart operates as a highly sophisticated corporate attorney running a campaign funded by the exact financial forces that want to pave over Baltimore County. Don’t fall for the deception, Baltimore! The County doesn’t need new developments, it needs the existing ones to be better maintained. It will be very interesting to see what the next Campaign Finance Form reveals, since this is old news from January but it was not reported on other media outlets (yet).

Alexander Hamilton’s Conjectures About the New Constitution

September 1787

The new constitution has in favour of its success these circumstances–a very great weight of influence of the persons who framed it, particularly in the universal popularity of General Washington,–the good will of the commercial interest throughout the states which will give all its efforts to the establishment of a government capable of regulating protecting and extending the commerce of the Union–the good will of most men of property in the several states who wish a government of the union able to protect them against domestic violence and the depredations which the democratic spirit is apt to make on property; and who are besides anxious for the respectability of the nation–the hopes of the Creditors of the United States that a general government possessing the means of doing it will pay the debt of the Union. a strong belief in the people at large of the insufficiency of the present confederation to preserve the existence of the Union and of the necessity of the union to their safety and prosperity; of course a strong desire of a change and a predisposition to receive well the propositions of the Convention.

Against its success is to be put, the dissent of two or three important men in the Convention; who will think their characters pledged to defeat the plan–the influence of many inconsiderable men in possession of considerable offices under the state governments who will fear a diminution of their consequence power and emolument by the establishment of the general government and who can hope for nothing there–the influence of some considerable men in office possessed of talents and popularity who partly from the same motives and partly from a desire of playing a part in a convulsion for their own aggrandisement will oppose the quiet adoption of the new government–(some considerable men out of office, from motives of ambition may be disposed to act the same part)–add to these causes the disinclination of the people to taxes and of course to a strong government–the opposition of all men much in debt who will not wish to see a government established one object of which is to restrain this means of cheating Creditors–the democratical jealousy of the people which may be alarmed at the appearance of institutions that may seem calculated to place the power of the community in few hands and to raise a few individuals to stations of great preeminence–and the influence of some foreign powers who from different motives will not wish to see an energetic government established throughout the states.

In this view of the subject it is difficult to form any judgment whether the plan will be adopted or rejected. It must be essentially matter of conjecture. The present appearances and all other circumstances considered the probability seems to be on the side of its adoption.

But the causes operating against its adoption are powerful and there will be nothing astonishing in the Contrary–

If it do not finally obtain, it is probable the discussion of the question will beget such struggles animosities and heats in the community that this circumstance conspiring with the real necessity of an essential change in our present situation will produce civil war. Should this happen, whatever parties prevail it is probable governments very different from the present in their principles will be established–A dismemberment of the Union and monarchies in different portions of it may be expected. It may however happen that no civil war will take place; but several republican confederacies be established between different combinations of particular states.

A reunion with Great Britain, from universal disgust at a state of commotion, is not impossible, though not much to be feared. The most plausible shape of such a business would be the establishment of a son of the present monarch in the supreme government of this country with a family compact.

If the government is adopted, it is probable general Washington will be the President of the United States–This will ensure a wise choice of men to administer the government and a good administration. A good administration will conciliate the confidence and affection of the people and perhaps enable the government to acquire more consistency than the proposed constitution seems to promise for so great a Country—It may then triumph altogether over the state governments and reduce them to an entire subordination, dividing the large states into smaller districts. The organs of the general government may also acquire additional strength. If this should not be the case, in the course of a few years, it is probable that the contests about the boundaries of power between the particular governments and the general government and the momentum of the larger states in such contests will produce a dissolution of the Union. This after all seems to be the most likely result. But it is almost arrogance in so complicated a subject, depending so entirely on the incalculable fluctuations of the human passions, to attempt even a conjecture about the event. It will be Eight or Nine months before any certain judgment can be formed respecting the adoption of the Plan.

Modern English Translation

Here’s who wants this new Constitution to succeed: The men who wrote it. General George Washington. Business owners who want a government that can actually protect and expand trade. Property owners who want protection from domestic violence and mob rule. The creditors who want the government to finally pay off its debts. Most people simply recognize our current setup is completely broken and we need a massive change to survive.

Here’s who is fighting it: A few big names from the Convention who already promised to kill the plan. Low-level state politicians terrified of losing their influence and their paychecks to a new national government. Ambitious guys trying to spark a crisis just to grab power for themselves. People who hate taxes. Men buried in debt who want a weak government so they can keep dodging their creditors. Citizens paranoid about handing power to a small group of elites. Foreign governments who want America to stay weak and divided.

It’s tough to predict if the Constitution will pass. It probably will.

But the forces fighting against it are strong. If it fails, the resulting chaos and anger will almost certainly spark a civil war. The country will shatter. We might end up split into different regional monarchies or even crawl back to Great Britain under a royal family member.

If it passes, Washington will likely be President. He’ll build a solid administration, earn the public’s trust and stabilize the country.

Over time, this new central government might crush state governments entirely and chop the big states into smaller districts. If that doesn’t happen, the constant turf wars over boundaries and power between the states and the federal government will probably destroy the Union anyway. That’s the most likely long-term result. But human emotions are unpredictable. We’ll know the final verdict on ratification in about eight or nine months.

The Bottom Line Summary: Hamilton’s Political Math

Alexander Hamilton breaks down the street fight over ratifying the Constitution. He lists the heavy hitters backing the deal and aggressively calls out the local politicians fighting it just to protect their own paychecks and power. He predicts a total collapse into civil war if the Constitution fails. He bets on George Washington to hold the country together but warns that the endless turf wars between state and federal power will likely tear the whole country apart eventually.

“I AGREE TO THIS CONSTITUTION, WITH ALL ITS FAULTS”

Benjamin Franklin’s Speech at the Conclusion of the Constitutional Convention

Philadelphia, September 17, 1787

I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it: For having lived long, I have experienced many Instances of being oblig’d, by better Information or fuller Consideration, to change Opinions even on important Subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own Judgment and to pay more Respect to the Judgment of others. Most Men indeed as well as most Sects in Religion, think themselves in Possession of all Truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far Error. Steele, a Protestant, in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only Difference between our two Churches in their Opinions of the Certainty of their Doctrine, is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the Wrong. But tho’ many private Persons think almost as highly of their own Infallibility, as that of their Sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who in a little Dispute with her Sister, said, I don’t know how it happens, Sister, but I meet with no body but myself that’s always in the right. Il n’y a que moi qui a toujours raison.

In these Sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its Faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administred; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution: For when you assemble a Number of Men to have the Advantage of their joint Wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those Men all their Prejudices, their Passions, their Errors of Opinion, their local Interests, and their selfish Views. From such an Assembly can a perfect Production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this System approaching so near to Perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our Enemies, who are waiting with Confidence to hear that our Councils are confounded, like those of the Builders of Babel, and that our States are on the Point of Separation, only to meet hereafter for the Purpose of cutting one another’s Throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best.

The Opinions I have had of its Errors, I sacrifice to the Public Good. I have never whisper’d a Syllable of them abroad. Within these Walls they were born, & here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the Objections he has had to it, and endeavour to gain Partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary Effects & great Advantages resulting naturally in our favour among foreign Nations, as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent Unanimity. Much of the Strength and Efficiency of any Government, in procuring & securing Happiness to the People depends on Opinion, on the general Opinion of the Goodness of that Government as well as of the Wisdom & Integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own Sakes, as a Part of the People, and for the Sake of our Posterity, we shall act heartily & unanimously in recommending this Constitution, wherever our Influence may extend, and turn our future Thoughts and Endeavours to the Means of having it well administred.

On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a Wish, that every Member of the Convention, who may still have Objections to it, would with me on this Occasion doubt a little of his own Infallibility, and to make manifest our Unanimity, put his Name to this Instrument.

Then the Motion was made for adding the last Formula, viz Done in Convention by the unanimous Consent &c –which was agreed to and added–accordingly.

Modern English Translation of Benjamin Franklin’s Speech:

I admit I don’t approve of everything in this Constitution right now. I might change my mind later. I’ve lived a long time and I’ve had to change my stance on major issues after getting better information. I once thought I was completely right but found out I was wrong. The older I grow, the more I doubt my own judgment and respect the views of others.

Most guys–and most religions–think they hold the absolute truth. They assume anyone who disagrees is completely wrong. A lot of people act like a certain French lady who once argued with her sister. She said she never met anyone besides herself who was always right.

I agree to this Constitution with all its faults. We desperately need a national government. Any government can be a blessing if the leaders run it well. This setup will probably work for a long time. It will only end in a dictatorship when the people become so corrupted they need a tyrant to control them.

I doubt we can write a better document. When you cram a bunch of men in a room to use their combined wisdom, you also bring all their prejudices, passions, errors and selfish local interests. You can’t expect a perfect result from a group like that.

I’m shocked this system gets so close to perfection. It will blindside our enemies. They expect us to fall apart and cut each other’s throats. I consent to this Constitution because I expect nothing better. I sacrifice my personal complaints for the public good. I’ve kept my mouth shut outside these walls. If we all go back to our constituents and run our mouths about our personal objections, we ruin any chance of the public accepting this. We lose our strength at home and abroad. A government only works when the public believes in the integrity of its leaders.

We must act completely united. Every member of this convention with lingering complaints needs to doubt their own infallibility for a minute. Sign the document.

Summary:

Benjamin Franklin admits the new Constitution has flaws. He signs it anyway because he knows he lacks all the answers. He calls out the sheer arrogance of politicians who think their specific way is the only way. He warns that a government only collapses into a dictatorship when the people and the leaders become entirely corrupt. He demands the rest of the convention swallow their pride, ignore their selfish local turf wars and show a united front to the public.