DL Open Thread: Friday, June 11, 2021
Danny Short Has A Sad. From Matt Bittle’s Twitter. There’s so much dissembling goodness here, but I’ll go with:
While the proposed amendment had some support from our Caucus during the 150th General Assembly, in the time since then many of our members reexamined it and began expressing significant reservations.
First, ‘some support’ was all but three R‘s. Every other R rep voted for the bill. Either they were all duped the first time, or something happened since then to cause ‘significant reservations’. Gee, I wonder what that could have been. Short goes on to express concern that he can’t trust the D’s. He’s clearly got the untrustworthy element backwards. Not one single R representative is a serious legislator. They proved it again yesterday.
Trump’s DOJ Secretly Subpoenaed Records Of House Intel Committee Members. Neither of whom were Devin Nunes:
The department sought data on two lawmakers from California who were prominent critics of President Donald Trump — Rep. Adam B. Schiff, then the panel’s ranking Democrat and now its chairman, and Rep. Eric Swalwell — the committee official and Swalwell said Thursday night. The committee official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains politically sensitive, said that Apple in May had notified at least 12 people connected to the panel of subpoenas for their data, and that one minor was among them.
Democrats swiftly condemned the moves, news of which followed three recent disclosures to national media organizations that the Trump Justice Department had secretly sought reporters’ phone and email records in an effort to identify the sources of leaks.
Police Chief-turned-Yoga Instructor Indicted For Incitement To Riot. Along with five other west coast 3-percenters.
Facebook Permitted Rethug Group To Pretend To Be Green Party Organization. In an attempt to siphon off progressive votes in 2018:
Facebook was aware of the true identity of the advertiser – the conservative marketing firm Rally Forge – and the deceptive nature of the ads, documents seen by the Guardian show, but the company determined that they did not violate its policies.
Because they had no policy to cover this.
What do you want to talk about?
Power plant in Puerto Rico explodes and burns the week after it was privatized. Bet the costs of repair and damages gets un-privatized in a hurry. Over one million people without power, many without water:
https://apnews.com/article/puerto-rico-power-outages-business-ef221db81d13ab8206029221d3a551b8
Delaware Republicans are such sad sacks that they think more Democrats than Republicans vote by mail. They don’t understand that the pandemic was a one-time thing.
Fellas — and they are all fellas, even the female ones — you already lose every election by 15 points, and we already have the most restrictive regulations of any state outside the South (and if you think our 20% Black population has nothing to do with that, step to the right where you can be fitted with your white sheet and hood). You’re closing the door on a barn that has never held a horse.
But Trump says mail-in votes are fraudulent.
Trump says he’s a billionaire, too. The foundational lie on which all the others are built.
RUMOR HEARD FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES:
The Republicans are holding the vote-by-mail constitutional amendment hostage to see what the Ds do to Ramone and Smith’s seats in Hockessin/Pike Creek region. Dems want to merge their seats or completely draw them out. If Dems save their seats in redistricting, this constitutional amendment can come back early next year and be voted on.
Redistricting is constitutionally required to be set in early November. The Rs are cynical traitors.
Perfect low cost opportunity to say “fuck you” to these assholes. Elections have consequences.
If Dems don’t merge these districts it is political malpractice
I suspect the biggest opponent of this move would be Schwarzkopf. Pete would rather work with Ramone or Smith than some new Democrat. Although Pete would also be pleased to have Smith in the Senate.
Don’t think so. Especially since there are so many D’s from NCC who need to be taken care of during redistricting. Maintaining two R RD’s in roughly the same geographical area, especially since both now have D pluralities, will prove unsustainable.
Pete has to get the votes to PASS redistricting. Can’t do it w/o enough D’s voting for it.
I’d call their bluff. Then run against them for opposing it. In Delaware, vote-by-mail is not worth the opportunity to remove one of those two R’s.
I totally agree. Hey, they live real close to each other. Neither of their districts have experienced any significant growth over the past decade. And, yes, the D’s control the process.
Where were the Rethugs’ cries of outrage when they literally drew a boundary on a suburban street? Terry Spence lived on one side, Bruce Reynolds lived across the street. They each got their own district. Doesn’t get any more blatant than that.
This goes way back, but didn’t they redraw a district line when John Arnold moved?
I think you’re right. But there was something hinky about it, and he had to leave the Senate. I’ll see if I can dig something up.
I forget the circumstances, but I think that at least one R representative (Steve Taylor?) helped change the boundary of the district AFTER the 1982 reapportionment.
At any rate, in 1986 Margo Ewing Bane won what had been Arnold’s district by less than 100 votes over Joe Reardon, who ran a spectacular campaign in what, at the time, was a solid R district.
I remember it now. Arnold bought a new house after the redistricting which was out of the district. Under the guise of correcting some technical disparities in the redistricting, Arnold’s line was changed to place his house in the district. I’m almost certain that Steve Taylor was who did it. Although Taylor plausibly claimed ignorance (the term ‘mimbo’ might have been invented for him), Arnold was forced to resign. I’m guessing that the resignation was late enough so that the seat remained vacant until the 1986 election.
Ramone and Smith keep their seats because they sell themselves as “moderates”, based on some of their votes, and garner enough votes from independents to get re-elected. They would be better off supporting No Excuse Absentee voting.
The “inside” Republican chatter is that Ramone and Smith expect to end up in the same district, and Smith is planning a state senate run.
That makes some sense. However, whichever Senate district he winds up in (it could be Sokola’s or Sturgeon’s), you can bet that that district will be reinforced in redistricting.
They’re going to have a tougher time claiming moderation if they keep voting with the SuxCo morons.
https://www.wdel.com/news/ex-political-candidate-indicted-on-charges-of-mailing-threats/article_b2649104-cafa-11eb-8b50-1780a5132319.html
A perennial candidate in Delaware in the early-to-mid-2000s has been indicted on federal charges of mailing threatening communications.
Mike Protack, 64 is accused of using the United States Postal Service in the early part of 2021 to mail two separate communications threatening to injure another person. Details of the threats weren’t divulged.
The case involved investigation by the Delaware State Police, New Castle County police, and the FBI
If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
Protack, who’s run in several Republican primaries for governor, U.S Senate, and New Castle County Council between 2004 and 2014, used to reside in Delaware, but has since moved to Seal Beach, California, according to the U.S. DOJ.
He was one of DL’s fave targets of ridicule.
He was never, um, all there.
Poor guy was born before his time. If he had stayed off the crazy train he’d be a QAnon leader today.
Speaking of QAnon, where’s Q been lately?
Fading into the ether, as was totally predictable:
https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-trump-cult/
I meant Evan The Q.
Who’s kept a low profile recently. Maybe he’s the Real Q?
He published this earlier this year, calling for more to be done for racial equality. Doesn’t sound like the old Evan Q.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-longer-enough-evan-queitsch?trk=public_profile_article_view
Fuckwit Jon Moseley is still at it, though.
https://twitter.com/jonmoseley?lang=en