Archive for January, 2016
Tuesday Open Thread [1.26.2016]
![Tuesday Open Thread [1.26.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/12573182_10153381061797883_5932557486068334042_n-240x180.png "Tuesday Open Thread [1.26.2016]")
Jeet Heer has says Hillary and Bernie showed different sides of themselves at the Democratic Town Hall Forum last night:
When Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders shared a stage—separately—at Monday night’s Iowa Democratic Forum on CNN, the most noticeable thing was the difference in volume. By reputation, Sanders is a shouter, but on this occasion he came across as much quieter than Clinton, who gave forceful, directed, and impassioned answers to some difficult questions from Iowa Democrats. Both candidates were fighting against stereotypes that voters have formed of them, using a new tone to win over those still wavering before the Iowa caucuses next Monday. And both of them gave, in their different ways, remarkably convincing performances. […]
[O]n the whole, the kinder, gentler Sanders showed that he has a much wider tonal range as a politician than the Larry David stereotype—or some of his rallies—would suggest. It’s likely that this softer Sanders was crafted in no small part to appeal to the rural populations of Iowa and New Hampshire. Rural voters are especially important in Iowa, because of the weight their votes have in the caucus system. Sanders has already won over a considerable number of college students and urbanites, who form his core fan base, so he needs those rural voters to diversify his support.
Clinton’s new, fightin’ tone is also aimed at skeptical voters. She’s been accused of being a complacent front-runner and pillar of the establishment. Whether this image is fair or not, Clinton needed to counter it. And so she’s re-cast herself as Hillary Clinton the fighter, the counter-puncher who has had to fight the Republicans her whole life. The theme of a combative Hillary is quite visible in her recent campaign ads, and her performance in the Democratic Forum was designed to reenforce this idea.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 26, 2016
Undaunted by the prospect of blowing yet a greater hole in the budget for the next few years, the State Senate joined the House in passing legislation that would ‘remove disincentives’ for job creation for the corporate overlords. The Senate passed the bill with only one ‘not voting’ (Townsend, who was a co-sponsor on the bill), and the bill goes to the Governor. Keep this in mind in June when the Honorables (ongoing h/t to Ralph Moyed) shrug their collective shoulders and lament the ‘tough choices’ (read screw anybody but the corporate overlords) they had to make. They, of course, didn’t have to make them. They made clear that bowing to their corporate overlords is business as usual. A projected $50 mill shortfall to the budget over the first 2 1/2 years the legislation is in effect. Just curious: Who, if anybody, will keep track of all those new jobs the corporate overlords will create now that the ‘disincentives’ have been removed? Based on previous experience, my prediction is ‘Nobody’. A pure unvarnished giveaway.
Delaware’s ‘apology’ for its role in perpetuating slavery passed the Senate. Three no votes. Hocker, Lawson, and Bonini. None of whom have likely ever cracked a history book and read of Delaware’s role in perpetuating slavery.
Teaser for my – Picking the 2016 Super Bowl winner using my never fail “which mascot would win in a fight method” post
Melanism is the opposite of albinism. Instead of lacking in dark pigment, animals with melanism have an over abundance of dark-colored pigment. When that happens in large cats like leopards and jaguars you end up with a panther. So Panthers aren’t a species of large cat, but leopards and jaguars super adapted to jumping on your head and tearing your neck out as you try to colonize the jungle parts of what was once called Burma.
How does this factor into the Mascots Matchups theory of picking the Super Bowl Champion? It might not be an straightforward as you think. Sit tight and I’ll let you know this Wednesday.
Monday Open Thread [1.25.2016]
![Monday Open Thread [1.25.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Red.Open_.Thread-240x180.png "Monday Open Thread [1.25.2016]")
Jacob Lederman at In These Times writes—Flint’s Water Crisis Is No Accident. It’s the Result of Years of Devastating Free-Market Reforms:
By most accounts, cities like Flint are victims of structural forces. The common-sense canard that globalization and technological change have made rust-belt cities unviable has been a convenient narrative for restructuring industrial cities through fiscal austerity programs. But while deindustrialization is an important part of Flint’s story, it obscures broader political forces that have decimated budgets and battered working class populations across the Midwest.
According to the Michigan Municipal League, between 2003-2013, Flint lost close to 60 million dollars in revenue sharing from the state, tied to the sales tax, which increased over the same decade. During this period, the city cut its police force in half while violent crime doubled, from 12.2 per 1000 people in 2003, to 23.4 in 2011. Such a loss of revenue is larger than the entire 2015 Flint general fund budget.
In fact, cuts to Michigan cities like Flint and Detroit have occurred as state authorities raided so-called statutory revenue sharing funds to balance their own budgets and pay for cuts in business taxes. Unlike “constitutional” revenue sharing in Michigan, state authorities could divert these resources at their discretion. It is estimated that between 2003-2013 the state withheld over $6 billion dollars from Michigan cities.
Saturday Open Thread [1.23.2016]
![Saturday Open Thread [1.23.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Inverse.Gray_.Open_.Thread-240x180.png "Saturday Open Thread [1.23.2016]")
Xpostfactoid, after considering the approach from Bernie and Hillary:
As Democrats mull how change works, consider Obama.
Bernie Sanders’ light sketch of single-payer healthcare Utopia has got Democrats debating their theory of change. Generate mass support for fundamental restructurings — of healthcare, banking, wage law –or take any step you can, by legislative compromise or executive order, to make current institutions more progressive?
Obama is often held up these days as a proto-Bernie who stoked the thirst for swift transformation in 2007-8 and then disappointed. But if Hope and Change was the Obama trumpet call, his bass note was always slow, hard, pragmatic step-by-step progress.
Even at his most apparently messianic, Obama has always stressed the incremental nature of change for the better…
The biggest flaw in Obama’s theory of change was born of arrogance rooted in past personal success. He plainly thought he could win Republicans over by moving toward them. I don’t think he fully corrected on that until the sequester took its first bite and he realized that Republicans wouldn’t compromise to shut it off. That quirk aside, though, I don’t think that Democrats ruminating over how change works can find a more nuanced or effective perspective than Obama’s.
Progressives really need to get over this Green Latern Theory of Change. That if we just elect one person the revolution will come and all will be well, simply because President Sanders has the bully pulpit. Did you all learn nothing from Obama? You need to elect more than one person. In 2006, and 2008, we elected a shit ton of Progressive Democrats, and that still was not enough to get all that we wanted. Politics and policy enactment is a long never ending struggle that takes decades. And you have to do two things at once: defend the progress you have made while at the same time trying to take the next step. It’s like walking in a Blizzard.
The Weekly Addresses
In this week’s address, the President discussed the progress we’ve made because of the Affordable Care Act.
In his weekly message, Governor Markell celebrated the progress made over the past eight years and highlighted the vision for a bright future for the state.
Wilmington Mayor Race Cattle Call — Show Me the Money Edition
Campaign finance reports for the year ending 31 December 2015 were due into the Department of Elections by 20 January 2016, so let’s take a look at what those reports might tell us about the race for Mayor of Wilmington:
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