Archive for January, 2016
Here is what I’d love the Green Party to do…
1) Acknowledge Reality. There is a WORLD of difference between Hillary Clinton and even the most moderate of Republicans. Saying that there is no difference is just stupid. It is like saying the Earth is 10,000 years old. You are living in a dream land. You might have had a point 20 years ago, but if you still think that the Democratic Party is as terrible as the GOP, you have your head up your ass.
Saturday Open Thread [1.16.2016]
![Saturday Open Thread [1.16.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Open.Thread.Gray_-240x180.png "Saturday Open Thread [1.16.2016]")
First Read: “Turning to the Democratic race, Sunday night brings us the final Dem debate before the Iowa caucuses… and it promises to be a doozy. Not only do we have a neck-and-neck race in Iowa, but we have a true fight over the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.”
“Do Democrats go with the candidate essentially running on continuity with President Obama (Hillary Clinton), or do they back the candidate promising revolution (Bernie Sanders)? Should their nominee be another Clinton? Or should it be a self-avowed democratic socialist who hasn’t been a member of the party until now? We’ve spent so much time looking at the establishment-vs.-insurgent divide inside the Republican Party, but don’t dismiss the equally compelling fight within the Democratic Party over where it should be entering Year 8 of the Obama presidency.”
Global Oil now the next “too big to fail” ?
This NYT article feels like the left jab. The uppercut that sends us to the canvas is going to be finding out that taxpayers must urgently subsidize Exxon and underwrite their profits, or risk economic CALAMITY!
The Weekly Addresses
In this week’s address, the President spoke about the steps we need to take to modernize our unemployment insurance system.
In his weekly message, Governor Markell highlights efforts to build on the progress made in dual enrollment for Delaware students.
Delaware Political Weekly: Jan. 8-14, 2016
Denise D. Bowers has filed to run against State Senator Cathy Cloutier for the 5th SD seat in Brandywine Hundred. Based on registration, this projects as a competitive race. Current figures: 13,703 D; 11,169 R; and 8790 I.
Her candidacy does not come without questions. She is a 21-year veteran of the Wilmington Police Department, although it’s not entirely clear that she was on duty for all that time. She filed at least two legal actions concerning her job during her time on the force. The first deals with compensation for a scar on her knee, aka a ‘ serious and permanent disfigurement’. The second was a prolonged litigation concerning her ‘involuntary retirement’ from the force. In fact, even though she allegedly was a police officer until 2008, it is not clear whether she was on the job after 2005, when she suffered the knee injury mentioned in the second suit. A swift Google search also reveals several actions brought against Bowers and her husband for unpaid taxes on rental properties in Wilmington. OTOH, Bowers is president of the Northwood Civic Association and is currently the State Director of the Treatment Access Center, the liaison between the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health and the courts system. I’m sure that some of you must have met her. I need feedback, pipples!
Friday Open Thread [1.15.2016]
![Friday Open Thread [1.15.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Black_-240x180.png "Friday Open Thread [1.15.2016]")
Steven Stromberg writes about how negative the tone of last night’s debate was:
With only a few weeks left before the first primary contests, the GOP race has devolved into a competition for who can squeeze the most political advantage out of voter fear, no matter how over-the-top they sound and no matter how much damage they do by darkening the national mood. Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) “won” the latest round of this increasingly disgusting show, with Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) coming in second. But being the most effective at exaggerating the dangers the country faces and preying on voter anger is not an achievement; it is a moral failure. […]
Here is a dose of reality: It is possible to disagree with the GOP base and be a patriot. The nation faces many challenges, but it is stronger economically and more secure from various foreign threats than nearly everywhere else in the world. In many ways, Americans are better off now than they ever have been. The continuing desire of non-Americans to move, work and do business here is a sign of strength, showing the appeal of the United States rather than demonstrating weakness.
It don’t think it is possible to be a member of the GOP base and be a patriot. To be a member of the GOP base requires you to be a bigoted fascist. America goes to war against bigoted fascists. It does not call them patriots.
Thursday Open Thread [1.14.2016]
![Thursday Open Thread [1.14.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Light_.Blue_-240x180.png "Thursday Open Thread [1.14.2016]")
However, Obama’s own words indicated that he has come to understand that a large chunk of the country fundamentally disagrees with his definition of progress and with his vision of government’s role in promoting it — and that his efforts at persuasion have not been enough to overcome these differences. A big chunk of the country does not envision as robust a governmental role in promoting economic security and maintaining a minimum standard of health care; in acting to combat climate change; and in creating a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants to get right with the law.
That’s the America that Trump and Cruz are speaking to most effectively right now — the chunk of the country that remains hostile, or at least deeply skeptical, towards Obama’s vision of cultural inclusion, of what counts as progress, and of government’s proper role in promoting it. In pleading for all of these things — and in admitting that he’s failed to unite the country behind a shared vision — Obama implicitly conceded that when it comes to our biggest arguments, there still may be two Americas, after all. The unspoken truth that Obama could not openly acknowledge last night is that Democrats are betting their hopes for preserving this vision on the demographic gamble that their America is inexorably evolving into the larger one.
Well, it is. That is a safe bet. Racists are dying off, and whites will no longer by the majority of this country in 10 years time. So the party that stands for inclusion and diversity and tolerance of all cultures and faiths will be the dominant party. The GOP has two choices: 1) change, or 2) somehow win one final election and engage in mass genocide and/or deportation. Right now, with Trump, they are going with option 2
A Learning Experience – College Roomies
My daughter started college last fall and within the first two weeks her roommate dropped out. That meant she had the dorm room to herself, which she loved at first, but then grew to feel she was missing out on an important part of the college experience. I agreed. That changed over the holidays. My […]
Talking about taxes with wingnuts on Gov Elect Carney’s FB page
When Governor Elect Carney announced this “FB chat” I promised myself that I wouldn’t jump in with cranks and crackpots to shake my puny, impotent fist at the staffer playing the role of Carney on social media. Then… I went there anyway because, of course I did.
You can see my brief dialogue with the staffer playing the role of Carney on social media below, but underneath that cordial small talk, I stuck around a bit to chit chat with some wingnuts. If you have a few minutes to kill, you can read the back and forth, but the bottom line is this: Broke-ass, middle class Republicans have been instructed by the media and their political “thinkers” that the Poors are bad and the Richs are virtuous.
They are very comfortable with that as a world-view. It makes sense to them. Beyond that simple formulation, they have a few programmed rhetorical tools at their disposal, such as “If you hear ‘X’ , say ‘Y'” but no real political or economic philosophy to defend, NOR any real interest in politics or economics beyond the ability of politics to give them a team to identify with.
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