The Grift-iest Generation

Former officials of American Legion Post 28 have been charged for taking part in a check-cashing scheme that stole $641,000 in slot-machine proceeds, officials say. The vice commander of the American Legion Post 28, a former post commander, two former finance officers and a past adjutant face charges after police say they wrote checks for cash that was not used for American Legion business. A sixth man involved has since died.
What gets me about these guys, and the other old farts I see stealing lumber from construction sites, is that they are the first to blame everything on the no-good poors. Meanwhile, they act like their stealing isn't a crime because society owes them something.

Tuesday Open Thread [4.12.16]

I have seen Sanders supporters here and there lately, including State Representative John Kowalko, saying the super delegate system is not fair. This newest round of complaining about the super delegates did not make sense to me, since as of right now, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders by over 250 pledged delegates and 2.5 million popular votes. So Super delegates are not even figuring into this equation and are not relevant. It's not like they are stealing the nomination away from Bernie Sanders. Indeed, only one campaign has made the argument that Super delegates should hand the nomination to someone who is not the pledged delegate leader, and that campaign is Bernie Sanders'. Talk about being undemocratic and hypocritical. So why complain about the super delegates now? It didn't make sense. Especially when you consider, no matter how undemocratic and hypocritical it is, winning over the super delegates really is the only way Bernie Sanders can win the Democratic nomination in 2016. Then I came upon this MSNBC graphic being passed around by some Sanders supporters on Twitter: Cfyla_QWcAE66Yi The graphic is misleading, but at first glance (and after several glances if you low-information independent voter unfamiliar with delegates, super delegates and proportional representation, which happen to be a lot a Bernie supporters), it seems unfair. How does Bernie win 56% of the vote and not win the most delegates??? Come inside for the explanation.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., April 13, 2016

Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., April 13, 2016

The Governor and leaders of the General Assembly, along with the State Chamber of Commerce, are repeating the same strategy they employed so effectively to emasculate a decent minimum wage increase two years ago. The exact same strategy, in fact. Step One: Get some DINO like Brian Bushweller to express reservations about the bill, thus requiring supporters to weaken it in order for it to pass the Senate. Step Two: Have Speaker Pete put it in the House Business Lapdog Committee, instead of the Labor Committee. Step Three: Get a couple of putative D legislators to parrot Chamber talking points and express 'concerns' they have with the bill. Step Four: Either kill the bill in committee or, failing that, make the bill even weaker than the bill that passed the Senate. While states like New York and California have passed bills establishing a $15 minimum wage, and while several municipalities have done the same, what passes for D leadership here seeks to water down a bill that would provide a phase-in of an eventual $10.25 minimum wage.  This, of course, after tossing something like $50 mill to corporate serial polluters to stay here.
Congressional Debate Tonight

Congressional Debate Tonight

No disrespect to Michael Miller, a perennial also-ran from Congressional races in the dark years of Mike Castle's reign in the 90's and 2000's who is also running again this year for reasons passing understanding, tonight's congressional debate hosted by the University of Delaware College Democrats will essentially be a two-man show down between Bryan Townsend and Sean Barney. Yes, we know that there is a third credible candidate in the race by the name of Lisa Blunt Rochester. But she backed out of tonight's debate for scheduling conflict reasons, which seems ... interesting. Anyone, come inside for the details....

Delaware Liberal: Civil War

A reader suggested this to make light of our Primary Wars between Hillary and Bernie partisans on DL. So I threw this together this morning. Take no meaning from the assigning of your names to the various Marvel characters or the Marvel story, because I know none of it and have never seen a Captain America or Ironman movie. I'm a DC Comics Man. LOL. Click on the picture to see a much larger version. DL.CIVILWAR

We get mail

I have been living in DE for 8 years and just found this DEM Party rag. I was looking for an answer to a question about whom among the super delegates from DE are supporting HRC; all of them. Sadly, much like Republicans, Delaware Democrats are not really interested in anything but maintaining the status quo.
Monday Open Thread [4.11.16]

Monday Open Thread [4.11.16]

Martin Longman on Bernie Sander's frustrating wins:
It’s tough to see Sanders win strong victories in Wisconsin and Wyoming and discover that he’s getting further away rather than closer to winning the nomination. You can argue about whether this is fair or not, but the rules haven’t been changed in the middle of the game. Candidates don’t set out to win some abstract and idealized version of the process. They set out to win a contest with defined challenges and obstacles, and their strategies should match those requirements. If there are no delegates to be netted out of Wyoming, it’s probably not worth spending any time, money or effort on it, especially if the polls show you’re going to win it easily without any effort. This contest was won or lost (depending on your perspective) in the South. Beyond that, it was won far earlier when Clinton won enough party support to dissuade others from challenging her and to get most of the party officials in her corner. The reason this was so easy to accomplish is that Clinton maintained sky-high approval ratings throughout Obama’s second term, including better than 80% support from self-described progressive Democrats. That support among progressives is what made me realize as far back as 2014 that it would be fruitless to try to take her on from the left. And that’s when I knew that she’d be the nominee. Of course, I wouldn’t call Sanders’ challenge fruitless at all if we’re talking broadly about positive influences and outcomes. But he won’t win, and I don’t think he could have won in an environment where most progressives, particularly in the South, have a very positive view of Hillary. White progressives struggle to accept these facts because Clinton is not popular in white liberal circles. But that doesn’t get you very far, as white progressive champions always fall short unless they can unite the entire progressive community and still appeal to the middle. Obama could do that. But there aren’t many Obamas out there.