Archive for November, 2016
How Many White Supremacists is Tom Carper Comfortable With?
After Senator Coons released a statement concerning the raging anti-Semite Stephen Bannon in the White House, a friend on Facebook asked Tom Carper what his position was. The DC office told my friend that there were no plans. My friend asked, “How many white supremacist the senator was comfortable with in the incoming administration?”
Good Riddance Sallies
The Sallies-Baynard Stadium deal is no longer and I say, “Hurrah!” When I first heard of Sallies proposal to take over Baynard Stadium, I was quite skeptical. Sallies has a history in Delaware high school sports that is not so sporting.
Buckle up, buttercup—it’s time to march
Tuesday night, November 8, 2016, it became clear to the millions of Americans that the country they thought they lived in, the one where women, people of color, members of the LGBTQIA community, and people with disabilities were considered actual people, was just an elaborate illusion created by the “Matrix.”
Wednesday, the 54% of women who voted for an intelligent policy wonk, with years of relevant experience, a spine stronger than steel, and an actual plan, woke up to the new reality of a Donald Trump presidency, and also to a terrible hangover. As it happened, in a shocking twist, the group complaining the loudest about the “trophy generation,” and the delicate nature of millennials who demand “safe spaces,” were the ones who needed the most hand-holding, and when they didn’t get the exact amount of love and adoration they were used to, they opted to show their displeasure and voice their grievances in the only reasonable manner available—they cut off their hands and threw them at Democrats. Hillary, they claim, did not understand their specific needs, or if she did, she didn’t cater to them exclusively. They didn’t feel included in her message. They weren’t the most coveted group, and that hurt their feelings. This of course begs the question, who is the special snowflake now, middle America?
The November 16, 2016 Thread
So a week later, and the Trump transition is in total chaos. Who could have predicted?
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition operation “plunged into disarray on Tuesday with the abrupt resignation of Mike Rogers, who had handled national security matters, the second shake-up in a week on a team that has not yet begun to execute the daunting task of taking over the government,” the New York Times reports. Two sources close to Mike Rogers, who was ousted from the Trump transition team, told NBC News that he had been the victim of what one called a “Stalinesque purge,” from the transition of people close to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who left Friday. It was unclear which other aides close to Christie had also been forced out.
Meanwhile, “Gov. Mike Pence took the helm of the effort on Friday after Mr. Trump unceremoniously removed Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who had been preparing with Obama administration officials for months to put the complex transition process into motion. Now the effort is frozen, senior White House officials say, because Mr. Pence has yet to sign legally required paperwork to allow his team to begin collaborating with President Obama’s aides on the handover.”
Perhaps because of that, according to TPM, Donald Trump’s transition team has not reached out to officials at the State Department or the Pentagon for briefings as the President-elect prepares to take office in January, according to officials from those agencies. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said on Tuesday that the department has not heard from Trump’s transition team, according to Al-Monitor reporter Laura Rozen.
Please Welcome Evey to DL
We’ve known Evey for years. For some, she’s everything that is wrong with liberal women. For us, she’s everything that is right with liberal women. Please give her a warm welcome and enjoy her rants.
UPDATE: Tom Carper STILL has no position on GOP initiative to end Medicare
UPDATE: 12:28 – I called again to see if there has been any recent thinking on the Senator’s part regarding Paul Ryan’s plans to phase out Medicare next year. There hasn’t been. Senator Carper still has no position on Paul Ryan’s plainly stated intention to phase out Medicare next year.
I’m Just a Citizen Standing in Front of a Politician
Are you a concerned citizen? Do you rant on Facebook? Would you like to change your representatives’ minds in DC, but you aren’t a bank or big pharma? What to do?
Guest Post: Occasional Words from the Resistance – The first in a series of remarks from the desk of R.E. Vanella
Unhappy the land where heroes are needed. –Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo
I am in here. Like many of you I had a painful week. I think dramatic vacillation between severe emotions has the same effect as ascending too quickly from great depths in the sea. If I accelerate from rage directly to despondency in, say, less than two seconds I experience significant waves of nausea.
I’ve concluded that the seriousness of this moment requires us to navigate through the storms of the body and the psyche and get on the same page. There’s been mention of coming together. So to that end and if you’ll permit me, I’d like to make a few remarks.
What I am going to do, and what I strongly urge you all to do, is whatever it takes to prepare yourself for the fight ahead. We’ve read polls, and spread memes, and spewed talking points, and told the jokes, and made predictions, and dismissed other people predictions, and also the videos. It seems a little surreal that there was a game in this space around Republican primary season. Has anyone else had this thought? Please know I mean no disrespect, but I’m in no mood to play now.
The November 15, 2016 Thread
E.J. Dionne Jr. on Trumpian triumphalism:
To point out Clinton’s popular-vote advantage is not a form of liberal denial. It’s a way of beginning to build a barricade against right-wing triumphalism — and of reminding immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos and, yes, our daughters that most Americans stood with them on Election Day.
It is also not true that the emerging political coalition that elected President Obama died on Nov. 8. That alliance maintained its national advantage, as the popular vote shows, and came within a whisker in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan of delivering the election to Clinton despite an onslaught of partisan congressional investigations, Russian meddling and the last-minute political intervention of the FBI.
We dare not forget the power that was arrayed behind Trump because it is that power that must be resisted over the next four years.
Patty Blevins – What happened?
An incumbent State Senator isn’t supposed to lose. An incumbent President Pro Tempore of the State Senate really isn’t supposed to lose. It just doesn’t happen. So how did Lacey Lafferty’s lawyer, Anthony Delcollo (the guy had as the least likely of Dave Burris’ “fightin’ three young’uns” to win) knock off Blevins? Or, I guess you might ask, how did Blevins let the seat go?
Election Results set up a showdown in the 10th
Well, I won’t doubt Harris McDowell and Bruce Ennis again, that’s for sure. Both easily won reelection over what I thought were strong challenges by Republicans James Spadola and Carl Pace. It turns out the closest race among the three competitive races I highlighted before the election was the 8th SD, where Senator David Sokola held on against Republican upstart Meredith Chapman 51% to 47%. It turns out the surprise of the night was Republican Anthony Del Collo upsetting Senate President Pro Tem Patricia Blevins by 206 votes. Boy, getting that job of President Pro Tem seems like a curse recently. That reduces the Democratic majority in the Senate to razor-thin: 11-10.
Indeed, Blevins’ loss now makes the special election in the 10th Senate District do or die. Senator Bethany Hall Long, having been elected to be the next Lt. Governor, will likely resign the seat just before she takes office in mid-January. That would place the special election in either mid to late February or early March. The Democrats have a registration advantage in the 10th, with 15,600 Dems to 9,800 registered Republicans, but it is a competitive seat, with Republican John Marino getting 48.9% of the vote in 2014 amid the backlash to Hall-Long’s husband’s sign stealing scandal.
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