Year: 2016

Kudos to Wilmington City Councilman Bud Freel:

A handful of contracts that Mayor Dennis P. Williams brought to the City Council for approval have sat untouched for more than a month as Finance Committee Chairman Bud Freel wages a silent protest against the mayor. Freel has refused to bring three agreements to the full council for a final vote until Williams provides members of the state General Assembly with information about how the police department deploys officers. The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee on Dec. 2 approved putting $1.5 million toward fighting Wilmington crime, but said the money would not be released until the police department discloses the number of officers on patrol and how they are used. Legislators said they included the stipulation because of concerns the department is not effectively using current resources. [...] Williams has not responded to state lawmakers, saying he was offended by the stipulation.

Mayor Dennis P. Williams has something to hide: either his incompetence or something more sinister. Hence his refusal to turn over the data. It was long past time someone, anyone, on the Wilmington Council revolted. I say shut down the entire city until Williams relents. And then, come November, Wilmington voters need to wipe the city clean of all of most of elected officials, starting with Williams and his entire cabal.

Jason330 has come out for Sanders, though he is happy to vote for each candidate in the end, especially if the primary produces a battle tested Hillary Clinton. I, as you know, am a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton and I am not going to change my mind on that nor apologize for it. I believe Bernie Sanders would fail as our nominee, leading us to a Mondale or Dukakis-style defeat. And if you don't see that possibility, and the risk inherent in nominating someone who pledges to raise taxes on the middle class, not the wealthy, but the middle class, by 20%, then you are a, what is the term Jason used to describe me, oh yes, a puerile irredeemable naive misanthrope. It's like you have learned nothing at all about Republicans and Independents and even Democrats your entire life. I mean, the commercials write themselves. And the worst part is Bernie Sanders has pledged that he will be another Michael Dukakis and John Kerry in that he will not fight back with negative campaigning against the Republicans to defend himself. Fuck that. I'll go with the fighting Clinton. I will of course support and vote for him if he is our nominee, if only because to do otherwise will make me responsible for whatever Republican wins, but that does not change the fact that the Democratic Party will be wiped out in Congress and every where else, not that Bernie cares, since he is not a Democrat nor does he support any Democratic candidates with his campaign money. So game on. The Battle is joined. Now let's get back to the politics of it. Hillary got the win, albeit a close one, but she will no doubt take it and be happy. And Clinton supporters should be happy, and Bernie supporters should be concerned. Why? Because the worst case scenario for her campaign and the best case scenario for the Sanders campaign occurred in that the turnout for Sanders was higher than even the Sanders campaign expected, and Hillary still won. She took the punch and kept standing. Now Bernie faces a no win situation in New Hampshire. Current polls have his lead there anywhere from 15-30 points. He better win by 20-30 points to have his win deemed a win. In fact, I am not sure he should even be campaigning in New Hampshire right now. He should be in South Carolina and Nevada. Because what happens if Hillary gains on him in New Hampshire to finish strong there, losing by 5 instead of 30? It means she will have "won" the New Hampshire primary in terms of momentum. And then she will go steamrolling into Nevada and South Carolina. Bernie needs to be there now to see if he can make inroads in states where Hillary is leading by significant margins, to show that he can win where white progressives are not 90% of the vote.

I've been saying I'm a spectator for a while and would be happy with whoever the Dems pick. While that is true, it is pretty wishy-washy. Sanders embodies close to…

Trump, Cruz and Rubio were managing the expectations game going into tonight's caucuses. We also have tells from the candidates themselves about how the campaign is going. Ed Kilgore says the Clinton campaign reeks of confidence. Margaret Hartmann on the Bernie Sanders campaign:

Over the weekend, Sanders began running a new ad in Iowa that hints Clinton is too influenced by Wall Street. And after famously declaring, "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails," at October's debate, he took a different stance when Jake Tapper raised the issue on CNN's State of the Union. "I think this is a very serious issue," Sanders said. "I think there is a legal process right now taking place." In some ways Clinton and Sanders have switched tactics in the final days before voting in Iowa. As New York's Ed Kilgore reported, a confident Clinton tried to fire up supporters by discussing a raft of progressive policy proposals on Sunday in Des Moines. Meanwhile, the final Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics poll showed Clinton three points ahead of Sanders in Iowa, and the Washington Post reports that a "visibly agitated" Sanders complained about Clinton hitting him on gun control and reproductive rights. "Those are inaccuracies, and we can do better than that," he said. "Secretary Clinton and I have differences of opinion. Let’s debate those differences of opinion, but let’s not go around distorting a record that I am very proud of."

That tells of a campaign that is behind.

It is also, recyled Iowa post day...

...if aliens descended in their spacecraft and asked us why we let 200,000 morons in the middle of fucking nowhere have veto power over who runs for President of the most important country in the world our only possible answer would be, “Because we are dummies.”

It is all still true.