DL Open Thread: Tues., July 30, 2019
Meet The Rethug Responsible For Budget-Slashing In Red States All Over The Country. Her name is Donna Arduin, and the results, predictably have been disastrous.
Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Epstein, And Virginia Roberts Giuffre. The third name is the woman who claims that Dershowitz forced her to have sex with him numerous times while she was under age. The more I read about Dershowitz, the more I despise him. And, along the same lines, this.
How US And British Intelligence Officials Viewed ‘Our Strange Situation’ In 2016. Russia was deep into both the 2016 Presidential election and Brexit, and intelligence officials were alarmed.
Guess Which D Presidential Candidate Pushed The Hardest For Federal Use Of The Death Penalty. You know, the death penalty that Trump and Barr plan to start up again. OK, don’t guess. This excerpt spells it out for you:
Particularly notable is Joe Biden, who came out against the death penalty just two days before Barr’s announcement last week. The tough-on-crime senator of the 1980s and ’90s was instrumental in pushing legislation that expanded federal death sentences — the vast majority of people on federal death row today were sentenced under the now-notorious 1994 crime bill.
Trump Terminating Scientific Panels Throughout Government. The reason is obvious: Scientific fact counters what Trump believes. End of story. End of panels.
What do you want to talk about?
I well remember Joe’s 1980’s “Crime & Drugs” campaign for the Dem nomination, I thought it was a mindless appeal to the haters. It was a classic of the “drug war” mentality sweeping the political midget minds of the day that still lingers in people like Pete Swartzkopf . Like most here I’ll vote for any Dem, but hopefully it will not be Joe. Awaiting round two of the debates, hoping it answers a few questions I have.
Biden is crushing it with black voters according to this morning’s TV talking head.
Dem primary voters are having Biden shoved down their throats. I only hope the Biden campaign isn’t as fucked up and clueless as the Clinton campaign.
If Biden is indeed crushing it with black voters suspect it’s due to nostalgia for Obama, and I also feel Biden is being shoved down our collective throats. As stated I look to the next debate to settle a few things, including perhaps another Joe smack down by Harris.
It’s worse. At least the Clinton campaign didn’t have a brain-dead, befuddled candidate. Mr. fucking Magoo.
Who’s not paying their fair share?
A recent News Journal article by Karl Baker exposes a serious problem exacerbating the insufficient funding issues for Christina public schools. This well-done investigative piece should initiate some type of response and action by authorities in collecting outstanding property tax arrearages or cause them to place a lien against the property owners or businesses. As a State Representative I have consistently opposed the draconian cuts to Delaware’s public education system. We still have Wilmington children bussed to the suburbs daily because of the lack of a Wilmington high school. We still force Christina school children into dilapidated and outdated buildings rife with structural failings and ever burgeoning mold growth. We ask teachers to supplement basic supplies due to these ongoing cuts and we waste money continuously on ineffective and unproven standardized tests and RODEL/Pearson/Chamber of Commerce reform measures that stifle education opportunities for the poorest and minority children. So you can imagine my frustration and astonishment when I was informed of New Castle County’s failure to recover property tax money destined to help Christina’s children. When the top 20 delinquent property tax owners total well over a million dollars in uncollected arrearages and the top delinquent tax owed by a single entity, the Newark Country Club, exceeds $409,000 (almost all in delinquent school taxes) it is well past time for action to be taken to recover these sorely needed monies. See the full article: delawareonline.com: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/money/business/2019/07/22/owed-millions-back-taxes-new-castle-county-goes-after-blighted-properties/1509081001/ We can no longer allow a lack of assets to dictate failing conditions for our school children.
State Representative John Kowalko
Speaking of not paying their fair share, this News-Journal editorial paves the way for investigative reporting on the comprehensive failure of the counties to do timely and accurate property reassessments. I look forward to the series:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/editorials/2019/07/30/long-past-time-fix-delaware-property-taxes-editorial/1803460001/