Delaware Liberal

DL Open Thread: Weds., Jan. 8, 2020

State Auditor Delivers Half-Assed Report On Odyssey Charter.  She’s really terrible.  Here’s an excerpt for the subscription-challenged:

According to the Department of Education, the report isn’t what the Charter School Office asked for. In its request for an “investigatory audit,” the department had expected a report offering a more thorough indication of whether the Wilmington school had engaged in financial wrongdoing.

According to State Auditor Kathleen McGuiness, the two departments settled on conducting a report called an Agreed Upon Procedure, an auditing practice that answers specific financial questions, but does not offer opinions.

The nature of that type of report was never made clear to the Department of Education, spokesperson Alison May said. The conditions of Odyssey’s probation, as well as the contract between the department, the Auditor of Accounts and the school, cited the need for an “investigatory audit,” and the education department expected more.

“The auditor’s office worked and took direction from DOE on this. We did what we were directed to do, and answered the questions,” McGuiness said. While the auditor’s office cannot issue an opinion, she said, “the information is present for the Department of Education to address how they see fit.”

What does she mean by ‘the auditor’s office cannot issue an opinion’.  It’s not mere ‘opinion’ to look at the facts and to draw reasonable conclusions.  She has been in bed (figuratively, this time at least) with Odyssey from the very beginning.  She is part of a cover-up.

There Was No Imminent ThreatNow There Is.  Yet, there is very little uproar here over the phony pretext.  When someone lies constantly, I guess that is to be expected. Even when you’re maybe starting a war…

Nothing Coherent About Trump’s Strategy.  He responds to his rages, and nothing else:

With Mr. Trump, so much of his presidency is situational — he careens like a bumper car from one crisis to another, many of them self-created, rarely pausing to set a straight-ahead course but never lacking for energy and always willing to ram into other vehicles. No matter how much aides try to impose an orderly process, he still prefers seat-of-the-pants governance, leaving advisers scrambling to adjust…

…Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense under President Barack Obama who turned down a chance to serve as deputy defense secretary for Mr. Trump, said the chaotic nature of the current foreign policy stemmed from an “impulsive, inconsistent” president without a functional national security process that would ensure that “second- and third-order consequences” were fully considered.

McConnell Buys Collins’ Vote To Start Impeachment Trial Without Witnesses. Ditto, of course, for Murkowski. More proof that the Rethuglican Party is merely a criminal conspiracy by any other name:

Collins and Murkowski know damn well that McConnell won’t call witnesses. They both know that the only thing McConnell can be trusted to do is protect Trump at all costs. But for Collins, that means keeping the McConnell gravy train running. He’ll keep the money flowing to her campaign as long as she keeps playing along.

There’s your quid pro quo, right there.

‘Bipartisan Biden’ Touts ‘Mild Cooperation’ From Moscow Mitch.  I have nothing to add.

Ukrainian Airliner Crashes Near Tehran.  One can only hope that this is unrelated to the heightened tensions in the area.

Canada’s Exxon Subsidiary Knew About Climate Change Impact, Lied About It To Canadians For Decades.  Maybe they’ll face a less-forgiving public and judiciary than Exxon has here.

This is one day I could go on and on.  But ‘news overload’ is a thing, and I think it’s best to stop here.

What do you want to talk about?

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