DL Open Thread Sunday, May 9, 2021
Former Gov. Pierre S. du Pont IV, known to all as Pete, died yesterday, age 86. Du Pont was elected governor in 1976 after the disastrous tenure of Sherman Tribbitt, and basically established the modern state of Delaware. He not only ushered in the legal usury that made Delaware a credit card capital, he pioneered what we now call the “Delaware Way” — settling intraparty disputes quietly so the General Assembly can present a unified face to the public.
He was also a genuinely nice guy. Perhaps the high point of his political career was his 1988 run for president. He didn’t get many votes, but he did get impersonated on Saturday Night Live, if only by Kevin Nealon. Well-wishers were asked to donate to the Frontotemporal Disorders Unit at Mass General Hospital.
Speaking of rich folks, it seems the residents of Palm Beach are stuck with the Last Guy as long as he’s an “employee” of Mar a Lago. Normally I would want Trump to lose any legal case, but in this case his opponents are the noxious rich of Palm Beach, so…
Speaking of deranged former presidents, the Last Guy is said to be “growing increasingly frustrated with the ex-president, whom they say spends his days nursing petty grievances against people he thinks have wronged him when he is not playing golf.” The article doesn’t explain how this differs from his behavior as president.
The Arizona “audit” of ballots is exactly the sort of clown show one might expect — or is it? I, for one, did not have “RWNJs will scan ballots for traces of bamboo” on my Loonball Bingo card. I understand they believe ballots were brought in from China, but I didn’t realize that their ignorance extended so far beyond racism that they believe anything that comes from China must, by definition, be made of bamboo.
Speaking of miscounting, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation looked at excess deaths around the world and calculated that nearly 7 million people, more than double the official count, have been killed by Covid, including an additional 343,000 in the United States.
Speaking further of miscounting, because the nation’s economists are so pathetically bad at predictions, they threw an airball on the nation’s employment numbers — and blame was attributed to everybody and everything but the economists themselves. I would just like to point out that, in 40 years of following the numbers, the economic consensus has NEVER — not even once — hit the number of job gains or losses anywhere close to on the nose. The actual numbers are always higher or lower than the prediction. If you’re a weather forecaster and you’re never right, you might want to think about switching to economic forecasting. It’s apparently a job that’s impossible to lose for poor performance.
The floor’s yours.
Pete du Pont … a gentleman who understood that a “governor” is not a ruler, that it is more important to bring people together than to demand they follow your lead. You might not have always agreed with him, but you could not help but respect him.
While many would consider the Financial Center Development Act his greatest legacy, more significant is that all but one of the governors who have followed him have tried to emulate his style.
Which one did not?
I’m speaking out of turn here, but I’m pretty sure Mr. Nagengast — who co-authored an oral history with Pete du Pont — is referring to the charmless Ruth Ann Minner.
Yeah Larry, “While many would consider the Financial Center Development Act his greatest legacy, more significant is that all but one of the governors who have followed him have tried to emulate his style.” “MORE SIGNIFICANT” huh? that statement shows the “significant” amount of influence bought and paid for over the years by the banking/credit card industry. The same group of well-heeled grifters responsible for the 2008 financial crisis and other similar economic collapses that cost the average working people all their savings while the big bank and Wall Street leeches suck up the money. “Regulations” anyone? No thanks we don’t need no “Regulations”. Repeal Glass-Steagall, preserve the Walmart and Amazon monopolies, rip the hearts out of the mom and pop businesses and empty those wallets of the American workers. Yeah! the United States of Corporate America created and sustained by the du Pont oligarchy and others like them is a legacy we should fondly remember like a kidney stone or abscessed tooth. Damn Petey D. easy to be a nice guy when your life of taking is memorialized by those who understand and appreciate the power of greed and money and the influence it can buy. Shame your gone but I can’t seem to muster up any tears. I seemed to have used them all up on those damned poor bastards who waste their entire lives working for a living and feeding their families.
Representative John Kowalko
Your mileage may vary, but some would consider transforming the state from one that nurtured the toxic chemical industry to one that nurtured the usury industry a relative improvement, provided you see bankrupting people as less horrible than poisoning them.
It’s not as if he consciously sought to diminish the chemical industry.
The DuPont Company and its ilk continued to pollute with impunity during Pierre’s reign. And he cut taxes for Delaware’s wealthiest.
He knew who his constituents were, and he took good care of them.
He didn’t cut taxes on the rich nearly as often as Tom Carper.
He started the trend. Fewer brackets, with a paltry hike in the minimum tax level as a fig-leaf offset. Carper made it into his own personal fetish.
My point is: We’re still living in the universe that Pete DuPont created. I think it’s time that we reconsider that universe, and perhaps reshape it. Carney can be the last of that…ilk.
No argument there. I said he shaped modern Delaware, because he did. What came before him was worse. Doesn’t mean we can’t do better, but the banking act was quite the reversal from Tribbitt’s bankrupt bank.
Before the cult took over