DL Open Thread: Friday, August 27, 2021
Why So Many Politicians Are Jerks–And How To Bring Them Down. Something we always ingrained in our candidates: Thank your volunteers, treat them well, and feed them. Meaning, I particularly enjoyed this vignette:
Landesman, the former political staffer, once worked on a campaign where he and other staff had to go door to door and talk to constituents. This kind of campaigning is hard work—people frequently slam the door in your face—and the staff were expected to knock on 300 doors a day. The local politician they were campaigning for was a jerk. He never thanked his staff or took the time to get to know them, and no one liked him. So instead of knocking on doors for him, the staff would just smoke marijuana in the parking lot and fill out their forms with false data. “They just circled random numbers,” Landesman said. The candidate ended up losing by only about 500 votes. “Those handful of days might have made the difference,” he said.
Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Eviction Moratorium. 6-3, you know which justices voted on each side. Couldn’t even wait until the Court reconvenes in October:
In an unsigned opinion released Thursday night, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed that the federal agency did not have the power to order such a ban.
“It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant,” the majority’s eight-page opinion said. “But our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends. . . . It is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here.”
The court’s three liberal justices dissented and said the majority’s rush to end the moratorium was inappropriate and untimely.
“The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC’s judgment at this moment, when over 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates,” wrote Justice Stephen G. Breyer, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
More Anti-Vaxxer Sadness. Inspirational Quote?:
“The entire 82nd Airborne couldn’t make me get an experimental government vaccine stuck in my arm.”
“We have waited 349 long days for this case to come to an end, and this is not the end we hoped for or expected,” said Jane Boever, the victim’s sister. “Our brother laid in the ditch for almost twelve hours” before his body was discovered, she said.
“This is inexcusable. If an ordinary person had committed these crimes, we believe the case would have been closed months ago,” she continued. “Instead, State Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg ran our brother down and then used his position, knowledge, and resources to selfishly string this case along and more importantly widen and deepen the wounds of our loss. We feel that at no point has the defendant shown any remorse and has instead demonstrated callousness with respect to the life he took and the victim’s family and friends.”
I just love this statement from the judge: “I don’t think a jail sentence in the context of this case would have had a particular disciplinary benefit.” Ho-kay.
Did you know that what happened in Afghanistan is ‘Biden’s Nightmare Scenario’? If not, you’re not reading the breathless hyperventilating emanating from virtually every mainstream media operation.
Connections Coughs Up $15 Mill To Settle Fraud Cases:
CCSP provided a host of mental health and addiction-treatment services throughout Delaware before filing for bankruptcy earlier this year, authorities said.
“For many years, Connections was improperly billing government programs for mental health services and failing to properly monitor and document its controlled substances inventory,” Mr. Weiss said in a statement.
“These settlements, together with the transfer of all of Connections’ services and operations to providers, finally resolve Connections’ long history of poor legal and regulatory compliance which jeopardized the provision of important mental health and substance abuse treatment to the residents of the State of Delaware.”
According to the statement, claims were made that CCSP “violated the federal Controlled Substances Act by negligently failing to keep proper records of its use of controlled substances, including methadone and buprenorphine, in its treatment of patients with substance use disorders and by transferring controlled substances between locations without proper documentation.”
Isn’t this precisely the sort of fraud that a State Auditor should uncover? Where was Tom Wagner during all of this time? He committed fraud by taking a state salary. I’m sorry, somebody failed, likely several somebodies, to exercise any sufficient oversight of these huge contracts. I think the public deserves to know who those somebodies were.
RIP: Helen Truitt. Very saddened to read of her passing. She was Sen. Cordrey’s Secretary in Legislative Hall during Richard’s time as President Pro-Tempore. Sen. Cordrey always had an open door policy, and Helen, in addition to being very good at her job, always made us feel welcome. Deepest respects to her family.
What do YOU want to talk about?
Today is the kind of news day that makes me glad I don’t get cable news.
Word
What puzzles me is how Connections, a nonprofit social services agency that’s been sold to sort of cover its multimillion-dollar debts, is supposed to come up with $15 million to pay a fine. The News Journal story said something about an insurer, but somehow I don’t think an insurance company is liable to cover illegal acts.