DL Open Thread Wednesday March 2nd 2022
Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union last night. I didn’t watch it. As political bloggers go, I guess I am pretty awful. I suppose some other stuff happened too. Be a flower song would you, and let me know in the comments if I missed anything interesting. Thanks!
Just watched VP Kamala Harris on TV. I guess Republicans still don’t like Biden so much. Her take (to summarize) they have a lot of opinions but we have facts on our side.
Good luck with that. The Party of Facts and Sober Moderation – once more into the breech.
Just another reason for Police reform!
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2022/03/01/former-dover-officer-banned-police-overdosing-job/6981215001/
Beto won the Dem nomination for TX governor. Godspeed, Sir. Texas is fucked up three ways to Sunday.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/01/delaware-statehouse-diversity-struggles-2022/9297568002/
Karl Stomberg of the Delaware Working Families Party, a political group that helped topple incumbents in 2020, said they plan to target more seats this year than they did in 2020.
Stomberg pointed to how many lawmakers are former police officers, retirees and lawyers. His group’s goal is to get more socioeconomically diverse candidates in addition to racially diverse candidates, he said.
“If you’ve ever had to deal with being evicted, or if you’ve never had to go through the criminal justice system, or you’ve never had to work two or three jobs, you’re not going to have the same sort of knowledge that is really important when legislating,” Stomberg said.
Well said Karl. The most under-represented of all Americans are those who, regardless of race, gender or faith, make up the working class. Even when lots of union guys got elected, they weren’t elected off the shop floor.
The over-represented group Karl did not list but might want to add: small business owners, a category that also includes professionals like doctors, dentists et al. Campaigning for office is much easier if you’re self-employed and can set your own hours.
BTW, compared to other states Delaware has relatively few lawyers. I think we’re up to three, and that’s the most in a half-century. Far more cops than lawyers.
Off the top of my head, there are five lawyers in the legislature (two in the House and three in the Senate)
And agreed that the phrase “small business owner” is one of the most overrated set of words in the English language (at least in the US). Even worse is “job creator.”
In the House, Griffith and Lynn. In the Senate, Gay, Townsend and I guess you have to count Hansen, though I always forget she left the lab behind along with the family. Lawyer. Heh.
Bill Bush is a lawyer. Quite frankly the problems with the lawyers has always been their connection/allegiance to the Corporate Bar and the creation of LLC licensing with no system of oversight and their unwillingness to fix that situation.
Rep. Kowalko
Good luck on removing the police from the state government, they remain a roadblock to any progress here, it was an exceptionally bad idea to let them run as Democrats. Would suggest Texas is more like fucked up eight ways to Sunday and locked in a contest with Florida and Arizona to produce the worst politicians and endless insane laws that will plague citizens for many years.
I know it was meant as hyperbole, but THEY choose which party’s banner they’ll run under.
BTW, one ex-cop/legislator is sweating, um, bullets b/c he’s got an as-yet-unannounced challenger. Could end up being one of the defining races of the year. That’s all I can say. For now.
I threw up in my mouth when Biden gave a shout out to our stellar congressional delegation….. And the best part was it appears he forgot “her” name.
Of course, there’s the line he could have inserted, but would never dare to … It goes something like this, but he’d have to fill in the blanks:
“Of the XXX Fortune 500 companies incorporated in Delaware, YY of them paid no federal income tax.”
“We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” Biden said in his address. “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.”
Woohooo! It’s about time!
— wait, I think he means only Russians.
I think he also means ill-gotten.