DL Open Thread: Thursday, July 6, 2023
Country’s Most Powerful Lobbyists Campaign Both For And AGAINST Climate Reform. Depressing. Like ‘centrists’, they stand for nothing save enriching themselves:
More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can reveal.
Lobbyists for oil, gas and coal interests are also employed by a vast sweep of institutions, ranging from the city governments of Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia; tech giants such as Apple and Google; more than 150 universities; some of the country’s leading environmental groups – and even ski resorts seeing their snow melted by global heating.
It shows the reach of state-level fossil-fuel lobbyists into almost every aspect of American life, spanning local governments, large corporations, cultural institutions such as museums and film festivals, and advocacy groups, grouping together clients with starkly contradictory aims.
For instance, State Farm, the insurance company that announced in May it would halt new homeowner policies in California due to the “catastrophic” risk of wildfires worsened by the climate crisis, employs lobbyists that also advocate for fossil fuel interests to lawmakers in 18 states.
Meanwhile, Baltimore, which is suing big oil firms for their role in causing climate-related damages, has shared a lobbyist with ExxonMobil, one of the named defendants in the case. Syracuse University, a pioneer in the fossil fuel divestment movement, has a lobbyist with 14 separate oil and gas clients.
You can find the miscreants in this data base. It’s essential information for the Green movement.
What’s that you ask? You wanna know about Delaware? Prepare to be shocked. Not:
Delaware lobbyist Robert L. Byrd has been described as one of the state’s “top influencers” and “the classic insider.” A former state representative and former vice president of the Delaware Chamber of Commerce, Byrd has been lobbying the state legislature since 1988, meaning he has been in the capitol longer than almost all current legislators. Byrd even wrote portions of the state’s original lobbying disclosure law, which requires lobbyists to disclose their expenditures on gifts and entertainment, but not the compensation they receive from each of their clients.
For the 2022 legislative session, Byrd’s client list included three fossil fuel companies and a wide array of entities in health care, insurance, finance, education, and technology. Byrd also represents the Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement whose membership includes several nonprofits for whom conservation and environmental protection are their top priority or one of their top priorities.
Most notorious among his fossil fuel clients was the Koch Companies Public Sector LLC, which represents Koch Industries, one of the largest operators of fossil fuel infrastructure in the U.S. and one of the biggest funders of climate denial campaigns.
Byrd’s other two fossil fuel clients were Calpine, for whom he lobbied on the Climate Change Solutions Act (SB 33) and Renewable Energy Act (SB 165), and Chesapeake Utilities, which owns and operates gas pipelines.
Bobby Byrd: A literal toxic purveyor of poison. And dominating presence in Leg Hall. He embodies everything wrong with Delaware. For those who ask how he can live with himself, the answer is ‘very comfortably’. Which is how you roll when you have no morals and no conscience.
Does Anybody Remember Charles ‘Bouvier de Flanders’ Copeland? The wealthy crank who has never had to work a day in his life cranks out pieces full of numbers signifying nothing for the Caesar Rodney Institute. Take this piece (please). If you can’t bear to read the whole thing, the bottom line is that the guy who, along with John Daniello, successfully lobbied the General Assembly to prohibit minority parties (like the Working Families Party) from having their own ballot line even though their endorsed slate would have also been major party candidates, now wants ‘open primaries:
Perhaps it is time for the General Assembly to review the “Primary Election” process and make changes to increase voter participation in those determinative elections. For years, I opposed “open Primaries,” but as elections get more and more partisan and local turnout remains poor, it is time to re-evaluate the nature of primary elections in Delaware to provide real voter choice and, therefore, participation.
If elections continue to be won by extremists elected in primaries by only a handful of voters, distrust in government will continue to grow among the general population.
How stoopid is this proposal? Uh, well, only one party is nominating extremists. His party. They invariably get defeated. Usually crushed. The Democratic Party increasingly is nominating progressives, most with support from the Working Families Party. They almost invariably get elected. So much for Copeland’s purported ‘both-side-erism’. Let’s face it–he isn’t expecting D’s to cross the line to vote for less RWNJ candidates, he wants Rethugs to vote for centrist DINOs. As opposed to progressives who, um, aren’t ‘radical’, as evidenced by pretty much every public opinion poll you can find.
His real target is the Working Families Party, which he first denigrates:
For instance, the news media often trumpets the importance of the “Working Families Party” (WFP), but the WFP has only 333 registered voters in Delaware – simply a rounding error.
In short, the impact of minor political parties on the electorate is meaningless.
Personal to Laura Sturgeon, Marie Pinkney, Larry Lambert, Rae Moore, DeShanna Neal, Sophie Phillips, Cyndie Romer, Madinah Wilson-Anton, and Eric Morrison–don’t tell anybody.
Copeland–once and forever an idiot.
DeSantis Signs Bill Banning–Alimony? Florida Rethug women are shocked, shocked:
Along with eliminating permanent alimony, the measure will set up a process for ex-spouses who make alimony payments to seek modifications to alimony agreements when they want to retire.
It will allow judges to reduce or terminate alimony, support or maintenance payments after considering a number of factors, such as “the age and health” of the person who makes payments; the customary retirement age of that person’s occupation; the “economic impact” a reduction in alimony would have on the recipient of the payments; and the “motivation for retirement and likelihood of returning to work” for the person making the payments.
The bill will set a five-year limit on what is known as rehabilitative alimony.
Under the plan, people married for less than three years will not be eligible for alimony payments, and those who have been married 20 years or longer will be eligible to receive payments for up to 75 percent of the term of the marriage.
The new law will also allow alimony payers to seek modifications if “a supportive relationship exists or has existed” involving their ex-spouses in the previous year. Critics argued the provision is vague and could apply to temporary roommates who help alimony recipients cover living expenses for short periods of time.
The approval drew an outcry from members of the “First Wives Advocacy Group,” a coalition of mostly older women who receive permanent alimony and who assert that their lives will be upended without the payments.
“On behalf of the thousands of women who our group represents, we are very disappointed in the governor’s decision to sign the alimony-reform bill. We believe by signing it, he has put older women in a situation which will cause financial devastation. The so-called party of ‘family values’ has just contributed to erosion of the institution of marriage in Florida,” Jan Killilea, a 63-year-old Boca Raton woman who founded the group a decade ago, told The News Service of Florida in a text message Friday.
Yep, It Was A Trump Judge Who Has Been Judge-Shopped Before. You know, the one who permitted dissemination of disinformation on the web free from government sanctions. One of the most extreme of Trump’s judges, in fact:
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty on Tuesday barred Biden administration officials — everyone from Heath and Human Services to the Centers for Disease Control to the FBI — from flagging posts that spread misinformation to social media companies. Doughty ruled that such contact is a violation of the First Amendment. The companies include Facebook/Meta, Twitter, YouTube/Google, Instagram and many more.
The judgment bans the named officials from meeting with the companies, flagging worrying content, emailing or calling the companies about content, following up with the companies or even collaborating with groups like the Election Integrity Partnership to identify troublesome posts.
The case now goes through the familiar gauntlet of right-wing-friendly venues: the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and, likely, the Supreme Court. Should Doughty’s ruling survive, it’d be a sea change in the interpretation of this area of law. His injunction, at least, will likely remain in place for months, given the conservative dominance of the 5th Circuit and the time it’ll take for the case to reach the Supreme Court.
Many anti-Biden administration litigants have recently filed lawsuits in the same pipeline — Trumpy district judge to 5th Circuit to Supreme Court — on everything from abortion to the Affordable Care Act.
The high court, though, has overturned Doughty before; he made the initial ruling banning the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements for health care workers at facilities that receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid, which the Court ultimately let stand.
Democrats Can-And Should-Play This Game. WI Rethugs set up the line item veto at Ron Johnson’s behest. Check out how Democratic Governor Tony Evers used it:
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) used his line-item veto power to expand school funding in the state for the next four centuries on Wednesday, a blow to Republicans who were livid with the crafty use of executive power.
The governor vetoed a selection of words, numbers and a hyphen in the state’s new budget, which effectively stretched out an expansion in school funding for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years to an annual increase every year until 2425.
The initial budget allowed school districts to raise an additional $325 per student annually, ending the next school year. But the deletion of certain wording effectively expands that policy for 400 years, a change the governor said would “provide school districts with predictable long-term increases for the foreseeable future.”
“In many ways, Republicans in the Legislature have failed to meet this historic moment, sending my budget back to my desk absent critical investments in key areas that they know — and publicly acknowledge — are essential to the success of our state, all while providing no real justification, substantive debate, or any meaningful alternative,” Evers said in a veto message on Wednesday. “That decision is, to put it simply, an abdication of duty.”
The change could be undone by a future legislature or governor. The legislature could also override his vetos, but that is unlikely as the Assembly would need a two-thirds majority to do so.
Evers, a former public school educator, made 51 line-item vetoes in total, notably changing Republican-approved tax cuts for wealthy residents from $3.5 billion to $175 million. Republicans had hoped to condense the state’s income brackets, which would have provided massive cuts for top earners. (That’s precisely what we did in Delaware, thanks to Castle, Carper and Minner.)
Man, so much good stuff today that I’m gonna have to save some for tomorrow…
What do you want to talk about?
For the record, Bobby Byrd is a registered Democrat.
https://delawareliberal.net/2020/01/02/delawares-shittiest-democrats-lobbyist-bob-byrd/
Yes. He used to be partners with William Wood, who was the R in the Wood-Byrd lobbying tag team.
One guy paid off the D’s, the other guy paid off the R’s. Now Byrd and his minions pay off both.
This might have gotten lost in the lobbyist article:
“Byrd even wrote portions of the state’s original lobbying disclosure law, which requires lobbyists to disclose their expenditures on gifts and entertainment, but not the compensation they receive from each of their clients.”
Perhaps one of our WFP legislators, who Charles Copeland dismisses as ’rounding errors’, might want to correct this disgrace.
They’re lobbying the General Assembly, they SHOULD have to disclose how much they’re being paid for their prostitution at the public’s expense. I’m serious, I want to see this bill in January.
In a closed primary system it makes no sense to register as anything but a Democrat or Republican.
Americans have for the most part been duped into registering with a political party based on how well it aligns with their “values.” This allows the parties, the carbuncles of democracy, to divvy us up into effectively gerrymandered districts.
The best way to combat a crooked system is to fuck with it.
Interesting to note that the lobbying game is empowered by yet another well intended line in the constitution, which has been turned into an industry based on bribery and coercion. Said line being “you have the right to petition your government” has been turned into bidding starts at $10,000. As for Byrd as a Democrat it harks back to those halcyon day of “the Delaware Way” that should remind us that although things aren’t good, they could be much worse.
This showed up in my email. i do not know the gentleman but REPLACE Pete is underway with Marty Rendon first out of the box:
Pete Schwartzkopf has represented the Delaware 14th RD for two decades and fought hard for us as Speaker. He has earned our thanks and gratitude for his service and accomplishments. His announcement on June 30th that he is stepping down as Speaker and serving out the rest of his term challenges us to find new effective and experienced representation. I will be announcing soon that I am running for this seat in the General Assembly. I serve as a Commissioner on the Delaware Human and Civil Rights Commission and I am Chair of the Commission’s Legislative Committee. I came to this position after a lifetime of professional legislative experience. This includes directing Congressional relations and public advocacy for UNICEF, and working on Capitol Hill on legislation in a variety of positions, including 8 years on the House Rules Committee and 4 years as Staff Director of the House Select Committee on Hunger. I will use my experience in Delaware and years of legislative work in Congress to hit the ground running in Dover for the 14th RD. In addition to continuing to fight to preserve our civil rights and advance equality for all, I will work to address the challenges of environmental quality, affordable housing and homelessness, overdevelopment, traffic and transportation, access to health care, and fostering small businesses. This will be my full-time job. I will be starting the campaign early so that I can spend time listening to 14th RD residents to learn how I best can work on their behalf. To learn more, please go to http://www.martyrendon.com. More to come!
Wow! Looks like a potential upgrade, to say the least.
More good news going up on DL in just a few minutes.
https://twitter.com/SarahEMcBride/status/1676973614682480644
“Thanks to your support, we’re already building a grassroots campaign that’s breaking records.
In just the first five days of this campaign, we raised more than $414,000, including the generous support of almost 550 Delaware donors from every corner of this state.”
https://baytobaynews.com/stories/independent-party-of-delaware-nominates-former-state-senator-for-us-senate-bid,111875?
Thanks. Time for a Political (Semi-) Weekly…
More honest headline would have said – 10,000 Person Independent Party of Delaware Nominates Former … blah blah blah