DL Open Thread: Sunday, October 29, 2023
The Man Who Saved Democracy Bows Out Of Presidential Race. Largely because he saved democracy. The story, of course, is more complicated:
His decision to align himself with Mr. Trump came in June 2016, when a mutual associate of the two men, an Indiana insurance industry executive named Steve Hilbert, called Mr. Pence to see if he would consider an offer to join Mr. Trump. Mr. Pence, who was in the middle of an effort to recover from a potentially ruinous misstep he had made the year before, was open to the idea.
Mr. Pence had signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which effectively authorized businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples, such as Christian businesses that did not want to cater same-sex wedding celebrations. It set off a storm of protest, prompting threats of boycotts from business leaders and sports teams across the nation. The outcry caught Mr. Pence by surprise and put his political future in doubt.
“Even our critics — who said we should have seen it coming — they didn’t see it coming,” said Jim Atterholt, who was then Mr. Pence’s chief of staff. “In fairness to the governor, this was not on his agenda, he was not pushing for it. But obviously, it was consistent with the governor’s philosophy in terms of protecting religious freedom.”
If Mr. Pence had any qualms when Mr. Trump approached him, he never voiced them publicly or even to many of his advisers. “Mike sent a message saying ‘If I’m being called to serve, I will serve,’” Mr. Atterholt said. “Mike was open to serving, but he was fully planning for the re-election.”
“There was a genuine significant role that the V.P. needed to play for Trump,” Mr. Phillips said. “The evangelical right and the conservatives right were very uneasy with Trump. Having a Sherpa who could guide him and provide credibility with Trump, that really mattered in 2016.”
Still, he saved democracy, at least for the time-being, and he deserves to be remembered for that.
Hey, man, he was a law-abiding citizen when he bought those guns. OK, Show Biz Kids: Can you name both the real title and the title that everyone uses for the original song that Randy parodies? Oh, and the show it’s from?
I’m Pretty Much With Perry Bacon On This:
I voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and almost certainly will again next year. His policies on a number of issues have been very good — and I’m much closer to him ideologically than whoever the Republican candidate will be. But I’m extremely disappointed with how he and his administration have handled the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The past two weeks have been far from this administration’s finest hours.
I’m glad Biden and his administration rallied to Israel’s defense immediately after the heinous attacks that killed more than 1,400 Israelis. And the Israeli government not only has the right but also the responsibility to defend its citizens. The United States should be playing an active role in preventing such an attack from ever happening again in Israel.
But I’m uncomfortable with a number of things that the U.S. government has done since Oct. 7 (read all the bullet points for yourselves, but I agree with all of them):
I worry this administration isn’t prioritizing Palestinian lives enough and is putting the interests of Israelis far ahead of those of Palestinians. Biden and his aides keep stating that they understand that everyday Palestinian citizens are not Hamas terrorists and had nothing to do with the Oct. 7 attacks. But their actions don’t fully line up with that. Israel’s bombing seems less a targeted effort to kill Hamas terrorists and more a general punishment for everyone who lives in Gaza in retaliation — and the United States continues to tacitly approve it.
Only Fair Use prevents me from simply copying the whole article. But I stand with Perry Bacon. Hope you will read the piece in its entirety.
Right On Cue, Netanyahu Declares ‘Second War Of Independence’. Sound like a proportional response to you?:
In a televised press conference Netanyahu told Israelis: “We have unanimously approved the widening of the ground invasion … Our objective is singular: to defeat the murderous enemy. We declared ‘never again’, and we reiterate: ‘never again, now’.”
Netanyahu’s comments came hard on the heels of those by Gallant and IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi both signalling the war was entering a new phase. Halevi, head of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), announced that the objectives of the war against Hamas required a ground operation inside the coastal strip. “IDF ground forces are conducting a significant and complex operation,” he said.
“There are no achievements without risks, and as we know, there is no victory without sacrifices. To expose the enemy, to destroy it, there is no choice but to enter forcefully into their territory. This operation serves all the goals of the war.”
Sounds like Biden’s private pleas for a modified response have fallen on deaf ears. The term ‘ineffectual’ comes to mind.
1000 Police Traffic Stops? None Recorded? Don’t tell me that this isn’t a pattern of intimidation on the part of Wilmington police. Don’t tell me that the Mayor was blissfully oblivious of this blatant racial profiling:
A Wilmington police officer testified he made more than 1,000 traffic stops over a four-year period but didn’t record or report any of them unless they resulted in an arrest or traffic citation — a practice a federal lawsuit says is designed to cover up constitutional violations by officers engaging in racially biased policing.
The judge learned that Wiggins, a member of the Wilmington Safe Streets program, used an unrecorded radio frequency to communicate with other officers about these stops. The judge also found that the officer’s understanding was that he could search an entire car as long as he smelled marijuana without having to report it to the department’s communication center as he would if he were a patrol officer.
The lawsuit against Wilmington, its police chief and its mayor seeks to address patterns and practices of unconstitutional policing by the department, including a lack of reporting and oversight of officers illegally entering homes, using excessive physical force and conducting unlawful searches without warrants.
Wilmington officials did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story, but Mayor Mike Purzycki said on Tuesday that claims made by the ACLU were offensive to him. He also vowed to “vigorously defend against this suit in court.”
Purzycki’s entire term has been one of pushing gentrification, with the accompanying harassment of those he seeks to drive out of the City. Were Carney to follow, he would add something to the mix that Purzycki could not be accused of: Blissful obliviousness.
What do you want to talk about?
The attack on Israelis was and continues to be bone chilling. However, the reports that the Israeli government did not respond for days is even more bone chilling.
Take your eye off the ball and catastrophe follows should be a warning against any ideological daydreaming either in Israel or here.
I’m no fan of mayor Mike, but no mayor has been able to rein in the city police. The patrol officers are only accountable to their union, and the union answers to no one.
I think it is also worth saying, that if not for the gentrification of the past 15 years, Wilmington would be a real pit with no future to speak of. Can a progressive mayor fix the city? Doubtful. City council is largely a trainwreck and the city county building is loaded with entrenched interests. I’d like to see city-county governments merged dissolving both city and county council and re-forming them as new body.
Just because we did an “audit” you didn’t expect the truth or transparancy did ya?????
How quaint.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/10/30/bethany-hall-long-delaware-governor-race-campaign-audit/71344143007/