Delaware Liberal

DL Open Thread: Sunday, August 18, 2024

A Bleepload Of Political Mailers.  Here’s what I got yesterday: Two mailers from Collin, at least a month too late; two anti-BHL mailers–gotta say, they were artfully produced; one mailer from Melanie Ross Levin or, more accurately, DSEA, addressed to my daughter, who does live in her district but doesn’t live here; one mailer for BHL, stressing her endorsement by the Party, which seems to be all she’s running on.

Which brings me to the DELDEMS Pride Caucus, which is indeed an entity under the Democratic State Party.  Their endorsements were supposed to play a role in the state endorsement process, but I’ve been told that BHL put the kibosh on them.  Here they are.  You will note that the Pride Caucus endorsed Matt Meyer, something you won’t see in BHL’s lit.  The entire process was rigged.  A few insiders on the state committee endorsed Bethany, it in no way reflected the rank-and-file at all.  Just something to keep in mind when you hear how she’s the endorsed candidate.  Oh, let me just quote from BHL’s piece:

That’s why the Delaware Democratic Party took the rare step of endorsing her for Governor.

The Sussex County Democratic Party didn’t endorse her, or anybody.  Many NCC districts supported nobody, as did Kent County.  The Pride Caucus endorsed Matt Meyer.  Despite my friend’s heaping of praise on the Party endorsement process, the fix was in.  I’m also told that, despite all the pressure from various elements within the Party, Bethany’s people have exerted a stranglehold on the State Committee to prevent the removal of their endorsement.  Bottom line: The vast majority of Democrats who are engaged with the Party at the RD level did not support the endorsement of BHL.    But the insiders, controlled by Carney and BHL, overrode the wishes of those Democrats.  So spare me all this talk about the wonderful democratic endorsement process.

How Harris Can Change Biden’s Policy On Israel: Just Enforce The Law:

Without supporting an arms embargo, she can still signal a clear break with Joe Biden’s near-unconditional support for an Israeli war effort that many legal scholars believe has led to genocide. And she can do so in a way befitting a former prosecutor: When it comes to Israel, Ms. Harris should simply say that she’ll enforce the law.

The law in question has been on the books for more than a decade. It prohibits the United States from assisting any unit of a foreign security force that commits “gross violations” of human rights. Aid can be reinstated if the foreign country adequately punishes the perpetrators. Passed by Congress in 1997, it bears the name of former Senator Patrick Leahy — and it has been applied hundreds of times — including reportedly against U.S. allies like Colombia and Mexico.

But it has never been applied to Israel, the country that over the past eight decades has received more U.S. aid, by far, than any other. That’s not because the Israel Defense Forces don’t commit serious abuses. “There are literally dozens of Israeli security force units that have committed gross violations of human rights” and should thus be ineligible for U.S. aid, a former State Department official, Charles Blaha, told ProPublica in May.

Food Fight At The RWNJ Table.  For amusement purposes only:

Some of the internet’s most influential far-right figures are turning against former president Donald Trump’s campaign, threatening a digital “war” against the Republican candidate’s aides and allies that could complicate the party’s calls for unity in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and podcaster who dined with Trump at his Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago in 2022, said on X that Trump’s campaign was “blowing it” by not positioning itself more to the right and was “headed for a catastrophic loss,” in a post that by Wednesday had been viewed 2.6 million times.

Laura Loomer, a far-right activist whom Trump last year called “very special,” said his “weak” surrogates had unraveled his momentum and that his approach “needs to change FAST because we can’t talk about a stolen election for another 4 years,” in an X post that was “liked” more than 8,000 times.

They’re also warring with each other over, wait for it, who deserves the credit for bringing back Corey Lewandowski:

Trump’s retooling of his campaign on Thursday, including rehiring his 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, prompted Fuentes to declare a “first victory” of his campaign, despite Trump’s public praise for LaCivita and Wiles. Online, Loomer mocked Fuentes as having “nothing to do” with the return of Lewandowski — co-author of the book “Let Trump Be Trump” — and said he should “stop pretending like he is calling the shots.”

Speaking of food fights, Trump said this yesterday:

“In her speech yesterday, Kamala went full communist,” he said. “Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls. You saw that never worked before … It will cause rationing, hunger and skyrocketing prices.”

Plutocrat Jared Kushner Seeks To Despoil Albania.  Yep, the Saudis and all sorts of Trump people are involved:

Now, Kushner is seeking to transform this stretch of Albania into the kind of luxury resort that his father-in-law, former president Donald Trump, would brag about. It would be Kushner’s biggest project yet using part of his roughly $3 billion private equity fund — financed largelyby investors in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East petrostates — bringing international tourism to an area that stagnated under years of communism and neglect.

But Kushner’s planned development is facing local and international blowback because of its potential environmental harm. Conservation groups warn that construction of the villas and hotel rooms could destroy a habitat for pelicans, flamingos and several endangered species and undermine international efforts to preserve one of the last wild, coastal ecosystems in the Mediterranean.

“I have huge concerns,” said Ryan Gellert, the CEO of the outdoors company Patagonia, which has worked with Albania to preserve a wild river system not far from Kushner’s prospective site. In an interview, Gellert said the river system hinges on a healthy delta. “It is a stunning area, unique across the Mediterranean. And the idea of them developing this, particularly in the absence of a master plan, is a really bad idea.”

The development is at least the second time Kushner has partneredwith governments in the Balkans friendly to the former president, with the assistance of at least one former Trump administration official with deep ties to those nation’s leaders — a business practice that many Democrats and other critics say is a conflict of interest.

The former senior White House adviser has accepted billions from the sovereign investment funds of countries that he dealt with as a government official, and is now investing in countries his father-in-law would deal with if reelected. Kushner makes an estimated $40 million in management fees, regardless of what happens to the investment, and stands to make much more if the deals are profitable, according to a recent letter from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon.

B-b-but Hunter Biden…

What do you want to talk about?

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