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.
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?
The Pride Caucus actually didn’t endorse Meyer. They don’t do endorsements, they simply say they “support” a candidate. I don’t know if such support comes with donations, however.
The Pride Caucus is also pretty ageist. If you look at the LinkenIn of the guy who runs it (Hec Something or other) he’s all about #MillenialLeadership.
That’s part of why those idiots “support” Mike Smith rather than Frank Burns even though Burns has actively advocated for LGBTQ folks since before Smith was born. Fortunately Stonewall PAC is not ageist and staffed by non-morons.
Their recommendation was supposed to figure into the Party endorsement.
However, Bethany, who did not bother to fill out the questionnaire AND who has had a fraught relationship with the LGBTQ community, prevailed on Betsy and her Mindless Minions to eliminate their recommendation from consideration.
Actually the bylaws say they do endorse, bylaws which the state party including the chair of Stonewall approved. The “support” moniker was added after the state party put a pause on voting one day after the ballots went out without BHL on them. So….
Also, Stonewall is staffed by many with direct ties to campaigns. Their endorsement process occurred six months before filing deadline. Just like DSEAs. To support one person as much as possible. Moronic to think that the pride caucus wasn’t, in part, created because of stonewall’s superiority complex.
Stonewall has endorsed Republicans and incumbent straight white men over black LGBTQIA+ members. Granted, Marie Pinkney, Eric Morrison, and Deshanna Neal beat the Stonewall endorsees and we are better for it😊
I hope Kamala’s price controls applause line gets her some extra votes. and then quickly disappears after the election. Because direct price controls are a really dumb idea.
I also hope the far left doesn’t goad Harris into abandoning Israel – at least that’s what Trump will call it – and then that will be the media focus until November and will probably cost us one or more houses of Congress, if not the White House.
It’s not the far left that supports a cease-fire, it’s a majority of Americans. And if she’s smart she’ll say nothing specific beyond what she has, that it’s time for a cease-fire. If that costs Democrats Congress, tough shit. I really can’t see how it would.
Depends what you mean by “ceasefire.”
I support a ceasefire to allow Hamas’s exit from Gaza.
Not a “permanent ceasefire” that validates continued Hamas rule in Gaza and protects them while they rearm and plan their next pogrom.
I agree, it’s way past time for a cease fire, but I do not see that as a cause for losing congress to the Republicans. I may well be dreaming, but I still see peace as a better objective as opposed to yet another endless war, and the resulting slaughter of the innocents that always goes with it.
It will always be an endless war, because as long as Israel exists it will be surrounded by hostile states.
“It’s not the far left that supports a cease-fire, it’s a majority of Americans”
The people who are disrupting Harris’s speeches are demanding a US arms embargo on Israel. Not just a ceasefire.
In case that’s not clear, this week the media will give us plenty of interviews and analysis with “pro-Palestinian” protestors so they can tell us exactly what they want.
I’m sure they will.
An arms embargo is, at this point, the right thing to do, but it can’t be done before the election.
But this project of offensive war against an indigenous population? As the USA demonstrates, the only way that works is if you outnumber the indigenous population and pursue a course of genocide, with concentration camps…er, reservations…for the survivors. How long do you think we should piss up that rainpipe?
“An arms embargo is, at this point, the right thing to do”
The thing about an embargo is – advocates never admit their goal. Cut off arms shipments until Israel…(does what???)
The US “pro-Palestinian” protesters aren’t seeking to pressure Israel to change its behavior. The embargo itself is their policy goal, regardless of how Israel reacts. Their goal is to weaken Israel against its enemies. Ultimately an arms embargo is about denying Israel’s right to exist.
I don’t care what the protesters you speak of want. Stop acting like their desires mean the entire idea of a cease-fire is tainted. It’s false logic you’re using to reinforce your position.
You know what? Fuck Israel’s “right to exist.” There is no such right. They will have to fight to exist as long as they exist, for the reason I pointed out above. Do you deny it? Will America have to arm them until the end of time?
Does BHL even have a campaign at this point? Is there any activity of note at all?
I’m told that the initial thinking from Pride Caucus was not to endorse in the Governor’s race, but to allow submissions from Governor candidates even though they planned not to weigh in so that membership could be informed as to their responses on key issues. Looks like BHL’s in her “find out” era after years of f-ing around. The Party approved the Caucus’s ability to endorse, then within a day of the ballots and candidate responses going out, without BHLs because she ignored it, they made it stop. The bizarre “support” change was then made. While the LGBT+ community largely assumes this is a BHL/Maron blunder, there has been chatter about Stonewall, given their public aroma of ego lately.
Regardless, for voters, this is a matter of diction with little attention paid to the specific terminology and hopefully unnoticeable.
But for LGBT+ Democrats, it’s the Party once again failing its LGBT+ members, who had already felt the need to take their political power into their own hands since the Party failed to advocate for, and certainly failed to protect them. It’s the Party intervening in a process they approved after it had publicly begun. And btw, they didn’t give the Caucus a vote on the Party endorsements anyway.
I thought State Party endorsements were largely a matter of voter contact, but it seems like they’re willing to break and change the rules for candidates too. Then again, the candidates break the rules too…
Anyway, glad this is out there. More fodder to the fire that will be electing a new State Chair.
KCDC, did in fact endorse Bethany.
Technically county parties could not endorse statewide candidates, they could only recommend such an endorsement to the state party but if you look at the actual recommendations from the Kent County RD’s you will see that several recommended “no endorsement”, one RD proxied their vote to the Chair and others simply did not submit any recommendation for endorsement. So that recommendation to the state party is actually quite in line with how the state party determined theirs.
My teaching career in Delaware spanned the years between 1983 and 2013. My school was handpicked to be a “turnaround” school by Jack Markell. Despite better scores. The money that came as a turnaround school was promised as a “help”. Instead, that money was used to buy corporate tests and teacher training in a new delaware education odyssey under Jack Markell. Here’s what really bugs me…why has no one reviewed Jack’s record on education? And why has Jack Markell’s tie to Collin O’Mara not been a subject of this campaign? O’Mara talks too fast, as if he can outrun us. Despite his reputed braininess, I think in the idea and follow through department Collin is a shirt stuffed with straw. He doesn’t get my vote.
“why has no one reviewed Jack’s record on education?”
Because it’s a moot point, isn’t it? We’re eight years down the road, and for those outside the system it’s just been one failed attempt at “reform” after another. And that stretches back to the ’70s.
“why has Jack Markell’s tie to Collin O’Mara not been a subject of this campaign?”
Whose campaign? O’Mara is running a weak third. Nobody is going to pay attention to the guy in last place.
“those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it”. Why? This…
Show me the education reform that has worked at scale and we’ll talk. You know the lesson of history is? Nobody knows how to fix public education. Finding scapegoats in the past is a never-ending quest. Howzabout No Child Left Behind, and whatever the reform before that one was called, and the one before that?
You know the quickest way to improve a school’s test scores? Get kids with higher-earning parents. Everybody knows this but nobody admits it. So the best way to improve schools would be to give every parent a pay raise.