General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 5, 2019
With very little fanfare, legislation legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana has been scheduled for its committee hearing today. The House Revenue & Finance Committee will meet at 2:30 in the House Chamber to consider the bill. The opponents, aka the self-styled grownups like the Chamber and the Medical Society will be out in force, as will those who push the most lawless tactics of law enforcement. Gov. Carney has said he opposes the bill, which reminds me: If anyone would have benefited from some dalliance with recreational drugs, it would have been our blinkered governor. Just a small dose of LSD would have expanded his world view exponentially, and made him a much better governor. But, I digress.
Rep. Lynn’s weakened gun storage bill received final approval in the House yesterday, and heads to the Governor. If this session of the General Assembly has demonstrated anything, it’s that at least two more D senators have to be shown the door before we can get serious gun safety reform to the Governor. Senators McBride and Poore broke their promise to release the bills to the floor. Their explanation? They didn’t want to embarrass senators who would have to take a stand on those bills. Including, of course, themselves. That alone should earn them primary challengers. And Cathy Cloutier, who is a pawn of the construction trades and is fearful of the NRA, should be ushered into retirement as well. But, I digress. Again.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report. You will note that, on the roll call for Rep. Lynn’s gun storage bill, the following D’s voted no: Andria Bennett; Mark Brainard’s lickspittle Bill Bush (copyright pending); Lumpy Carson; and Quin Johnson. The only R to vote yes was Michael Smith.
Today’s Senate committee meeting highlights include:
*Looks like Delaware Park wants to get into the craft brewing business. And legislators are only too happy to help. Anyone wanna sample a Manure Sour Ale? Banking, Business & Insurance.
*The plastic bag ban faces its Senate committee hearing. I can only hope that the Forces Of EE-vil don’t weaken the bill too much. Environmental & Natural Resources.
*A $15 minimum wage? SB 105 would make it so. The soulless lobbyists who are paid to commit infanticide on bills like this will make sure it doesn’t happen. Labor.
*SB 99(Lawson) would, well I don’t know what it would do. But we’re talking deep-state conspiracies and Sharia Law. So, it makes for fun reading. Is Evan Quietsch working for the Senate Rethugs now? Judicial.
*SB 96(McDowell) appears to codify the intent and structure of…well, let me just share the synopsis:
In January of 2015, the Office of Civil Rights & Public Trust was created by the Attorney General to establish a centralized office within the Department of Justice for the investigation of matters concerning civil rights enforcement and the prosecution of matters concerning violations of the public trust. This office must remain an independent entity within the Department of Justice to avoid conflicts with other Department of Justice duties and thus effectively enforce laws protecting the public trust and civil rights. Thus, this Act creates the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust within the Department of Justice which will be separate from the other Divisions within the Department of Justice and have a Director who reports directly to the Chief Deputy Attorney General, to avoid conflicts of interest with the work of the other Divisions. This Act also clarifies the current scope of the Department of Justice’s ability to investigate and bring civil rights actions to protect the civil rights of all Delawareans.
The bill’s in the Elections, Gov’t., & Community Affairs Committee.
*SB 122(Townsend) ‘creates the Delaware Perinatal Quality Collaborative to improve pregnancy outcomes for women and newborns and such issues as obstetrical blood loss management, pregnant women with substance use disorder, infants impacted by neonatal abstinence syndrome, and advancing evidence-based clinical practices and processes through quality care review, audit, and continuous quality improvement.’ Health & Social Services.
*HB 73(Jaques) is ‘a first leg of a constitutional amendment that would eliminate from the Delaware Constitution the limitations as to when an individual may vote by absentee ballot’. In other words, you wouldn’t need an excuse to vote absentee. Nor should you. Executive.
*SB 123(McBride) ‘authorizes the Department of Correction to give minimum wage to inmates to pay off fees or fines by participating in an earned credit program established by the Department of Correction’. Executive.
Lemme pour myself another cuppa Joe before I tackle the House committee schedule.
Aahhh…caffeine. What would I do without it?
*A sharp-eyed reader noticed awhile back that HB 200(Longhurst) is very similar to legislation sponsored by Sen. Townsend last session. Regardless, it’s important legislation that would put an end to kicking the can down the road when it comes to water quality. The bill ‘…establishes a framework for assessing needs, planning and implementing projects, and providing a funding source to enhance and accelerate Delaware’s efforts in cleaning up its contaminated water resources, ensuring that all our citizens have safe drinking water, reducing flooding, and protecting jobs in agriculture and tourism’. It’s not an inexpensive proposition, but I think it needs to be done. I alwo recommend that you click on the bill link and read the synopsis in its entirety. Natural Resources.
*While the General Assembly is enacting sentencing reform, Brainard-lickspittle Bill Bush is moving in the opposite direction. HB 144 ‘…further defines Assault in the Second Degree to include other health care treatment providers and employees and hospital security personnel who are injured while performing their work related duties.’ In other words, the bill expands a protected class of victims which would result in harsher charges against defendants. This, BTW, is precisely what will happen if you limit the death penalty to, say, cop-killers. Bills like this will pop up to expand the list of victims that would render defendants subject to the death penalty. Easy demagoguery, easy grist for campaign brochures, bad policy. Judiciary.
*I know special interest legislation when I see it. And when that special interest legislation is sponsored by the ethically-bankrupt Mike Ramone, the only question is: Who benefits? Based on the fact that the other two main sponsors are from the same general geographical area as Ramone (Pike Creek), that narrows down the list of suspects considerably. The bill is HB 138, and here’s its synopsis: “This Act increases by one the number of licenses for the sale of alcoholic liquor an individual or entity may have an interest in, from two to three.” This is not some random code change. Someone wants this bill. I think the public deserves to know who and why. Business Lapdog Committee.
The Senate is also scheduled to work this agenda today. I look for a couple of nominations to be worked along with this agenda.
That’s it for today. Hope you got what you didn’t pay for.
I generally take a dim view with regards to microdosing. Kind of a venture capitalist/tech bro thing.
But I agree with El Som 100%. If there exists one human being who needs to open up his consciousness, vanquish his ego thereby killing the self, and changing a bit of perspective on shit, it’s our cypher, corporate stooge of a Governor.
Very good observation.
Also, smoked half a joint at the bus stop just now in solidarity with my comrades lobbying today.
My meeting has been rescheduled. Imma go ahead and smoke the other half.
The ganja is evil, folks. Scary.
Just drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes. Allow the pigs a reason to harrass POC based on faint odors!
Hoping against hope that legalization will pass, but feeling that it will take an adjacent state to legalize first, that might be enough to goad the creepy crud in Dover to act to get in on the revenue. Might I add Fuck The Police, they need to be kept out of politics all together. Did a couple of bong hits to drive the point home.
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Could you give me a brief synopsis of how the gun safety bill was weakened? And you mention that they broke their promise to release the bill to the floor. But it passed, so it had to have been released. Correct? I’m guessing you are saying that the original version wasn’t released as promised?
I’m sure this was already discussed but I’m playing catch up.
We’re talking completely different bills. The bill that passed had to do with safe gun storage. The amendment that the Senate placed on the bill made it more difficult for the state to prosecute such offenses by removing the:
“…burden placed on a person to prove an affirmative defense and instead requires the State to prove all of the following apply: (1) A firearm was not stored in a locked box or container. (2) A firearm was not disabled with a tamper-resistant trigger lock which was properly engaged so as to render the firearm inoperable by a person other than the owner or other lawfully-authorized user. (3) A firearm was not stored in a location which a reasonable person would have believed to be secure from access by an unauthorized person. (4) An unauthorized person did not obtain the firearm as the result of an unlawful entry by any person. ”
Last year, Sen. McBride placed two gun control bills in an inhospitable committee. One provides for a ban on the sale of assault weapons. The other bill limited the size of the magazines for deadly weapons. The bills predictably were not released from committee.
Somewhat chastened, Sen. McBride publicly promised that, this year, those bills would reach the Senate floor for votes. He placed the bills in the Executive Committee. He is the chair of that committee. When it came time to vote the bills out of committee, both he and Sen. Majority Leader Nicole Poore, the two highest-ranking D’s in the Senate, voted AGAINST releasing the bills from committee. Had they voted yes, the bills would have been sent to the full Senate.
He made a public promise, and he broke it. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
http://delawareliberal.net/2019/05/13/democratic-legislative-leaders-disgrace-themselves-2/
Hope this helps clarify what went down along with the gun bills.
It does help. Thanks for the clarification. I may be asking for a lot of that. 🙂
I’m not even 100% sure I am in favor of the gun legislation that died in committee to be honest. But I certainly believe that it deserved a floor vote. And the saying one thing and then doing another needs to stop.