Delaware Dem's Latest Posts
Friday Open Thread [8.12.16]
![Friday Open Thread [8.12.16]](http://delawareliberal.net//wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Divider.png "Friday Open Thread [8.12.16]")
Zack Beauchamp at Vox brings up pesky things calls facts as he explains that ISIS was founded well before President Obama took office:
In short: The group that would become ISIS was founded in Jordan in 1999, and became devoted to holding territory in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003. You can debate which of these constitutes ISIS’s “founding” in some metaphysical sense. But by any definition, the group was founded well before President Obama came into office. Trump is just flatly wrong on this. […]
Okay, a Trump defender might say, but Trump’s real point isn’t that Obama “created” ISIS. It’s that Obama withdrew US troops from Iraq in 2011, creating a security vacuum that allowed ISIS to regain its strength.
This is a pretty standard conservative narrative, one not at all unique to Trump. It is, however, quite wrong. The real sources of ISIS’s recent growth were the Syrian civil war and political sectarianism in Iraq, neither of which was within the power of United States to prevent.
Hell, if we had stayed in Iraq, the only thing that would have changed is that more American soldiers would be dead today, not less Iraqi and Syrian civilians.
The Heat is getting to WDEL.
And I am enjoying it. Here is there headline:
The story is full of sarcasm too:
On Wednesday, the high temperature was 90 degrees, and with Thursday’s anticipated high of a positively chilly 91 before Friday, Saturday, and Sunday give way to 94, 95, and 95 degrees, respectively, the region is in the middle a heat wave.
By Monday, Delawareans should be ready to break out the jackets again, however, when the temperatures are expected to tumble all the way to 90. […]
Accuweather officials said, because it is where humanity collectively seeks solace from the crippling heat, the biggest change felt will actually be the lack of nighttime relief from the (brutal, oppressive, almost angry) sun’s effects.
Bravo, WDEL. Well done.
Thursday Open Thread [8.11.16]
![Thursday Open Thread [8.11.16]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Graph-240x180.png "Thursday Open Thread [8.11.16]")
WISCONSIN–PRESIDENT–Marquette–Clinton 52, Trump 37
Well, so much for that theory among some that Trump’s alleged populist appeal and anti-trade talk would win him the midwest. The talk among the punditry, both liberal and conservative, is that Trump would not only be competitive in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but he would be the unique Republican to put Michigan and Wisconsin in play. We’ve seen the double digit leads for Hillary in Pennsylvania and Michigan dispel that notion, and now a 15 point lead in Wisconsin. Ohio is still too close for comfort given recent polls, but the Midwest Republican Resurgence is not happening.
Rep. Harold “Jack” Peterman (R) has died.
According to the Governor’s office, Representative Jack Peterman has died. He was retiring from office this year, not running for reelection after having missed much of the last two years of the session due to illness. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year. Our best wishes and deepest sympathies extend to his family, friends and colleagues.
We will have more information as the story develops.
Wednesday Open Thread [8.10.16]
![Wednesday Open Thread [8.10.16]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/House_generic_history-240x180.jpg "Wednesday Open Thread [8.10.16]")
Ed Kilgore says Trump’s assassination “joke” was thinly veiled sedition:
Donald Trump managed to descend to new depths today by repeating a tedious gun-lobby argument that Hillary Clinton wants to “essentially abolish the Second Amendment” and then turning it into a “joking” suggestion that “Second-Amendment people” might hold the only way to deal with that threat. Nothing like a little assassination humor to liven things up on the campaign trail, eh?
But even as they condemn the shocking utterance, a lot of observers seem to be missing the fact that Trump is adapting a dangerously common right-wing claim. It’s that the most important purpose of the Second Amendment is not to allow people to defend themselves from robbers and muggers and would-be murderers and rapists if the police cannot get the job done, but rather to create a heavily armed populace prepared to undertake revolutionary violence if the government tries to impose “tyranny.” Let’s be clear about this doctrine: It lets the gun-wielders decide for themselves whether high taxes or government surveillance or Obamacare is a sufficient threat to liberty to justify getting out the shooting irons and killing the police officers and armed-services members assigned the responsibility of enforcing the “tyrannical” laws in question. And conservative politicians have often made it clear they understand and are okay with that incredible risk, as when Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle referred cheerfully to “Second-Amendment remedies” for the liberal policies supported by her opponent, Harry Reid. Angle was hardly alone: During the Republican presidential primaries this cycle, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz both endorsed the idea of gun rights being a safeguard against too much Big Government liberalism.
Tuesday Open Thread [8.9.16]
Eugene Robinson on the state of the campaign:
It may be hard to imagine, but I fear this election campaign is going to get worse — maybe a lot worse — before it gets better. By the time it’s done, the whole nation may feel like it needs a shower. […]
I expect Trump to double down not just on his attacks against Clinton but also on the two issues that won him his white working-class following: immigration and trade. That means more bigotry, more xenophobia and more totally unrealistic promises about the miracles that he and his team of rich-guy economic advisers will magically perform.
Monday Open Thread [8.8.16]
![Monday Open Thread [8.8.16]](http://delawareliberal.net//wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Polling.Map_.8.2.16-490x344.png "Monday Open Thread [8.8.16]")
Just how badly did Trump blow his convention? The Fix: “Before the conventions, the plurality of support each candidate received was thanks to people who wanted to vote against the alternative. In other words, most people who said they were backing Hillary Clinton were backing her because they wanted to see Trump lose, and vice versa.”
“After the conventions, though, that changed: A slight plurality of Clinton supporters now back her because they want her to be the president. Trump’s position improved slightly — but the percentage of support he gets from people who are doing so out of enthusiasm for his candidacy is still lower than the percent who said that about Clinton before the conventions began. Before the conventions, 57 percent of those who backed Trump did so because they opposed Clinton; after the conventions, that figure was 56 percent.”
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