El Somnambulo's Latest Posts
What Al Thinks You Need To Know: Mon., Jan. 30, 2017
A Guest Post from Alby Damned Welcome to the Protest Presidency of Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, proprietor. It’s becoming obvious, at the start of the second week of the Trump Interregnum, that it’s Steve Bannon with his hands on the marionette’s strings. Dozens of pundits, including Digby, have come to that conclusion: http://www.salon.com/2017/01/30/trumps-rasputin-seizes-the-moment-a-week-of-chaos-may-suit-steve-bannons-master-plan/ Trump’s Muslim […]
What Al Thinks You Need To Know: Jan. 28, 2017
A Guest Post from Alby Damned If you’re collected indications that Trump is either different or incompetent, take your pick, here’s one that went mostly unnoticed: No Friday news dump. Then again, they’ve been dumping all week, so maybe it was time to rinse out the dumpsters. It’s almost impossible to keep up with the […]
R. I. P. Maggie Roche
For those of you younger than a certain age, you may never have heard of the Roches. I aim to correct that oversight. To me, they were a wonderful, though little-known, musical treasure despite critical acclaim. Which is understandable as they were sorta ‘anti-careerists’, but to me, they were, and remain, special. Three sisters who […]
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 26, 2017
Nemski’s already written about the big news. In a preview of things-to-come should the R’s take over the State Senate, the Rethugs banded together to block the nomination of Shawn Garvin, who appears to be a flaming moderate on the environment, to be DNREC Secretary. The R’s, including self-proclaimed moderate Cathy Cloutier, voted in lockstep […]
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., Jan. 25, 2017
Some days, you, meaning I, start to write this and then realize that there’s next to ‘no there there’. Such was yesterday. For you completists, here is the Session Activity Report from last Thursday. For you marathon completists, here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report. Two bills passed unanimously in the House, including legislation requiring that […]
BREAKING NEWS: World Cafe Live at the Queen to Close In May
This is not good news for music lovers or for the revitalization of the City. WCL at the Queen will close its doors on May 25. The reason? They just couldn’t make a financial go of it.
How Democrats Created Betsy DeVos
While educators and politicians throughout the land are recoiling at the notion of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, Democrats created her. Or someone like her. The Democratic Party’s embrace of corporate education, corporate textbooks, corporate testing and corporate-sponsored ‘education reform’ is what led to this.
Back From the Philly March
Wow. Just…wow. We must have had at least 50,000 people there. My wife really wanted to go, and I was more than happy to tag along. My wife and I got to Philly around 9 and to Logan Square around 9:15. I’ve never seen so many clever signs. Many of them employing the vulgarism that […]
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 19, 2017
The first set of John Carney’s nominees sailed through the Senate yesterday. Republicans could not contain themselves from raining effusive praise on these nominations. And why should they? It’s basically the same set of characters with whom they did business during the Markell years. Which, at first glance, is what the Carney Administration appears hell-bent […]
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., Jan. 18, 2017
OK, kids, this gets a little tricky. Yesterday morning dawned with Jack Markell as Governor. Today, John Carney is Governor. There are only two weeks until the General Assembly breaks for budget hearings. Gov. Carney wants to have his cabinet in place by then. What to do? Well, last week President Pro-Tem David McBride announced […]
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 17, 2017
Yes, today I offer you a brief respite from all of those ‘Markell legacy’ pieces emanating from…the Markell Administration. Which ends today. No, not the self-serving legacy pieces. The Markell Administration. Maybe this means that state workers can take off their body armor. I certainly hope so. When you take a closer look at the […]
Sen. Marshall Proposes Minimum Wage Increase
If memory serves, this is a far more modest proposal than in recent years. SB 10 provides for a 50 cent increase each year for the next four years, and then, post-2020, ties minimum wage increases to Social Security Cost-of-Living increases.
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