The GOP has been at war against public education for years.

Who can blame teachers for saying “Fuck this shit.”   

The teacher shortage in Florida is so acute, DeSantis plans to allow military veterans to teach in Florida provided these subs have 60 hours of college coursework and attained a 2.5 GPA.  

I wonder if this is what all the free-market geniuses had in mind when Reagan signed off on the deregulation of the airline industry?

The Clintonite wisdom embodied by the headline has held the Democratic Party in its thrall for going on 30 years now.  In spite of the mountains of  evidence that it is pure bullshit and should have been shit-canned years ago, it has the survival instincts of Rasputin.

And yet… all of my yelling on a shitty little blog in Delaware feels like it is beginning to pay off.

We are supposed to be the workers’ party. Democrats must be that party again. We must sharpen the difference between us—historically, America’s party of workers—and the party of big business.

Many are waking up to this reality.

As inflation continues to batter families’ bank accounts—and the president’s poll numbers—even free-traders of yesteryear are beginning to admit the problems of a labyrinthine supply chain stretched across the globe.

And for the first time in my memory, there’s real momentum to take action to fix it. Democrats just passed the kind of industrial policy we haven’t seen in many decades, to build out domestic supply chains of key inputs like semiconductors.

It will create the kind of jobs that too many communities have lost. And it sends a clear message to these Americans that we have not forgotten them.

None of this requires compromising on our values. A commitment to populist economics and fair trade isn’t just compatible with a commitment to social justice—the two naturally go together. One need only read Martin Luther King’s dozens of speeches to unions, and ponder what he was doing when he was killed, to remember the deep connection between workers’ rights and civil rights.

A relentless focus on populist economics wins out over Republicans’ manufactured culture war.

Not Breaking News: The Mayor doesn’t work for the people who live in the Southbridge neighborhood of Wilmington. He works for the rich white people that he hopes to move in there and the rich white developers that hope to make some bank from moving them in.

Attorney Mark Bankston, representing Sandy Hook parents that Alex Jones’ falsely accused of hoaxing the gun massacre that killed their children, told a Texas judge today that Alex Jones’ phone contains “intimate messages with Roger Stone.” The two men are often spotted together in their work as Trumpite provocateurs. – Via Boing Boing

It is probably “just a figure of speech indicating a degree of collusion and familiarity between the two men”, but still…. Eww.

A bunch of election denying Trumpist Nutbags won last night in swing states.  Joe Scarborough thinks it is great news for Democrats because they are so crazy.  I’m not sure that math holds up.

What’s going on in the Sussex Recorder of Deeds GOP primary? Do you really have to go full on GunNut-Patriot-MAGA-shithead to fill this office?

Speaking of primary races, we are 41 days out and if you can help out directly, money is nice. If five people give $20.00 to DeShanna Neal today to help her defeat Kop Kabalist Larry Mitchell, I’ll match that $100.

This is the kind of picture you typically see with a caption that reads “He was a responsible gun owner up until he moment he wasn’t.”

We killed an  Al-Qaeda guy.  Huzzah for us, I suppose.  The Jan 6. rioter who carried gun to US Capitol got sentenced to 7 years in prison.  Didn’t Trump say he was running on a platform of pardoning all of these guys? (checks notes) Why, yes.  He did say that.

Two people were ound dead in charred car within California wildfire zone.  Sad but I wonder if they “believed” in climate change?  I wonder if the 200 missing and dead people in the Kentucky floods believed in climate change?   This line of thought is verging on very horrible victim blaming on my part, but someone needs to be blamed at some point and we can’t blame corporations, as that would be like blaming the scorpion for stinging, or the baby chicks for chirping.

Pelosi expected to visit Taiwan, Taiwanese and US officials say.

The flag of the Republic of China consists of a red field with a blue canton bearing a white disk surrounded by twelve triangles; said symbols symbolize the sun and rays of light emanating from it, respectively.

The flag was originally designed by the anti-Qing group, Revive China Society in 1895 with the addition of the red field component in 1906 by Sun Yat-sen in his speech. and was made the official national flag of the Republic of China (ROC) in 1928 by the Kuomintang (KMT).

By 1949, the KMT was decisively defeated by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) in the Chinese Civil War and withdrew the ROC government to Taiwan, where the Kuomintang ruled under martial law until 1987.

In addition to Julius and Augustus, other Roman Emperors attempted to name months after themselves, but they didn’t stick.  August had been Sextilus but 8 BC, it was renamed in honor of Emperor Augustus.  Legend has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar’s July, but that was 100% made up bullshit.

On August 1, in 1838 Slavery was abolished in Jamaica 27 years earlier that paragon of “good” nations, The United States of America.

Also on this date in 1944, Anne Frank penned the last entry in her diary

“[I] keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would like to be, and what I could be, if…there weren’t any other people living in the world.”

Three days later, Anne and her family were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on March 15, 1945, at age 15. 78 years after that many US Synagogue feel the need to have armed guards to protect against anti-Semitic violence.

As far as news from the weekend, all of it seemed to signal the end of the world in one way or another. Here are two items that have troubled my beautiful mind.

Collins has made an entire career out of playing Democrats for suckers. Now she is using the old “Democrats made Republicans angry, so I can’t support a bill I wanted to support” trick.

You see? Democrats didn’t game plan out who Republicans would react, that’s the problem. Demos were rash and not bipartisan. It all makes perfect sense to some Coonsians.

I had two sons that were pretty good at little league baseball. They both had one big deficit that held them back though – a Dad who didn’t give a fuck about little league baseball.   My kids were afflicted with a Dad (Me) who didn’t push, berate & bribe them to try get better at little league baseball. They had a Dad who didn’t set winning at little league baseball as an important goal.

I looked at these other parents who were obsessed with winning and thought, “Well, in the long run we don’t stand a chance against these guys, so let’s have some fun until we quit.”

The children of those weirdos may have burned out and ended up hating baseball or they may be captains of industry or play for the New York Yankees now. Who the fuck knows?

All this to say, I wonder if Democrats will ever win against Republicans who are obsessed with winning to the point that they can lie impunity, and drink in the lies of their comrades like it is mother’s milk:

CALLER: Listen, Sean. I just want some people in the conservative party, Republican Party to fight as hard as me and my platoon did in Afghanistan. That’s all I’m asking for.

…

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): I appreciate, first of all, your service. I’m sorry about your injuries, they sound pretty debilitating. I know many people in your position. It alters your life, and your family’s life forever. None of it is fun. And I — I just — we owe you a debt of gratitude. And we can’t forget our vets either.

Listen. I don’t like Jon Stewart, but Jon Stewart is right, on him fighting for these vets the way he has. Now, the very specific issues behind the scenes, a lot of people don’t know. But anyway, there’s a bill. Republicans support the bill, these burn-pit victims.

And the only reason it didn’t pass this week was because the Democrats, what they put in the bill, they moved $400 billion in discretionary spending to mandatory spending and that $400 billion had nothing to do with veterans. And Democrats want to spend another $400 billion on new spending completely unrelated to veterans.

I’ve been doing this for 19 years now, and the dumbest thing establishments Democrats have always done and continue to do after 19 years is try to game out how Republicans will react to things, and avoid doing things that they think will make Republicans angry, upset or sad.

It is astonishing to me that this is still facet of the Democratic Party’s “strategic” planning.  It is so knitted to the Democratic Party’s modus operandi that they are constantly asked about it.

“The indictment of a former president, and perhaps a candidate for president, would arguably tear the country apart,” (Lester) Holt said. “Is that your concern as you make your decision down the road here, do you have to think about things like that?”

Garland replied: “We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding Jan. 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. That’s what we do. We don’t pay any attention to other issues with respect to that.”

Garland had the right answer, but it is a stupid question.  Nobody ever asks Republicans if trying to overturn an election could tear the country apart.   Nobody asks if taking away longstanding rights to reproductive healthcare will tear the country apart.  Nobody asks if continuing to ignore climate change could tear the country apart. Nobody asks if actively trying to tear the country apart might tear the country apart.

There are actual things tearing the country about that never set to be noticed for some reason.

Today’s top story only tangentially involves the convicted state auditor.  Last night Lydia York was endorsed by the Democratic State Executive Committee.

Per the Del Dems web site, there are 27 voting members of the State Executive Committee. In addition to the statewide leadership, each subdivision is represented at the State Executive Committee by the subdivision chair, treasurer, and at-large members.

According to sources, there were zero “no”votes, but two people abstained from the vote.  I can’t imagine that anyone challenging a statewide incumbent ever got the endorsement of this committee.

What a wild and raucous day of blogging we had yesterday. If you missed it, I’ve rescued a comment (below) from Gary Myers which makes a strong case that Pete is constitutionally obligated to consider the resolution passed by the Senate to get rid of the convicted state auditor.

Maybe the news that McGuiness was (no doubt illegally) reading the emails of as yet undisclosed civilians will move Pete off his hardline defense of McGuiness? Who knows. The lumbering red-faced fatso is accustomed to getting his way and I’d wager that whatever disgusting thing motivated him to take a bizarrely hardline stance in defense of the convicted state auditor is still motivating him.

Speaking of wagers, Mega Millions jackpot surges to $1.02 billion after no winner Tuesday.  The expected value (EV) of buying a $2.00 MegaMillions lottery ticket is still not in your favor, but there is one statistic that makes buying your $2.00 ticket financially defensible.   There is a near 100% chance that someone is going to win eventually.  So, see you in line at the package store.

In still other news, $25,000 from Georgetown Town Council to fund a racist flag display seems like a lot to me.  (I had previously reported in the comments of another thread that is was $2,000).

Gary Myers says:
While I am far, far from being an expert on the constitutional rules governing the General Assembly’s proceedings, I think there is a substantial question whether the Speaker of the House can refuse to “call in” the House members to sit to consider the Senate’s passed resolution to begin a process of removing the auditor.

Technically, the General Assembly remains currently in session under the “special session” called by either the leadership or Gov. on July 1, 2022. The chambers simply earlier recessed to the call of the President or Speaker because no further business was before either back in July, However, when the Senate took up the McGinness resolution, it was back being active during the session. And such action by the Senate, given that the GA is still is session, puts the whole GA back in active mode.

The kicker here ( I think) is that Art, II, sec 12 of the State Constitution prevents one house from adjourning (and hence not sitting) for more than 3 days without the consent of the other chamber. The idea behind the constitutional provision is that one house can’t go “missing” on the other while the GA is in session and the one house is acting on legislative matters, unless the active house has consented to the other chamber’s absence lasting more than than 3 days, At least on the federal level, such consent comes via a concurrent resolution,

Consequently, when the Senate went active last week and took up the McGinness resolution, the House can’t stay out past three days under section 12. It has to return to take up the Senate business that is being presented to the House, Only if the Senate consented to the House’s continued absence can the House continue not to act. I am not sure that the Senate gave any such consent,

As I said, I am not expert in this realm but I think the Speaker’s refusal to call in House members violated Art. sec, 12,. But I confess I the above is just a theory from text and purpose, Perhaps, those more knowledgable can explain why section 12 does not apply.

Otherwise, the Speaker’s statements and non-action run afoul of Section 12

Cultural immortality is cultural immortality.