Delaware Liberal

This is a “credit where credit is due” two for the price of one. McBride has clearly been instrumental in making the lives of Delaware’s LGBTQ community better, and Markell, for all of his retrograde trickle down economics, has been pretty good on LGBTQ issues. McBride, who was the first openly transgender speaker at a major party’s national convention, also serves on the board of Equality Delaware. She played a pivotal role in the passage of Delaware’s 2013 Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Act, which provided basic legal protections to transgender people in employment, housing, public accommodations, and insurance. “Generations of Delawareans will have better lives thanks to the work and courage of Sarah McBride,” said Gov. Markell. “On their behalf, I’m incredibly grateful.”

This is from Tom Carper's statement on Trump's selection of climate change denier and fossil fuel industry lackey, Scott Pruitt to head the EPA: Over the coming weeks, my colleagues…

“Donald Trump will continue to hold the title of executive producer for the television show ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ after taking office, foreshadowing an unorthodox presidency in which the commander in chief has a hand in the world of reality TV,” the Washington Post reports. “Trump’s name will be listed in the credits of the NBC show that he once hosted, according to details of the arrangement confirmed by a representative of the show. Such credits in Hollywood often come with a paycheck, though the representative did not disclose whether Trump will be compensated.” So NBC will pay a salary to the President. Yeah. No conflict there at all.

“Across Mr. Trump’s business, he uses a similar web of privately held LLCs and other entities to house his assets—everything from real estate to a vintage carousel in Manhattan’s Central Park, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of hundreds of pages of his corporate filings and personal financial disclosures. Fifteen entities, for example, are used to hold his interests in two airplanes and three helicopters.” “Unlike publicly traded companies, Delaware LLCs don’t have to publish any financial information or even disclose the identity of the owner… None of the 96 LLCs examined by the Journal appear to regularly release audited financial statements. That opacity—compounded by Mr. Trump’s decision to break with decades of precedent by declining to release his tax returns—makes it impossible to gauge the full extent of potential conflicts between his business interests and presidential role.” It is time for the Delaware General Assembly to end this practice of corruption.

“After meeting with Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Tuesday to hash out plans to repeal Obamacare, top Senate Republicans are no closer to resolving an issue that’s splintering the GOP heading into the start of Donald Trump’s presidency: how long to give themselves to replace the law,” Politico reports. “Pence communicated that the incoming administration is prepared to work closely with Congress on the issue, senators said, but did not dictate how long the transition period should last. That decision will affect millions of Americans’ health care and send insurance companies scrambling to adjust.” “They have nothing to put in its place. And believe me, just repealing Obamacare, even though they have nothing to put in its place, and saying they’ll do it sometime down the road, will cause huge calamity, from one end of America to the other. They don’t know what to do. They’re like the dog that caught the bus.” — Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), quoted by the Huffington Post, on Republican promises to repeal Obamacare next month.