Archive for April, 2015
Tuesday Open Thread [4.28.15]
![Tuesday Open Thread [4.28.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Riots-240x180.png "Tuesday Open Thread [4.28.15]")
“National Guard troops fanned out through Baltimore, shield-bearing police officers blocked the streets and firefighters doused still-simmering blazes early Tuesday after riots, looting and violent unrest engulfed swaths of the city Monday,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The unrest came just hours after thousands of people attended a funeral for Freddie Gray , a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody earlier this month. Fifteen officers were injured, and at least 27 people were arrested as Baltimore became the latest national flash point for race relations and law enforcement.”
The Baltimore Sun, of course, has the best coverage, as local news always does. And yes, the “Purge” rumor was/is real.
And in case you are confused over my stance on this issue: I believe the riots are justified. The Baltimore Police Department is a thug operation with a long history of past crimes and abuses perpetrated on the community it is supposed to protect, and it should be cleaned out:
Over the past four years, more than 100 people have won court judgments or settlements related to allegations of brutality and civil rights violations [by the Baltimore police department]. Victims include a 15-year-old boy riding a dirt bike, a 26-year-old pregnant accountant who had witnessed a beating, a 50-year-old woman selling church raffle tickets, a 65-year-old church deacon rolling a cigarette and an 87-year-old grandmother aiding her wounded grandson.
That is the backdrop and the spark. Riots don’t start in a vacuum by bad people. If that were the case, there would be riots everyday. No, you need community involvement to start it. You need a community that is fed up and that has had enough. This has been building up for a long, long time in Baltimore and around the country. There have been decades of systemic inequality, bad policing, a war on drugs and a biased criminal justice system. This country is damned lucky we don’t have more riots in more cities. But if we don’t fix this country now, that is where we are headed.
To all the privileged people….
….. tsk-tsking the riots in Baltimore, and using the nonviolence of Martin Luther King as a prop to disguise yourself, consider this….
General Assembly Pre-Game Show: April 28-30, 2015
OK. Let’s put a stop to the idiocy that was the rumor that Gov. Markell would cut some kind of deal with the Rethugs on ‘Right to Work For Less’. It never made sense. Why? Because the bills won’t pass the General Assembly, and will not get a single D vote. Plus, the governor has little influence over the General Assembly any more. He would have zero if he made that move. ‘Multiple legislators’, Nancy? I call bullshit. Any legislator who would float that rumor should recognize that doing so makes it less likely, not more likely, that HB 50 would pass.
Yes, Monsignor Lavelle’s SB 54 is scheduled for ‘consideration’ in Wednesday’s Senate Labor & Industrial Relations Committee. Now, before you conspiracy theorists get your collective knickers in a bunch, here is the membership of that committee:
Chairman: Marshall
Members: Cloutier
Hocker
McBride
Peterson
Poore
4 D’s, 2 R’s, one of the R’s generally votes with labor. Now, do you really suppose that Jack Markell asked Marshall for a ‘solid’, and that Marshall agreed? Markell emasculated Marshall’s last minimum wage bill, and tried to privatize the Port of Wilmington over his objections. Use your heads, pipples. You’re better than this.
Tuesday Daily Delawhere [4.28.15]
St. John the Beloved Roman Catholic Church, off Milltown Road in Pike Creek. Photo by Conn_Moo on Flickr.
Carper’s views of TPP Fast Track are NSFW
The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership is a well known steaming pile of shit. Tom Carper says that the TTP gives him a huge boner because f#cking the American worker in the ass is what his paymasters sent him to Congress to do. And by GOD he is gonna do it. (paraphrasing)
That said, the NJ’s Nicole Gaudiano gives Claire Snyder-Hall the last word in this write up.
“Fast Track and TPP are bad for American workers, but they are also bad for democracy,” Claire Snyder-Hall of Delaware Americans for Democratic Action said in a statement. “TPP erodes the ability of the American people to make laws for themselves. Laws passed to protect American workers, the environment, local industries, or food safety could be deemed unfair trade practices under TPP, and there will be nothing we can do about it.”
We are all Orioles fans now
As you may know, a 25 year old Baltimore resident, Freddie Gray, was arrested by Baltimore City Police on April 12. At some point after his arrest, likely as he was being transported to jail in a ‘paddywagon,’ Gray suffered a spinal injury that eventually killed him seven days later. Six city police officers have been suspended pending an investigation into Gray’s death. A big protest in downtown Baltimore on Saturday turned a little violent in the evening hours.
A Baltimore sportscaster, Brett Hollander, took to Twitter to say that demonstrations that negatively impact the daily lives of fellow citizens are counter-productive. I have found that this is usually the position of those who oppose protests: “Hey, I am all for what they are doing, but they are inconveniencing me, and therefore they must be stopped.”
Baltimore Orioles COO John Angelos, the son of owner Peter Angelos, responded on Twitter with a pretty amazing explanation and defense of why protests are happening. I mean, this is movement type stuff.
Monday Open Thread [4.27.15]
![Monday Open Thread [4.27.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Blue_-240x180.png "Monday Open Thread [4.27.15]")
“Today’s Democratic Party has decided there is no room for Christians. There is a liberal fascism that is going after Christian believers.” — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by The Hill.
LOL. I am Christian, Mr. Cruz. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ never said a damn thing about hating gays. He preached and taught and lived the example of compassion for the needy, the hundry, the sick, the elderly, and the poor. Jesus Christ was and is a liberal. So if you are a true Christian, a follower of Christ, you have a natural and welcome home in the Democratic Party.
If you a hate filled bigoted piece of shit who thinks your right to discriminate is superior to all other human rights just because a null and void Old Testament book says so, then yes, there is no room for you in the Democratic Party or in government or in society. We will actively seek to destroy you, and we do so in defense of those you would seek to oppress and sent away to concentration camps if you had your way.
Which GOP candidate would be the best President?
I’ve spent a few weeks thinking about how bad the GOP field is, but I haven’t turned the table upside down to think about which candidate would be a better President than the others. Obviously, we’d be talking about shades of differences…mere whips of perceived virtues where no real virtue abides. But let’s give it a go, shall we?
10 places to visit before they’re ruined forever by climate change
There is something about the “oh well” voice of this MSN travel piece that made it stand out to. I copied the whole thing below.
2. Glacier National Park
© Provided by Business Insider True to its name, this Montana park — which borders the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and spans more than 1 million acres (4,000 square km) — was once home to hundreds of glaciers, but these stunning icescapes won’t be around forever.
Most of the 150 glaciers present in 1850 were still there when the park opened in 1910. But as of 2010, only 25 glaciers remained, and some climate models predict that the park’s biggest glaciers will be gone by 2030, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Governor is so scared….
…about Opt Out passing that he’s offering Republicans his support for Right-to-Work legislation if they vote “No” on HB 50. If that deal happens, the Governor should at the very least be expelled from the Democratic Party by Chairman John Daniello and then attempts should be made by the General Assembly to remove him from office. I am looking up the impeachment procedure under the Delaware Constitution as we speak.
The Weekly Addresses
The President lays out why new, high-standards trade agreements are important for our economy, our businesses, our workers, and our values.
Governor Markell highlights ongoing progress towards preparing Delaware students for the new economy, including that more Delaware high school students are taking and passing college-level Advanced Placement tests.
So the Governor and the President are taking on the liberals in their party this week.
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