Open Thread For June 1, 2017

Filed in Delaware, Featured, National by on June 1, 2017

Legislative Cowards Surface to Stop JFC Cuts.  Politics uber alles.  Too many constituents are being hurt, say ‘leaders’ McBride and Schwartzkopf. So they’re ‘stopping’ the JFC process to see what can be done. We, of course, know what can be done:  Raise taxes on Delaware’s wealthiest, which of course was a non-starter in Pete’s House.  Stop giving away $$’s to for-profit businesses.  BTW, like on everything else, Carney was AWOL in this article. Shit’s hitting the fan, folks. Will D’s act like D’s? Uh, that’s a rhetorical question.

Say It Ain’t So, Joe.  Biden launches PAC to keep his name out there for 2020.  Two things: (1) He missed his window in 2016, he regrets it, so he thinks he wants to run in 2020; and (2) the idea of a Biden campaign invariably turns out better than the Biden campaign itself.

Jellyfish John Doesn’t Do So Well in Sussex.  One more way to raise funds, raising the gas tax, is off limits, according to Gov. Green Eyeshade.

Drain The Swamp?  I don’t think so. This article reveals some of the White House employees who were given ‘ethics waivers’ by Trump. Lotsa foxes given waivers to guard henhouses.

Could This Supreme Court Decision Be a Boon For Consumers?  Looks that way, but my patent law is a little rusty.

Blind Squirrel Finds Acorn. HRC Makes A Good Point.  How did the Russkies know exactly which e-mails to leak and when?  There had to be American collusion. I think she’s correct.

How Bannon and Pruitt Became ‘Trump’s Brain’ On the Paris Climate Accords.  Yes, he’s gonna exit, and he largely has these two radical nut-jobs to thank. We’re so fucked.

More Stately Mansions.  Obama banished the Russians from two ‘compounds’ after Russia’s involvement in the election became public.  Trump wants to invite the Russians back in.

Man, that’s a lot of news. What do you want to talk about?

About the Author ()

Comments (16)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. jason330 says:

    “Where is the shared sacrifice?” she asked. Exactly SC resident, Billie Criswell. Gov Squidward really is looking like a clueless jerk.

    Also – Biden and Clinton, for fuck sake…enough already.

  2. Arthur says:

    The JFC wasn’t stopped for further review of cuts it was to save their own jobs

  3. Yep. The tone deafness of ‘Democratic leadership’ has been incredible. Which reminds me, I’d like to blow up one of Pete Schwartzkopf’s phony memes while I have the chance.

    Scwartzkopf said that he had to push the Estate Tax through in order to get Rethug votes for the corporate tax increases. That is not true. He very easily could have pushed for D revenue-raising initiatives and then called out the R’s for their intransigence. We all now see what leadership should have seen: The public doesn’t want these draconian cuts. If Pete had pushed the revenue enhancers, we would now be at a point where D’s could point the finger at the R’s and argue that there is a direct relationship between the cuts and R intransigence. Instead, he once again decided to cut a deal with the R’s at the expense of progressive alternatives. Meaning he gave away the store w/o even negotiating.

    I think it’s b/c he has total disdain for progressive policies. Regardless, he’s ‘leading’ the caucus into possible electoral disaster.

  4. alby says:

    @El Som: I disagree with your point about calling for tax increases to put pressure on Republicans.

    Any such strategy would require a healthy news media to put the issue before the people, and we do not have that in Delaware. Last Saturday’s News Journal, according to a tweet from someone inside, had the lowest circulation in the history of the combined newspaper.

    For the strategy to succeed, the public must be part of the equation, and in our media desert, it’s not.

  5. I hear ya. But it’s the public that is awakening to just how bad this shared sacrifice is. In Sussex County, no less. Ahead of the ‘Honorables’, who you think would know better.

    Besides, when it gets into the electoral arena, the D’s had access to a club they could have used against the R’s, but Pete chose to sell progressive revenue raisers down the river in order to cut a deal with the R’s.

  6. chris says:

    The Dem party clearly needs young, fresh, articulate leaders to carry it forward on the national stage. Not folks closing in on 80 years old. Bernie, Joe and Hillary all need to take a step back and support the up and comers. They have either taken, or passed, on their windows of opportunity.

  7. Aurochs says:


    “We can’t go back to our employer and say ‘oh we overspent,’ and that’s what we do to the taxpayer,” Lawson said. “Government is addicted to green.”

    I love this analogy, of the taxpayer as employer and government as employee. So perfect in its idiocy, its abject worship of corporate culture.

  8. Gigi says:

    I’m guessing Kowalko’s bill to add additional income brackets won’t be considered? We’re getting nowhere with the wharfage fee even though it will generate between 50-125 million dollars.

    We’re all aboard a rudderless ship with a captain who likes the title but not the actual workload.

  9. alby says:

    Lawson’s metaphor fails on so many levels, but to keep it on his, this state allows employers to fire employees at will, while we can only fire him on set dates every fourth year.

    Didn’t this guy own a gun range? Look up the stats on levels of lead in the blood of people who work at gun ranges, and what that much lead does to a person’s brain function. It might explain his apparent stupidity and inability to keep that stupidity under wraps.

  10. SussexAnon says:

    Gas tax? We can’t afford a gas tax to pay for roads and improvement projects! I can however pay for a 14 cent a gallon increase in a week to fund rich oil cartels with horrible civil and human rights records.

    Good job, ‘murca.

  11. Aurochs says:

    Trump announced that he’s pulling the US out of the Paris climate accords, claiming that they block the development of “clean coal”, “transfers coal jobs out of the United States,” and that “we’ll be at grave risk of brownouts and blackouts, our businesses will come to a halt in many cases” under the deal.

    He also says “So we’re getting out but we’ll start to negotiate and we’ll see if we can make a deal that’s fair.” And “As someone who cares deeply about the environment, as I do, I cannot in good conscience support a deal which harms the United States, which it does.”

    (Note: I posted this in yesterday’s open thread by accident. Jason/Bulo, feel free to delete that post.)

  12. Aurochs says:

    Short term impact: Trump reneged on a major deal made with almost every country on Earth. They will not soon forget that betrayal next time he wants them at the negotiating table. Not that Trump cares– he’s too narcissistic to care.

    Long term impact: I’ll be living in the Adirondacks by the time I’m 60. Because my house in Delaware will be underwater.

  13. fightingbluehen says:

    In other words you are telling me that your property is worthless then. OK, I’ll give you a hundred bucks for it…. Email me if that sounds like a good deal to you.

  14. Aurochs says:

    If you can convince my landlord to sell it for $100, let me know so I can snipe you at $200.

  15. fightingbluehen says:

    In other words, half you people don’t even believe what comes out of your own mouths.

    Like Mr Krabs always says:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j2uYJYrP_Q

  16. Aurochs says:

    I call it “hyperbole.” I emailed Merriam-Webster to add that word to the dictionary a while ago, would you mind checking to see if they did that yet?