Open Thread Jan. 24: KHN, Scorned as the One Who Ran and Won
Old-timers (and “Big Lebowski” fans) will remember “Branded,” the Chuck Connors Western series about a frontier soldier cashiered for cowardice. The opening credits showed his ritual humiliation — stripped of his army insignia, his sabre broken, sent into the barren landscape as the fort’s doors close behind him. I think that’s what New Castle County Council would actually like to do to council president Karen Hartley-Nagle, but since they can’t rip epaulets from her jacket, they only voted to endorse Mike Ramone’s bill to change the county’s rules of succession to County Executive. WDEL reports the bill will be amended to give the governor the choice of an interim executive, with a special election within 55 days to fill the rest of the term.
For a better understanding of how little power our civilian governments have over our police, check out the story of this Wilmington cop who kept his job despite several arrests. And this is the WPD, probably the least powerful of the state’s major police forces.
Republicans aren’t even pretending to care about good government anymore. If they were, Sen. Lamar Alexander wouldn’t even think about tweeting this:
I enjoyed having dinner tonight at the home of Senator John Cornyn and his wife Sandy with our newest Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, Transportation Secretary Chao and a few of my other Senate colleagues to talk about important issues facing our country.
Yes, kids, once upon a time a Supreme Court justice would know enough not to discuss “important issues facing our country” with members of Congress, but that was before we redefined “genius” to mean “moron.”
Mueller watchers claim yesterday’s news about who’s been interviewed is a big deal, apparently because it shows that the investigation is taking a wide view of obstruction.
I realize a gun can turn anyone into a mass murderer, so the threat had to be taken seriously, but take a look at 19-year-old Brandon Griesemer of Novi, Mich.,who got hold of his father’s cell phone and called CNN threatening to shoot the place up over its fake news. Classmates said he “identified with Hitler.” As Josh Marshall put it, “Trumpite brown shirts aren’t sending their best.”
Then again, Team Genius isn’t exactly brimming over with brains either. The Trump campaign apparently transferred the exact amount paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to a Trump business just a month after the election.
According to Science, people who swear lie less, have a larger vocabulary and are smarter than those who don’t. So fuckin’ A, Bubba.
“…people who swear lie less, have a larger vocabulary and are smarter than those who don’t.”
So this means that Eagles fans are actually…geniuses?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/philadelphia-eagles-abusive-fans-video_us_5a686706e4b0e5630074f366?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
I have a question for my Catholic friends:
Why is ‘Jesus Christ’ muttered as an epithet considered cursing, but ‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph’ is OK?
Just working on my cursing etiquette. Which also raises this question. If I, as a Jew, say ‘Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph’, is that OK with the Catholics amongst us? Or is it considered blasphemy?
Quote of the day:
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.”
——Ursula Le Guin (1929 – 2018)
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph” was for many years considered an acceptable epithet for nuns who became frustrated with a classroom filled with 45 unruly third-graders. It was meant as a genuine cry for extra support from the Holy Family.
Given that Pat Meehan claims to go to Mass every morning, I think it’s safe to say God thinks Catholics are a bunch of hypocritical douche nozzles, so who cares what they think?
So the fact that 1 time we (not included) elected someone incompetent we are going to change the rules that will essentially result in wasted tax dollars on a special election.
Honestly – what can a rogue county exec do that couldn’t be circumvented by council, temporary state legislation or even checks and balances on the county employee side. Essentially if this were to happen any lunatic like KHN could be rendered a lame duck from day 1.
“So the fact that 1 time we (not included) elected someone incompetent we are going to change the rules that will essentially result in wasted tax dollars on a special election.”
If mere incompetence were the standard this, or something like it, would have happened long ago. Just be thankful they’re getting rid of the original idea of handing the reins to the chief administrative officer.
I was a Teamster for 5 years, swear vocabulary is top notch.
Ramone’s stated reason for this is idiotic.:
“Being a business guy, it just didn’t seem to me that the priorities and the thinking mechanisms I would use to pick a county executive would be the same that I would use to pick a county council president,” said Ramone.
“”You’re not addressing budgets; you’re not addressing labor..who’s working where, and how big a force has to be in each of your individual departments; you have department leaders–it’s totally different being an executive than being a person running a legislative branch of government.”
Kids, I don’t have the desire to list all of Delaware’s elected officials who have made that transition from legislator to executive, but it’s a long list.
Well, he can’t state the obvious reason, and if you leave him alone to work out something to say this is what you get.
Yo, Mikey, if the skillsets of ‘business guys’ and ‘legislative guys’ are so different, what the bleep are you doing in the General Assembly?
Other than pocketing those dollars to help keep your businesses solvent, I mean.
“If I, as a Jew, say ‘Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph’, is that OK with the Catholics amongst us? Or is it considered blasphemy?” It is considered cultural appropriation, and you can guess how that is received these days.
In other words, if I’m at shul (hey, it COULD happen), a simple oy vey would be more appropriate?
“So the fact that 1 time we (not included) elected someone incompetent we are going to change the rules that will essentially result in wasted tax dollars on a special election.”
Don’t forget, Ramone first walked a version of this bill around when Paul Clark was poised to take the Ex. office from Coons. Coons had just exposed that Clark’s land use attorney spouse had been writing Clark’s NCC land use code “modification” legislation through then Coons’ CAO Jeff Bullock leaking the infamous Pam Scott-Saul Ewing memo to a Coons-friendly NJ reporter.
There is no extra cost to this current bill. Think about it for a minute. Now, the NCC Council President, a countywide office, immediately ascends to Executive, a countywide office. Now this results in a special election to fill the NCC Council President seat. Either way, there will be a countywide special election held at the same expense.