cassandra_m

"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

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The Deplorables: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Basket

Filed in National by on September 12, 2016 7 Comments

The brilliant Jay Smooth on the Trump deplorables:

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The News Journal Endorses Eugene Young for Mayor!

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on September 9, 2016 30 Comments
The News Journal Endorses Eugene Young for Mayor!

I wasn’t sure if the NJ would even endorse this year given that the field never winnowed. But between the debates they sponsored and the poll they did on this race, the NJ did a good job n trying to engage the community outside of their pages. But the News Journal officially endorsed Eugene Young for Mayor of Wilmington. Go read their entire endorsement.

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Primary Campaign Literature — Tell Us the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Filed in Delaware by on September 7, 2016 12 Comments
Primary Campaign Literature — Tell Us the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Everyday when I come home, I have a foyer full of campaign literature from candidates and most days I also have pieces that are left on the door. This season also seems to be the one where Delaware candidates really have embraced social media and some of them are doing really well there. All of you are seeing it all — and plenty I don’t– so tell us what you think. Tell us about the good pieces, the bad pieces and the just plain ugly pieces. Feel free to include scans of what you are looking at.

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It’s 14 Days Until the Primary — Can You Help Support Progressive Candidates in Delaware?

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on August 31, 2016 0 Comments

Long time readers of this blog know that I ask folks here pretty often what have they done to try to make progressive change. Lots of readers of this blog *are* committed to progressive change and have rolled up their sleeves for candidates and issues. If you are looking at the sprint towards this primary and are looking for a way to get involved in a cycle that has plenty of excellent progressive choices, here are some options for you:

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An Up Close Look At the City of Wilmington Okie Doke

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on August 21, 2016 35 Comments
An Up Close Look At the City of Wilmington Okie Doke

Channel 28 on cable within Wilmington is a public access channel that is the locus of African American politics (and gossip) on Sundays. This is a segment from a recent Community Crossfire segment where Mayor Dennis Williams discusses the state of the city and the state of the Mayor’s race with Sammy Congo, Sam Guy, and Pastor D. If you can spend the 30 minutes or so to take a look at this, you can see how Wilmington’s African Amerian leadership speaks to its African American (mostly) audience. It’s pretty disappointing all the way around, really. If you read this blog regularly, you know that one thing that I like pointing out is how Republicans are particularly good at getting their victim on as a way to bully people into their POV. Even though they aren’t victims of anything, other than their own mismanagement or their own failure of messaging or leadership. You can see exactly the same thing here. Wilmington’s “leadership” is being victimized by Purzycki (called out by name), or others running for Mayor who — according to Williams — he has helped and who are now somehow displaying serious disloyalty in now running against him. Pastor D calls out Kelley in a particularly despicable fashion — denigrating his involvement and friendships with the families of crime victims, wondering why Kelley doesn’t bring jobs to these communities. You are quite welcome to wonder which of these gentlemen have brought any serious jobs to their communities.

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DL’s Endorsement for Wilmington Mayor

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on August 18, 2016 70 Comments
DL’s Endorsement for Wilmington Mayor

In most Blue States, the usual source of Democratic progressive governing is from its major cities. The Editors of Delaware Liberal have often lamented the fact that Delaware’s biggest city has been lacking in a more progressive political vision at pretty much every level. There’s one candidate in Wilmington’s Mayoral race who is finally advocating a comprehensive progressive vision for governing Wilmington — a vision that is inclusive of the entire city, that is committed to bringing city government practices into the 21st century and will start the work to tackle some of the social justice issues that damage and hold back some of our communities. Delaware Liberal is proud to endorse Eugene Young for Mayor of Wilmington.

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I Get Email

Filed in Delaware by on August 11, 2016 22 Comments
I Get Email

Specifically, email from a Delaware State Representative campaigning to an email list for his wife, running for Wilmington City Treasurer. This is supposed to be a Big No No, right? And I would expect that if he is emailing this Wilmington-based list, there are probably others he is emailing as well. As I understand it, public officials are not supposed to campaign or conduct campaigns via their state-provided emails. And yet, here we find Representative Charles Potter campaigning via his taxpayer-provided email for the election of his wife. Velda Potter was running for Wilmington City Treasurer and was fired from the Williams Administration for apparent misuse of city resources for her son’s Foxtail concert. Certainly, there were no formal charges over this, but even Dennis Williams was embarrassed enough over it to let her go.

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When You Are Running for Mayor for the City of Wilmington and Your Campaign HQ Isn’t In the City

Filed in Delaware by on August 8, 2016 9 Comments
When You Are Running for Mayor for the City of Wilmington and Your Campaign HQ Isn’t In the City

I imagine Dennis Williams’ campaign manager could be a bit rusty as to where the City boundaries are since he, like many of the Mayor’s top people, does not live in the City. Yes folks, the Mayor’s campaign headquarters is located on the wrong side of the road. In the County, possibly escaping City Wage taxes? This is 311 E. Lea Blvd, across from the Goodwill facility. According to Parcel View, this building is in New Castle County, but not in Wilmington. It is in a strip mall that doesn’t seem to have many occupants. Today there was one car in the parking lot, in front of the Campaign building.

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What A Crisis in African American Leadership Looks Like

Filed in Delaware by on August 1, 2016 35 Comments
What A Crisis in African American Leadership Looks Like

Mayor Williams’ Chief of Staff, Gary Fullman, sent an email to the members of The Monday Club, inviting them to a fundraiser sit-down with the mayor but also invoking the real “threat” that a white candidate could win the Mayor’s race:

“Our communities have fared better over the past 24 years (under an African American mayor) than under previous administrations, at the expense of those who previously benefited, and there is a strong effort by those others to regain control of City Government,” wrote Fullman.

“So much so that folks have paid candidates to enter the race or are paying black individuals to garner support for white candidates in the African American communities (Norman Oliver for Mike Pryszicki [sic]). Don’t be fooled. Join us Wednesday evening to converse directly with Mayor Williams to get the real story.”

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Democratic Convention — July 28, 2016

Filed in National by on July 28, 2016 24 Comments

Where’s our live blog thread? I think Pandora is AWOL. Anyway, here it is. Hillary Rodham Clinton makes history and accepts the Democratic nomination tonight. Let us know what you are watching, hearing and thinking tonite.

And if you missed it, here is Sarah McBride with her star turn at the Convention earlier this evening:

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The Murdertown Chronicles — Finale

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on July 28, 2016 9 Comments
The Murdertown Chronicles — Finale

Part 3 was released some time back and I apologize for not posting that. See the end of this post to see details on the release and wrap party for the final episode. Have you heard about this new podcast? Sponsored by the Delaware Center for Justice, this is a long-form reporting project that is meant to explore the role that poverty plays in Wilmington’s crime problems. This will be in four parts — and so far includes voices from young men wrapped up in crime as well as voices from the ACLU, Dr. Yasser Payne, Charlie Copeland and others who are illuminating the larger picture involved with Wilmington’s crime problems. I’ve listened to the first one (this is about 20 minutes long) and it is riveting. Give it a listen and I hope you’ll come back to this thread to discuss this work and the issues it raises.

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Hillary Clinton’s Tampa Rally

Filed in National by on July 22, 2016 22 Comments
Hillary Clinton’s Tampa Rally

Since it is widely expected that the VP announcement will be today, perhaps this is the event where it will happen. I have no idea, of course, but this rally is being live-streamed (starts at 4:30 EDT) so if you want to see it as it happens, here you go:

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No DelDems Statewide Endorsements

Filed in Delaware by on July 19, 2016 18 Comments
No DelDems Statewide Endorsements

So finally someone heard me! The DelDems Executive Committee decided to not endorse for statewide candidates this season. This is an excellent decision and one that recognizes that it is the voters’ job to vet and select the candidates that they thnk will best represent them in government.

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