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There is a lot of angst out there… and the problem is that there is a lot of money being designated to promote the whims of the wealthy and powerful, and put the heel upon those common people who incredulously have the majority of numbers behind them…
So, if you happen to want to stick it to the man… here is the list you need to read and follow….
Because these are the candidates who… a) over the past four years have shown they will put you as their priority, and are not for sale, or… b) their opponents have shown us over the past four years just how much they were for sale, and how “the right money” can buy their vote….
Here is your best list if you want to “stick it to the man….” Call it Honesty versus Corruption.
US Senator : Andrew Groff — Green Party
US Rep in Congress: Bernard August — Green Part;y
Attorney General: Catherine Damavandi — Green Party
State Treasurer: Ken Simpler — Republican
State Auditor: Brenda Mayrick — Democrat
State Senate Seats:
STATE SEN DIS 2: Margaret Rose Henry — Democrat
STATE SEN DIS 3: Bobby Marshall — Democrat
STATE SEN DIS 4: Sarah Buttner — Democrat
STATE SEN DIS 6: Ernesto Lopez — Republican
STATE SEN DIS 10: Bethany Hall-Long — Sign Stealer (lol) but still the best choice<3
STATE SEN DIS 11: Bryan Townsend — Democrat
STATE SEN DIS 16: Colin Bolini — Republican
STATE SEN DIS 17: Kim Warfield — Republican
STATE SEN DIS 18: Gary Simpson — Republican
STATE SEN DIS 21: Bob Venables — Democratic
State Representative Seats:
STATE REP DIS 1 Charles Potter Jr. — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 2 Stephanie T. Bolden –Democratic
STATE REP DIS 3 Helene M. Keeley — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 4 Robert Kessler — Republican
STATE REP DIS 6 Kyle Buzzard — Republican
STATE REP DIS 7 Robert Wilson — Libertarian
STATE REP DIS 8 Matthew Brown — Republican
STATE REP DIS 9 Douglas Campbell — Independent
STATE REP DIS 10 Sean Matthews — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 11 Lynne Newlin — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 12 Jeffry Porter — Democrat
STATE REP DIS 13 John Mitchell — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 15 Matthew Lenzini — Republican
STATE REP DIS 16 James Johnson — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 17 Michael Mulrooney — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 18 Michael Barbieri — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 19 Kimberly Williams — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 20 Don Ayotte — Independent
STATE REP DIS 21 David McCorquodale — Green
STATE REP DIS 22 Steve Newton — Libertarian
STATE REP DIS 23 Paul Baumbach — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 24 Edward Osienski — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 25 John Kowalko — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 29 Charles Paradee — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 30 Gorden Smith — Libertarian
STATE REP DIS 31 Samuel Chick — Republican
STATE REP DIS 32 Andrea Bennett — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 33 Harold Peterman — Republican
STATE REP DIS 34 Lyndon Yearick — Republican
STATE REP DIS 35 David Wilson — Republican
STATE REP DIS 36 Harvey Kenton — Republican
STATE REP DIS 37 Paulette Rappa — Democratic
STATE REP DIS 38 Ronald Gray— Republican
STATE REP DIS 39 James Brittingham — Libertarian
STATE REP DIS 40 Timothy Dukes — Republican
STATE REP DIS 41 John Atkins — Democratic
Updated with Green Font to portray winners.
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These are people who will work for you; not “the man”… This is the best recommendation I can come up with… For everyone needs to unite to overcome the influence that money and power are beginning to exert. We are losing our voice; these will help us regain it….
*(The missing districts have no one else running except those totally beholden to the man..).
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This would be an amazing state if all these got into office… As you can see, partisanship played little in the decision making process. If you see too many Dem’s you should first check to see if they had any opposition. Incumbents listed here have a track record for fighting against the man, so here they are…
(If you don’t know your district click on the link and a map will appear as a Pdf link at the bottom of the next page.) You can also find it out here.
You should be making $18,000 more a year right now. And would, except for the inequality put in place beginning with the trickle down policies of Ronald Reagan… now more appropriately called “tinkle” down economics…
The bottom get pissed on.
The heavy line shows where you would be if the average rate of growth from across the years ’79 to ’10 were applied evenly. The lighter line shows the reality….
99% of us are all earning an average of $18,000 less than we should be… So how does this break down?
Average household incomes grew by 53.4 percent from 1979 to 2007. But that didn’t break down equally:
- The bottom fifth of households saw their income go up by 29.2 percent, well below the 53.4 percent average.
- Income for the middle fifth of households grew by a measly 19.7 percent.
- But how did people a little higher up, but not at the very top, do? A little better, but still below average: households between the 81st and 90th percentiles—so in the bottom half of the top fifth of the income ladder—had just 39.1 percent income growth. Again, well below that average of 53.4.
- So how far up do you have to go before you hit the average? The 91st to the 95th percentile almost got there, with 53 percent average growth. But they fell just short. Households between the 96th and 99th percentile seriously exceeded 53.4 percent, though. They had average income growth of 78.1 percent.
- That’s nothing compared to the top 1 percent, though: Their income grew by 244.7 percent, close to five times the average.
Ways To Share More Broadly.
A. Raise the Minimum Wage: $10.10 is a start.
B. Organize More (and throw out ineffective current bosses) Unions. Override All State Laws Outlawing Unions.
C. Reduce Wage Theft: charging workers for uniforms, drinks, food, supplies. Cheating on overtime.
D. Tax the top 1% appropriately… Include Capital Gains as income. Tax Corporations at the same rate as individuals. Raise the top marginal percents to these levels…
- Over $1 billion in income… tax rate of 60%
- $500 million to $1 billion in income = 55%
- $100 million to $500 million in income = 50%
- $50 million to $100 million in income = 45%
- All the rest: no change….
On top of this, allow all money put into capital improvements, to be deducted dollar for dollar. (Capital improvements require building things). The rational is that if you put that money into capital improvements, you are improving this nation as much as if you were directly paying taxes to it. Perhaps more so.
This can be done, but it must be done with a Democratic Executive, and over 60 Democrats in the Senate (or change the filibuster rules), and a fully Democratic House. That is what has to happen for any change. If it doesn’t happen then Americans rightly get what they deserve for being stupid. Because we all know that Republicans are quite happy with the very fact that you ARE making $18,000 less than you should and quite happy that they are the ones receiving it, not you…….
It wasn’t supposed to go that way. And it shouldn’t go that way…..
Great coach…
How did he get picked again?
Florida and Missouri…
When was the last national murder outrage in a Democratic state? I think it was in the Republican enclave of LA, with Rodney King, in the otherwise Democratic state of California….
But I don’t know of any in New York. Vermont… Massachusetts…. Rhode Island…. Minnesota…. It always seems to take place in states that have lots and lots of Republicans…. like Missouri… and Florida…..
I don’t mean to cast disparagement upon all Republicans, but this is a puzzling conundrum… Why is it only Republican states that exist in such a state of dysfunction, that when someone murders a black, they get away with no criminal charges?
I think several generalities apply.
One, Republicans are just plain scared of black people. “Don’t get out of your car till he passes”..
Two, Republican philosophy stresses individuality as well as that a government’s rules and regulations should not apply to people and that everyone already in power should be allowed to do whatever it is they wish, because they are the “true” Americans and have a little flag patch on their upper sleeve to prove it….
Three, Republicans believe that having a gun, means killing something… What’s the point of being a policemen (or self-appointed vigilante) if you can’t kill your fellow human beings the Republican mentality goes. We saw it in Florida’s legislature. They throughly enjoyed and almost could not contain their rapture that their law, allowed for the public elimination of a black person. Almost it seemed that any means available to legally kill black people, especially if it gets around that inconvenient(to them) law that says, black people are equal to whites and deserve the same protections,… is something good….
Four, Republicans honestly feel blacks are not people… “Those darky things, over there..” they say. Republicans unlike Democrats, do not see blacks as their fellow brothers or sisters from a different mother…
Five, Republicans have an inflated sense of their own importance. If they tell you to stop, and you do, it gives them the right to shoot you dead… Sort of as in, “I’m SOOOOOOOOO IMPORTANT… I AM THE OMNIPOTENT AND CAN KILL PEOPLE WITH IMPUNITY. BUT IF I KILL WHITE PEOPLE, SOMEONE WILL BE MAD. HEY! BLACK PEOPLE DON’T MATTER. CAUSE ROMNEY, SAID SO…
I’ll stop there. Now keep in mind, not all Republicans feel that way. Chris Christie, for example, would agree exactly with everything I said, if he was talking about a fringe of his party… Because they are a fringe. Just like those clowns at Bundy’s ranch, those people who were too insane for mental internment so we gave them guns and banished them to a desert…. So I think all (even Republicans) can agree. It is this fringe that keeps biting all good Republicans in the ass… And we have to wonder why?
I think we can see the answer right here in Charlie Copeland, who is in charge of trying to mend a party that was shattered into single atoms, back into a viable political entity… In order to have any numbers promoting his self-respect, he has to cater to the fringe: those outlandish impostors who think they alone are a gift to all under-aged women… In Delaware, the far right fringe eliminated all viable Republicans from power. I believe that in other states, which due to their geography may be less Democratic, one encounters far more fringe elements and therefore, the party must due to their numbers, cater to their episodes of psychological dysfunction….
This allows the fringe to think they can act with impunity, and if they want to shoot a black person… what the heck. no one cares… stupid fool happened to show up while I was here… Oh look, he’s stopped running away and is putting his hands up? Good, let me get closer. Ok, he’s only 5 feet away, I can hit that. Let me empty this clip into his freaking big head… Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow… Ewww wow, neat “O”.. did you see how his head exploded with each hit and all that blood and meat shot everywhere… Cool… Wonder if there is another one I can still shoot?…
And that is my theory on why, white cops shooting underage black children, can only occur in states run by Republicans… Because there is no consequence. If you only said… the next black child who gets killed by a white police man, will cause all handguns, assault rifles, and miniature cannons to become illegal in the state of Missouri or Florida, then such incidents simply would never happen. For there would be real consequences then…. If in your capacity as a police officer you accidentally shot and killed a black child, the NRA would have you dead before the sun rose the next day.
The controversy has been debunked. As Christopher Bullock plainly stated on WDEL to Allan Loudell, he was funneled the emails in order to make a statement harmful, he hoped, to the opponents of the Data Center…
For the most part it backfired.
After that was admitted, that the documents had been selectively chosen, edited, and highlighted to show only a small section of text, completely ignoring the bulk of the letter, and after Meg Williamson had said the” Union Thugs” at Newark High School on that cold, heavy rainy March evening, were trying to intimidate all those townspeople’s entering to make their voices known…. the controversy showed itself for what it is….
A complete sham and fraud……
Because one must ask….
If one supposedly has the good of the community on one’s side…. why does one dally in evil? One simply doesn’t. The data center is a sham, a ghoul, a shade, a hallucination, a mythical fabrication…. All that its supporters have said up to this point, have been false.
Let’s review?
It is being run by a viable, longterm, prosperous company headquartered in West Chester…. Yeah, out of the smallest and cheapest mail box one can rent from Mailbox Etc……. (Oh, my, gosh…. one can’t make this stuff up!)
There is no noise…. False, it is the equivalent to two drunks talking right outside your bedroom window at 3:33 am.
It will create jobs…. yes, after initial building is over, about 10 new local jobs,…. less than a brand new Wawa.
It will not pollute more than Chrysler. False… it pollutes considerably more than Chrysler.
It does not produce Carbon Dioxide. False.. It will add considerably to global warming over what is there now….
It does not burn fracked natural gas. False… All it’s gas will come from fracking.
There are no investors who will get rich… This is only for the good of Newark… False. The investors this month chose to piss away$7 million, than have to reveal who they truly are to the public eye.
There is no pollution from a gas turbine… False, … According to their spokesperson (Ed Grant) on WDEL, this will be the largest gas fired burner in the state…. It will pollute worse than that tall burner in Delaware City, the one you can smell as far away as Bear and the City of New Castle, acknowledges TDC spokesperson, Ed Grant.
People live next to gas burners all the time. Yes, little teeny tiny baby burners…. Like those next to IKEA’s… But no one in America has ever lived this close to a giant 248 MW burner, and lived to tell about it.
There are no carcinogens, ever, that come out of natural gas… False. Their own submission to DNREC states the exact opposite….
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Get the picture? Like a used car salesman trying to sell you a car pulled out of the Hudson River, every claim imaginable is being made with no regard to substantiation or whether or not it is true….
There has not been one truth told by supporters of the data center……
Oh yeah? Find it.
So it has become all about those damned elitist, racist white bi*ches, now…. What a pathetic bunch of puss*es….
Hey, Chris Bullock... You’re a pastor…. Tell us the truth…. Is this how you want to really be remembered…. after you leave this earth? A bully? The opposite of Jesus?
Hey Sam Latham…. You’re also a pastor…. God’s country, Sussex County. You too… Tell the truth….. Is that how you really want to be remembered? Having to beat up on some woman, who came damn close to being Newark’s mayor?
Your side has lost this cause… If either of you were truly serious about getting jobs into New Castle County, instead of covering for the Greenville elite…. You’d be hustling for another business to come in, one that won’t kill women and children, pets and grown working union men in the process……. and we’d all be right there with you.
Pressure for parents and the teachers union had derailed Common Core in Tennessee.
The vote was overwhelming for establishing at least A TWO YEAR DELAY IN THE PROCESS.
82-11….
Two amendments received substantial support as well.
The first: An amendment to delay further Common Core implementation, including the adoption of new standards in science and social studies was approved by an 80-6 vote.
The second: On delaying the PARCC testing, the vote was 88-0.
Defeat of Educational Reform is the best way to improve America’s schools. Both Tennessee and Delaware were the first two winners in the Race To The Top… Looks like Tennessee won by coming to the realization first, that Common Core is the wrong direction.
Filthy rich lobbyists, those solely behind the educational reform movement in Tennessee, are having quite a bad week….
First, the TEA (their equivalent of our DSEA) announced a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of TVAAS-based merit pay for teachers, a measure supported by their governor Haslam’s Administration.
Then, the House Finance Committee did not take up Haslam’s proposal for school vouchers, instead delaying consideration for one week. The bill barely eked out of House Finance Subcommittee with Speaker Harwell having to break a tie vote.
A TEA-backed bill prohibiting the use of TVAAS in teacher licensure decisions also passed key committees in the House and Senate this week…
To paraphrase Dick Cheney; “Educational reform is bad, very bad….” One has to look at Delaware still moving forward with this horribly inept solution and one must wonder, what is wrong with our legislators….. A day ago we just heard the spin from the Governor that only a few crazies are causing a lot of misinformation. Well, that must make the Tennessee legislature out to be the most misinformed body on earth.
No, I don’t think so. That distinction instead belong with the Delaware’s General Assembly, which could only muster 4 detractors off of SB 51; known in the General Assembly as the “Death of Delaware Bill”… Our legislators get told what to do by lobbyists and then do it without question.
According to the 2012 Financial Report of the State of Delaware, there were in 2010,… 4887 people in the top 1% of Delaware’s income… Over ten years, that number increased by 445 people. The average AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) of just this 1% was $728,553. if this was the average then the average times the number of people will give us the total AGI for that income bracket…
$728,553 X 4887 = $3,560,438,511 or $3.5 billion dollars of taxable income…..
Here is a chart showing the amounts if we tax this segment additionally…. Currently top-bracketed income due for 2014 is to be taxed at a rate of 6.9%…..
2014 @ 6.9% = $245,670,257 …
Now with additional increases in the percentage…….
.5% = $17,802,192 new rate of 7.4%
1% = $35,604,385 new rate of 7.9%
1.5%= $53,406,578 new rate of 8.4%
2% – $71,208,770 new rater of 8.9%
These are the amounts of revenue at our disposal, based off the 2010 data.
These rates compare to New Jersey’s at 8.97%,
Keep in mind these increases are just on the top 1%. No tax increases in this post were considered for those in the 99% category.
And please don’t feel sorry for these people having to pay more. The Dow Jones average is up 23.79% on the year…
Someone with $3 billion in assets acquired an income just off stocks alone, $714 million by doing nothing… It grew that much….
They certainly have a little extra cash, this year to help the state out a little…
Compare that amount to all those things now broken in the state of Delaware which get band-aids because we aren’t leaning on those sitting on this much money as we should be.
Before any knucklehead even thinks of doing away with prevailing wage, something that helps the Delaware economy, …. taxing this money pile so more stays here inside our state’s boundary must take place first.
Absolutely.
The Golden Flush Award /Click Image for Past Winners
Usually this is an after thought…” Oh, wow, year’s over, let’s get a person of the year”… And then once we elect one, we go… “holy crap… we totally forgot so and so….”
So to try to stir up some old simmering coals of memory, both mine and others, and perhaps even to (heaven forbid) get some debate going in the blog sphere, I thought I’d make an initial run on Thanksgiving Week, and then add people into the nominating category as others mention various ones I should kick myself for forgetting.
It will also force me to review the year which is something I rarely do… because face it, as a human being, I am slave of the moment…. If I did this last year, come December 14th the entire world would have been turned upside down and all the old priorities of 2012, would in one day become trivial….
And so starting early gives me the chance to make the argument for each of those I decide to enroll with your kind recommendations included….
Julius Cephus: Particularly this one man organized and stopped an end run around the Port of Wilmington. The Kinder Morgan deal did not go through, and the Wilmington Port is bustling like never before… Kinder Morgan was to strip the union of power, and drop the rates of pay, further dampening the economy of Wilmington proper. It was also the first defeat of a Lavine-Markell development project, .. Fisker and Bloom had gone forward without a hitch. Julius and other’s push back resulted in a General Assembly motion that stated they, not the governor, had final approval. It was the first time we were exposed to the current Governor’s manipulations. They were to play a significant part across this year’s tapestry.
Steve Newton: A blogger who has written infrequently, but effectively. His piece on SB 51 is what alerted us to the end run being performed by Dave Sokola on lowering the current standards being used for educating teachers. It is brilliant. It took an evening of reading the legislation line by line and cross referencing it with Steve’s analysis, to understand the huge negative impact this bill would cause. By the time this was done, the Bill had already passed the Senate unanimously without comment, and with an friendly amendment added that was voted upon without even being read. Some public outcry was mustered within the House, both in committee and on the floor, but under the Governor’s direction, the Speaker of the House, pushed the bill to the floor before significant outcry could be mustered. Only 4 House members were not on record for it’s passing. Our educational schools now have to water down their teaching standards to meet the new law. Steve also has brought the Highmark story to Delaware. His research in the increase of medical costs in Western PA as a result of knocking out competition by unfair practices, leads one with a cold chill of what to expect in Delaware’s future. We are already there. As an insurer, Highmark is only paying medical claims in its own affiliated clinics. As the new Blue Cross/Blue Shield owner, that is a huge percentage of Delaware’s residents. None can go to any other hospital. He has properly fingered Karen Weldham Stuart for not catching this prior to implementation. Without Steve, this would have passed unnoticed. The News Journal still has not once mentioned the takeover of Delaware’s health field under one owner.
Ernest Lopez. If Kennedy were still writing Profiles of Courage, he should include this man. Ernest Lopez is a conservative, and voted with Libertarian values to pass the gun legislation recommended by Markell and Biden. Reflecting the views of his district, instead of taking the threatening message sent to him down from the NRA, he voted for his district. A very vocal minority, who is always vocal, and always in the minority, swore they would unseat him. He disregarded their idle threat, and voted both his and his constituents conscious. A major billboard was put up to call him out. His vote caused the passage of us now requiring background checks at public gun sales. Now a certifiably insane person cannot slap cash and get a gun. It is a no-brainer, and Ernie was the only Republican with brain enough to even know what a no-brainer is….
Cathy Cloutier: her vote allowed gays to marry. Again, she is a Republican who said enough is enough… Tired of voting against her conscious just so Sussex County would not flip over to the Democrats, she finally did not toe the line and voted along the lines of her own constituents, all overwhelmingly in favor of gay marriage. In doing so, she went against the entire grain of her party, who firmly feel that gays are second class citizens, even though most Republicans in office are closeted gays.
Bethany Hall Long: on the same vote, made a viable personal decision, and also voted for the legalization of gay marriage. Unlike Cathy’s vote, this was accomplished at great personal sacrifice, for all of those in her personal life, were solidly against this policy from taking effect. In voting for what was morally right, she had to contend against those whose influence she could not escape. She went with the correct vote, over the easy one. As a result, Gay marriage is now legal in Delaware.
Paul Baumbach: gave great ammunition against the fight for SB51, and later against HB 165. Both bills which will damage Delaware’s education for years to come. He was one of the four who put up a fight on the House floor. Paul also arranged for the meetings in Newark to discuss the new Power plant that figured in this past week’s election.
John Kowalko: also was against SB51, HB 165, as well, being against the power plant. In fact, John was the first person to sound the alarm over how big the power plant would be. Without his big voice, it may have slid through unnoticed. The power plant has defined northern Delaware politics since September.
Kim Williams; responsible for HB 40 which investigates Charter School’s meddling into our educational systems. She was as an acting state representative, allegedly refused entrance into a committee hearing on education, for fear she might say something damaging to the bill being rushed through…. She brought to the public’s knowledge, that the Charter School bill was drafted illegally without public input, and the charter group constructing it, was also under FOIA, to which the private group denied. The Attorney General backed up her assertion, that the bill was formulated illegally but their decision was moot, because the bill was passed both houses anyways. Kim Williams also in the HB 40 task force, led the group to realize that charter schools unlike public schools, do indeed filter those entering charters to weed out those who might lower their test scores….
Mark Murphy, Rodel, Sweeney, Hefferman, and the Fake Educational Reform Establishment: I almost purposefully did not post this. Although the first person’s name is usually followed by explicatives whenever mentioned, it is unlike Voldermort’s, still getting mentioned. Mark Murphy was not put in his position based on his ability. He was placed there for his loyalty to the cause of corporatizing public education. Markell pulls the strings, Murphy figures how to get it done… It is hard to make a puppet the most influential person of the year… So I was going to skip him… But at the last minute, remembered that every time he or anyone of these make an op-ed, it resonates as gigantic news. The entire community rises up to counteract each op-ed, usually with the word “lies” thrown liberally about…. So, they do exert an influence. I looped all of them together, as the group of liars in a Greek play, who stand on the stair steps and taunt the protagonists. Well,… they are part of the play…….
Dan Short: Sometimes villains get noticed too. Primarily a single issue candidate, who personally supports the NRA, he actively campaigned and organized to create enough backlash so Markell’s gun laws could not get enough votes… Without him, there is a possibility that all four of Markell’s gun control pieces of legislation would have passed both houses of Delaware’s legislature. Dan Short should be given the credit for stopping them.
John Sigler: Single handedly by his very brief tenure as the re-elected head of the Republican Party, he pointed out through his pigeon shooting, just how inept the Republican Party was at everything else. With his leaving, all fissures cracking the Republican bedrock, were impossible to ignore. Blogs split. The IPOD’s split. Former candidates of the same party just months earlier, now not talking to each other. The Delaware Republican Party is dead; no it is past dead. More dead than a pigeon shot inside a box by John Sigler, former head of the Delaware Republican Party.
Nancy Willing: Her blog, the Delaware Way, is the go-to site for local information. Whether about Dover, about New Castle County, about any of New Castle County’s associations, Nancy combs all sources and puts them down in aggregate form. Heavily involved in the Power Plant controversy, The Delaware City Rail Yard controversy, Barley Mill controversy, the Woodlawan controversy, the Kinder Morgan controversy, the Charter School Controversy, the Common Core Controversy, Nancy has who is saying “what”, and links to “why”. One can expend less energy by using her blog to follow all the stuff the News Journal neglects, in a few quick empty steps.
Amy Roe: a head of the Sierra Club, who emerged from nowhere to lead the fight against the power plant, and give quite a run against the establishment candidate. Becoming the face the anti- power movement could coalase behind, she gave the anti power plant movement both dignity and grace. Coming up short only 115 votes, she has awakened Newark now politically as never before… The power plant if it goes forward, now has a strong group of Newarkeans against it. Hopefully they will be monitoring it regularly and helping authorities keep in in compliance with all local law.
Tom Gorden; although much quieter than his first term in office, Tom Gorden is rapidly rolling back the privileges the previous Clark administration handed over to our state’s top developers. The Barley Mill plaza which had a green light, is now parked at a red. In a big sea change, though handled quietly, community groups are now no longer persona non grata in county government. It is no longer accepted as a matter of course that the Woodlawn Trust will be gobbled up by developers. If enough fight can be mustered, it can be stopped. Furthermore, with Tom there is closer coordination with the City of Wilmington, than we have experienced anytime in our lifetimes. In the county, local policing has been stepped up, particularly in neighborhoods prone to crime…
Dennis Williams: Came in with grand expectations, which looked deliverable for a while. The tide is turning and his relevance on this list, is because every day, the headline reality in Wilmington’s streets, brings his electioneering boasts back to haunt him, like a sizzling hot branding iron. Time, Dennis, to say “Damn the torpedoes… Their punk asses are going in jail no matter which blowhard on City Council spouts off,before mine gets tossed in jail for impersonating a mayor..”
Alan Levin: Jack Markell’s second in command, he was instrumental in defending Markell’s position on Kinder Morgan and the port, as well as the new power plant for the data center. He also had a hand in keeping Dole in Delaware, and worked to slip the power plant past a slew of unsuspecting Newark City officials.
Jack Markell: had his hand in everything. He was behind Kinder Morgan’s takeover. He was behind SB 51 and HB 165. He was behind the illegal charter group, requiring HB 40. He also was the driving force for the four rational steps to gun legislation, 2 of which were passed. He was also the driving force behind the passage of gay marriage, signing the bill in the chambers just moments after its passage. He also supported the transgender bill in its travels through the labyrinth of Legislative Hall. He as behind keeping Dole in Delaware. He was behind changing an icon in Millsboro away from pickles, over to poultry. He pushed the bill to curtail Flowers. Despite your opinion over whether these were good or bad, they still showed a ubiquitous and wide reach across the state of Delaware. Seems like nothing got done that didn’t have his fingerprints all over it.
John Young: As head of Christina board, John Young led the board in standing up to Mark Murphy and Jack Markell, by refusing the RTTT funds slated for his district. Although some hired fools, (Jea Street) tried to paint Young into a corner, it served the opposite purpose and gave Young a platform. For the fist time, Common Core was getting publicly bashed. For the first time, many were finding that aligning themselves blindly to this sham of improving standards, was probably going to hurt them politically in the next couple of years. It was the fist salvo back, so the damage estimates were not high, but it did open eyes of many who had been on the sidelines of all educational issues, making them also become vocal in fighting Common Core. His blog Transparent Christina has channelled a lot of detailed information into the Delaware market, and had made Common Core an apprehension, instead of the savior it was supposed to be….
Kilroy: Kilroy has always been haranguing over education. In fact he was doing such a good job I left that issue alone for years, because other issues for me, like the economy and elimination of guns from the hands of the mentally ill, were more important. But as the issue has shifted back into the limelight, Kilroy’s hard hitting is making its mark… Kilroy is blunt, and right now, that is the language that needs to happen. Blunt descriptions of what takes place in the stratosphere of he academic field…. Kilroy often breaks stories before the News Journal, especially ones embarrassing to the Murphy/Markell cartel of education. If you have read Kilroy over the past couple of years, you would already know that Common Core is not the panacea we have been promised. It is a power grab for taxpayer dollars, financed by Wall Street itself…. If you think otherwise, you haven’t been reading a balanced reading list….
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That is what I have so far. In retrospect I am surprised that education has played so much, as even I have only come to that topic lately… But if one looks over the News Journal op eds, education really did dominate the discussion in the 2nd smallest state this year….
I may have forgotten some big ones. To reiterate, that is why I am posting this early, to catch those big mistakes as they get brought to my attention….
Courtesy of Tax Foundation and Philadelphia Federal Reserve
The now famous high stepping Wal*Mart video mentions that point….
Now, the meme of bashing Wal*mart and fast foods has gotten a little blaze and to be honest, when I first saw the flash mob at Walmart on the national sites, as a person with little time, I passed.
But on Delaware Liberal, I opened it in another tab, and was listening to it as background and all of a sudden….. it stopped for a half second and then…
“Hold It! Did You Know? It Is Your Right To Form A Union!”
The answer in my head was … “no, i didn’t…”
The second answer was… “of course I did.” which made me more intrigued by my original answer. Why on earth did I think it was bad for these people to interrupt business as usual to demonstrate for something affecting I think, one person?
As this “wow moment” started to dawn on me, I realized I’d been brainwashed’… Over time. it had really happened. My gut, had been over-ruling my head…. it’s a business. They should call the police. They should fire everyone involved… Demonstrations are really ineffective blowing off of steam…
“Hold It! Did You Know? It Is Your Right To Form A Union!”
How many others out there would say “no” … How many others out there really don’t know it is their right to form a union? That anyone can form a union? It is legally protected.
Oh, they can threaten to fire you if you join… And they can fire you….
But if they do… you can sue… and even better, under current law, you can sue them and win. Win big!
You can make them pay you for all back wages you lost. So finacially it is just like you were working but having the entire time off.
You can make them pay all your damages, including late fees on bills you couldn’t pay because the illegally fired you. You can make them pay interest on all loans you took out to live on, even if they came from family. If you Dad gives you a loan at 1000% interest, they have to pay that… and to your Mom, your brothers, your sisters, your aunts, and uncles… Your whole family and friends can get rich off them because they fired you for forming a union!
“Hold It! Did You Know? It Is Your Right To Form A Union!”
The business may respond to the legal judgment , “Screw you , we are closing”. But if they close they will still have to pay you for all the damage they cause you because they fired you for forming a union… You still win! And win BIG!
“Hold It! Did You Know? It Is Your Right To Form A Union!”
How is it that our newspapers don’t remind us of this. How is it that Unions are painted to be the bad guys, because they make a business lose money? Why isn’t the business painted as the bad guy, for stealing potential earnings out of each and every employee working for them…
Some may think forcing a union on a business is unfair. Racist states often use this argument. Why should White owned businesses pay more for black people’s labor? That is why ALEC (in Delaware associated with Patty Blevins) was invented: to protect White Businesses’ interests. And still unfortunately, in some states, there were enough white people still agreeing that black people as well as to those whites who associate with them, should be paid inferior wages,so much so that with ALEC’s help, enough votes were mustered to pass state anti-union laws..
But historically there were laws that once said: slavery was legal. Despite bad law, morally it was still everyone’s right to be free….
“Hold It! Did You Know? It Is Your Right To Form A Union!”
It is your right to form a union. Existing law is crystal clear. Why was this decided? What is the moral argument behind it?
Simple. You have to eat. Bottom line. If someone says I have to pay you $6.00 an hour because I’m not making enough money, and you can’t get money anywhere else, you work for $6.00 and hour. If he counters that he can only pay $5.00 an hour, and you can’t make money anywhere else, you will do his bidding for $5.00 an hour. Why not $4 then? Why not $3 then? Why not $2 then? Why not $1 then? Why not .25 cents then?
You have to eat.
There is no bargaining chip in your favor… Your employer if legally allowed, would pay the lowest rate possible to still have employees. When there are more employees than positions, wages could drop very low…. because you have to eat.
America went through the Great Depression primarily because of this… Even business leaders realized from that experience that by making their employees so poor, no one was buying the products they were making…
And so they agreed: “If we make our employers have disposable income, they can buy our products and we can again make money”. So the legal basis was almost unanimously approved by both businesses and labor, to make the right to strike just that. a basic human right protected by the full force of the law… Simply because paying workers higher wages is good for increasing overall demand. and that is what drives economies forward.
“Hold It! Did You Know? It Is Your Right To Form A Union!”
Basically, a union is the answer to this counter argument: “why should you, the investors, get all the money off our labor, and we get none?” Admittedly both of us should get something decent from our arrangement….
And there you go. America did do very well… that is, until our media became influenced by investors (who now own them btw) and started painting unions as a scourage… Missing from all press coverage, was the simple fact that one has to act scouragingly when bargaining with fellow scourages… Sort of like not realizing that your hero prize fighter has to hurt people. It’s necessary to stay in the ring…
So I encourage all reading this to now begin talking up unions in your workplace… Because if you get fired for any reason afterwards, you can blame it on the legal right to form a union…. it is like a wonderful vacation in which you still will get paid, probably even more than if you’d put up with the bosses crap the whole damn time….!
Now… you know! It Is Your Right To Form A Union!”
Yeah.
It really is your “right.” and it is protected by law. Now, go get them tigers!
kavips 