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If one listens to media (seriously, why would they) or looks at opinion pieces on the Democratic contest for the Presidency, one sees a lot of people talking about the race… yet no one expressing any vision of what the landscape would look like if either of them won.
So in plain language, here it is…
If you think the rich have too much and the poor have too little, nothing will change unless enough of you vote for Bernie Sanders in the primaries on June 7th.
If you think there is something inherently wrong with 1/10th of one percent owning more than the bottom 90% (you), recognize nothing will ever change unless enough of you vote for Bernie Sanders in the primaries on June 7th.
If you think there is something wrong with 58% of all new income generated going to the top 1%, (they get raises; you don’t) then you must realize nothing will change unless enough of you vote for Bernie Sanders in the primaries on June 7th.
If you think there is something wrong with America having the highest child poverty rate (32.2%) of any developed nation, and we continue to cut back on programs designed to alleviate poverty just so billionaires can keep more of their money, then you must realize nothing will change unless enough of you vote for Bernie in the primaries of June 7th.
If you think that the wealthy and large corporation should at least pay the same rate as you and even more on their inordinately high incomes, then you must realize nothing will change unless enough of you vote for Bernie in the primaries of June 7th.
If you think that no one who works 40+ hours a week should live in poverty and that by 2020 minimum wages across America should be at $15 an hour, then you must realize nothing will change unless enough of you get up, go out, and vote for Bernie in the primaries of June 7th.
If you believe we should put Obama’s original idea of investing 1 Trillion towards rebuilding our infrastructure and create 13 million jobs for those in our inner cities, then you must realize nothing will change unless enough of you vote for Bernie in the primaries of June 7th…
If you believe we should make tuition free at public colleges and universities across the US, then you must realize nothing will change unless enough of you vote for Bernie in those primaries taking place on June 7th.
If you think we should expand the social security cap above $250,000, so those billionaires and large corporations earning most of America’s new income, continue to pay the same rate as you and your employer, helping to keep Social Security solvent far into the future, then you must realize that nothing positive will happen, unless enough of you vote for Bernie in Tuesday’s primaries.
If you think it is time for the US to join the rest of the civilized world and make healthcare a right, guaranteeing every American the right to a Medicare-for-ALL single plan health care, then you must realize it can never happen, unless enough of you vote for Bernie in Tuesday’s primaries….
If you think that all human beings are important enough that employers should pay up to 12 weeks of family or medical leave, should have 2 weeks of vacation, and 7 sick days a year, please realize this will never happen, unless enough of you vote for it by choosing Bernie Sanders on June 7th….
If you think we should have a universal childcare and early childhood healthcare program for all children ages 0-3, then you must realize this will never happen unless enough of you vote for it by choosing Bernie Sanders on June 7th….
If you think we should have more unions instead of less, to increase our clout when bargaining for a share of the new profits being made hand over fist by our record productive work, then you need to realize only one person is capable of changing the status quo and making that happening, and he is on the ballot in the Democratic Primaries on June 7th..
If you think Big Banks who call themselves “Too Big To Fail” and count on Federal Taxpayers bailing out their bad investments, should be broken up into a lot of smaller banks which then can be allowed to fail, putting the financial responsibility on their investors, then you must realize the candidate who did not receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from these banks, is the only one who is able to make this happening, and he needs your vote on June 7th to prove to America that most of us want positive change…..
If you feel any of these are important, and even if you dream of how much better your life could be “if only” these things were in effect instead of the corporate driven economy we find ourselves…. then you must realize that no matter what anyone else besides you says… whether on TV, magazines, opinion pages, or blogs, that your job or even duty to your children, is to vote for the America you want to see happen in your lifetime….
It is revealing that in the week leading up to California and New Jersey and other final states, that Hillary and Trump are calling each other names and attacking personalities while Bernie is still running on his (and your) dream…
Here is the kicker. Even if Bernie doesn’t ultimately win the nomination, if enough of you still vote for him in this final push, it is very likely that the winner will have to bow to popular appeal and incorporate his platform as part of her plan…That is what has happened in many of the past 58 presidential elections in our history. Your stronger than expected showing on June 7th is not just an affirmation for the courage and vision of the man you love and trust, it is an affirmative vote, a big YES for all the policies he has proposed, which we as a nation can easily afford, just haven’t because we’ve all been too scared of the blustering rich guys…
Well the rich guys are Donald Trump. We see how they act and don’t have to be scared of them anymore.
When they come after the nominee and say: you can’t implement Bernie’s Plan on us, she can point to your votes for Sanders and say, “that is not what large numbers of the American People say” and you have given her the cover to stand up to the oligarchs.
America is a nation of ideas. We worship a document, not a charismatic founder… Our basis of government is little ink scrawls on parchment or more importantly, the ideas those little cursive letters express. Although our media has done its best to put faces in front of us (often in contorted poses), most of us accept the reality that those faces are interchangeable; it is the ideas being expressed by those faces that are important… Another face putting forth the same ideas will be just as effective implementing them if voted in office, as the face running right now…
This is Bernie’s revolution, a return to the dominance of ideas. And his is being fueled differently than the other two campaigns, both of which for lack of a better word, are personality cults:.. “I” will build a wall and “I” will make Mexico pay for it/ “I” am the most experienced executive of all the candidates” Against which Bernie is saying: “We” need this now; “We” need that now; and with your votes, “We” can really do this now/ now is the time….
And that is why every vote for Bernie on June 7th is an affirmation for the ideas he has personified. That is why if you want real change, you will still need to vote for the ideas that appeal to you and not be swayed by political noise which primarily I believe, is aimed at you to confuse you and distract you from following your agenda….
Voting for people supported by the status quo and bankrolled by interests opposite of yours, will do nothing to change your predicament, no matter how much you love them… By them I’m sure you will be offered new programs, but those offerings really benefit the investors who are providing them, not help those needing help. But if you are in the camp who thinks that all it takes for America to be great again is to get a little more income into your pocket, to not worry about affording college, to not worry over having medical bills, not worrying about what happens to you when you retire, to actually be able to make more money when your companies profits rise solely because of your collective hard work, then there is only one candidate worthy of your vote, for real.
The last great hope in anyones lifetime like this was JFK (by November 2008 most of us knew Obama’s campaign agenda would be bogged down by the economy). We’ve been waiting 56 years for this new breath of fresh air. If you don’t show this guy your support, based on how things work, it becomes very hard for those ideas to ever become reality… The rich will say: “See? Even poorest of the masses don’t want his dreams passed into law….”
It’s your vote; making it collectively, your call. Same way it has always has been in America for 58 presidential elections and despite multiple ups and downs, by miracles and close votes we will have survived 240 years from our conception this upcoming July 4th.
Forget all noises in your ear (including this one). Vote for the America YOU want to see. Don’t throw your one great opportunity away…..
Perhaps due to the abrasive nature of politics in New Jersey, its citizens will not be as beholden to having “royalty” tapping their ruby slippers with their wand, as were the squeamish citizens of their sister state across the bay, who tend to blindly follow whatever direction those with more money in their pockets, tell them ….
New Jersey has always been a knock-down, drag-out, state when it comes to political fighting… Which means, I hope its citizens who are immune to fighting entirely, don’t get sucked up in it, and do stay clear to vote their self interests….
It’s like if you never see your parents argue, then see a heated discussion involving anger as the prime force of reason, it scares you… But if you see the same stuff every other day, you think: “crap, I’d better see if I can get a seat at Beth’s family’s table today….”
Because, ever since Wisconsin, the media redundant focus on the Democratic race has been on Hilary’s fights with Bernie… who said what, and how did Twitter respond, and how much time can our news milk this topic so we don’t have to tell voters about what really matters…. Which like parents arguing… affects us squat…
So what is important? Our money. Everything, and I mean, everything else is a distraction….
Oh no. I don’t mean to imply we should forget about everything else… We are under a lot of problems now… Global warming for one; it needed to be addressed 16 years ago instead of shuffling arguments with hired skeptics defending its denial. Racial injustice… Certainly important.. Having a good economy for only one color of skin is a scenario we do not want to have return. Public Education being corporatized? Heavens! That’s our nation’s future we’re talking about. Certainly it is important… Police responsible to “We, The People”, and not themselves? Absolutely, that is important…..
So what am I talking about when I say other than our money, everything else is a distraction?
What I’m talking about: is how money and power go together…. What I’m talking about is how even you, in whatever capacity you find yourself, when you have to choose between opposing views of people who a) can really fvck your life up, or b) people whose only hold on you is their moral persuasion, in order for yourself not to get royally fvcked up, you side with those who could do you the most damage…
What we are talking about: is whether you matter any more!….
Let’s waltz through all those distractions we get tossed, ok? One by one?
Global warming may happen or it may not, but unless you have power to make change, it is out of your hands. If you are a 2nd class citizen who can’t or won’t vote because it truly makes no difference, then that resolution will be decided by those who do… Just for the record, how many lobbyists can you hire to lubricate passage of laws limiting carbon’s use through your state and national legislatures? If you yourself have no assets to speak of, no stocks, no clout, if you still rent, and don’t own, if you make so little you can’t support your own necessary expenses, much less financially fund some progressive cause, why would someone listen to you over someone who has demonstrated the capacity to promise them a $500,000 a year job after their term expires?…
You need to elect someone right now to whom you will matter.
Racial Injustice? How does having equality on paper, translate into having fewer of your color in prison? Fewer of your color in jobs? Fewer of your gender in executive positions? How does yourself being poorer year, after year, after year; of having less money to spend on yourself, help others of your color, of your gender, of your sexual persuasion? How does you getting poorer and poorer and poorer and poorer help anyone really, if you can’t even help yourself? And if you can’t even help yourself, why would anyone sane ever listen to you again, once you’ve received their vote? Are the vows of commitment you make before you have sex, ever the same strength long after you’ve gotten it? Or are you ready to make new vows of the same ardency, to the next target who crosses your sights?
You need to elect someone right now to whom you will matter.
Public Education being corporatized? How does having corporations tear apart your public schools affect you, when all the choices given you are bad? Like slaves on a plantation you really have no choice because you really have no income with which to make a choice; you simply have to put your child on the bus hoping the interest of others keeps him from being thrown under the bus, and have him taken to “where-ever” school someone wants him in You have no say, because you have no money with which to get your “say” noticed. Why should anyone even care that you object to businessmen raking in millions of your tax dollars and giving nothing beneficial in return? Uhh, who are you, minimum wage person, with a credit rating of under 325, living week to week off your crappy job?… Who are you professional teacher, behind on your bills, fired for your low rating, who has “loser” in the shape of an albatross around your neck? Really who even cares what you say, where you say it, what you wish for you child when you can’t even put up two pennies for a candidate who would otherwise take you side of things? You expect people to ignore millions of dollars offered them, simply on moral grounds? What do you smoke btw?
You need to elect someone right now to whom you will matter.
Police accountability? Ha… Police run themselves… If they want to shoot a black.. they do it.. If they want a live target, they get one… NO ONE WHO HAS MONEY CARES! “Oh, tsh, tsh! So sad Trayvon died… Whoa! The bid is only $300 for the gun that killed him? That’s my investment in the future… some billionaire collector will want it.” “Oh look, my stock value in gun manufactures has soared double what I expected it to be before Trayvon was murdered… ‘Bout time we kill another black kid to shoot it up even higher.. ” So really you who have no money, no clout, no pull; how much money are you going to throw at legislatures to counter laws like that? You who have no job? You who live on less than $100 in cash a week? You, whose housing is paid for, whose food is paid for, whose phone is paid for by people who won’t hire you, won’t pay you a fair wage, who won’t give you the respect of a decent job, because your government is run by people to whom you don’t matter? To whom those with only big money matter because you can give two extra pennies to help them fight your battle….. What warped world do you live in where people will hold police accountable to the law at their own peril, when they could do quite well by leaving the police alone to kill in cold blood, anyone they want?
How is anyone going to change that over to what whatever it is you do want, YOU WHO DO NOT MATTER?
Seriously; social issues are distractions. They are panacea. They are offered to get you all excited so you forget how little money you now have; how much smaller money you will have in the future, and how little money your children will have to fight over among themselves if ever they have a future,… because YOU… yes, YOU, totally dropped the ball when it came to YOU YOURSELF making more money, and YOU, yes YOU, simply let them take it from you because YOU YOURSELF was concerned too much about Global warming; because YOU YOURSELF was too much concerned about racial injustice; because YOU YOURSELF was concerned too much concerned about educational deformity; because YOU YOURSELF was too much concerned about the inconsequences of police brutality……
So while you were distracted…. you simply scrolled through financial La La land and let them take your money, money that was to have been yours….
It is your money they now use to buy your state and local representative, your governor, your US House Representative or US Senator, so he/she must listen now to them, not you. It’s true. You are made to believe you are being listened to, but in truth, do you really have a voice? How’s your bank account?. People with money have awesome bank accounts, do you? All they have to do is whine: I’m not making money and it gets handed to them; when was the last time that ever worked for you?… They can act with impunity, take your property, your children, your pension, only because somewhere deep down in your soul, you were emotionally persuaded NOT to vote in someone who would dramatically change the rules so you could again begin to earn more and those with money might have to live with less….
These rules we are mentioning are not something new… They are the ones in existence across most of the rest of the world, and existed here up until 2002. They were the ones in play when the US had a roaring middle class, when every income level made more each year than they did the last, when it was unheard of to make less this year than you did last, when even when you lost your job, you still made more the next year because someone hired you paying you more money. That life is not a dream.. That life is memory for anyone over 45.
But every year, across those lifetimes, we took one or two planks off the House that Roosevelt built, called the New Deal, which guaranteed financial opportunity for all people.. Rich or poor. you would do alright in this life, as long as you lived in America; nothing bad would happen to you.
In that house with every new contract, your union would negotiate your wage based off a percentage of the success your work was providing your employers… Profits were split 50/50 between workers and investors, not 0/100… Then suddenly we “changed” the law to allow states to ban unions… pffft…. good bye profit sharing… “Sorry, kiddo, if you want to live, as in eat, you’ll have to work for $7.25 and hour and no benefits…That’s all this state offers; no, we don’t do raises.. Take it or starve..”.
Employer pension funds used to belong to the employees… Companies could not be bought and have their employee’s pensions dissolved sending the money straight to investors. You worked, you retired, you would live very comfortably in your old age… Today, many grandparents are subsidizing their children and grandchildren through the largess of these pension plans they were luck to retire on before the law was changed…
Marginal tax laws were also higher… meaning there was strong incentive NOT to gouge or bleed a business for high profits. With more than 50% of your top dollars handed over to the treasurer of the Federal Government, it made good sense to invest in your employees. and get a return on that investment instead of just handing the money over. Today, that is the craziest thing any company exec can do… (President of the Corporation): “Our profits are lower this year because I gave good raises to my employees to keep them on board to continue our success, and also because I opened up a new department to research and develop new products instead of buying out competing companies and firing all their employees. I will be sad to leave but do accept the stockholders’ decision..” We passed low tax laws letting corporations keep all their profits, requiring none to be invested back into our economy… We could have easily used our tax laws to provide incentives to invest in America instead of China, but since Americans were so preoccupied with social issues, no one cared. Prophets of doom were contemporarily ridiculed as pessimists, yet they predicted exactly the world we have today.
With more tax revenue available, the public sector was much more effective in controlling excessive corporate behavior, and large numbers of people had good jobs making good money monitoring Corporate America to make sure all existing laws were being followed. If a corporation was found to be violating American law, they were charged and punished… Now, only after a city’s whole water is poisoned, does anyone even begin to look for a culprit and usually blame falls on that person least able to defend themselves; not the real culprit who is allowed to continue their business. The Freddie Macs and Fannie Maes get blamed; not the Wall Street firms who knowingly sold very bad investments, then bet correctly they would fail… getting richer while we lost everything we had.
The point? The point is that we did this to ourselves… We did this by not paying attention to the rules by which our financial system was run, and by favoring rules that benefited corporations and those with lots of money, and by removing protections that served the middle class.
We put a gun to our head, spun the chamber, and lost.
But it is not yet over. Just as we voted rules to favor the elite class. we can also vote in new rules to favor the middle class…
But unless you start with electing and supporting someone who understands that being comfortably well off and having certain inalienable rights, is far better than being impoverished so you can’t even fight to maintain the rights you once had, it won’t change. Never. Never. Never… for how could it? How is it even possible that in a nation where 1% of the people now own more wealth than the other 99%.. the poorer segment can ever get that power back in their grasp?
So New Jersey… They will do their best to confuse you… But anyone who sticks out their tongue to lick the frozen pole put out by Wall Street, loses skin off their tongue… When people distract you by saying that “other” candidate “only” talks about Wall Street and that they couldn’t give a damn about Wall Street, remember that without money in your pocket you have no power… And today without someone fighting for you, you will never have money in your pocket… Across the entire history of this world, Wealth has always stayed in the hands of those to take the power to keep it in their possession.
If you want more wealth, there is only one way to get it… Take it from those who have it and are fighting you hard to keep it in their possession….
There are three candidates remaining… Two of them are part of the 1%…. One of them isn’t and it it only that one who is fighting for you. Don’t let the other two distract you.
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….
The city of Camden disbanded its police force for lack of funds. Police responsibility will not be handled by the non union Camden County Police. The City Police force is unionized.
Governor Chris Christie is the person behind busting the police union. As a result, Americas’ most dangerous city is now without a police force…
There is a better way… Just tax the wealthy. That is all you have to do..
Tax them..
This could have been prevented. This could have been headed off a long time ago… America, stop voting Republican. You are killing America.
Chris Christie just gave up.
There is no logical answer to confront Warren Buffett’s argument, that the wealthy must pay more taxes.
They have too.
Logic decrees it.
Common Sense demands it.
Intelligence offers no other alternative.
It’s just in the numbers… There is no other way…..
THE WEALTHY MUST PAY MORE IN TAXES…..
So, what tactic does Christie use to surrender?
Does he use a diplomatic approach?
A conciliatory approach?
Just a natural, good, guy who’s made a landmark decision approach?
No, of course not…. (he’s a Republican, you know….)
Christie made it known that he’s just about had it with Buffett, the world-famous investor who lent his name to a proposed tax hike on the rich.
“He should just write a check and shut up,” Christie said. “I’m tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give the government more money, he’s got the ability to write a check — go ahead and write it.”
“HE SHOULD JUST SHUT UP”, says Christie…..
TRANSLATED: He is proposing an alternative way of thinking that makes more sense than my way of thinking and since I (master of the universe) don’t like it…. he should just shut up…. lol.
Gotta love Republicans… just when you think they can’t get any dumber… they totally surprise you….
We all know… the only time that line ever gets used,… is when we are wrong… When our spouse uses it on us… it’s because they know we are right. When our boss uses it on us…. it’s because they know we are right. When we use it on our own children…. it is because we have no other alternative to use to combat their infallible logic and awesome perception of how the universe unfolds. WE know they have beaten us, and so we yell…” i wish you would just shut up…” and all our syncophants following our power trail, all echo… “yes you should just shut up.. you should…”
Christie will have to succumb… He can’t run and ignore it any more..
Taxing the wealthy a whole lot is the best thing that could EVER happen to America in our lifetimes… Every deserving persons pockets would overflow with cash…..
Ha, ha… And Christie KNOWS it…
kavips 