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Here is what I got so far…
Newark: $345,000 legal fees
Newark: $12,000 environmental consultant’s analysis
New Castle County: $20,000 in study fees on the proposal
As for union threats:
Newark had a proposal to get rid of its alderman court.
University of Delaware had a proposal to strip $3 million away in funding.
But those were threats and never came about….
But…. the point is, that because the The Data Center tried to sneak one past the citizens of this state, particularly the municipality of Newark (remember the Mayoral election?)… there will now be less money going into the Newark economy. Something now will not be happen, that very well could have been…
And that is such a tragic waste. Far more than the copious amounts of lost profits now, NOT, coming from the brownfields of Chrysler…
But, now, we can make room for another project there, one which will do all the same great things, without raising the cancer rates or noise levels among its potential new neighbors….
It appears that Obama’s plan is working. Even with T-90 tanks on the border the economic sanctions against Russia are taking effect.
If you only follow America’s three lettered media… here are some things they have kept from you:
- Hope of recruiting Beijing as an ally to blunt Western sanctions looks doomed
- China did not stand behind Russia in the UN Security Council vote on Crimea, as it had over Syria.
- Its foreign ministry stated that “China always sticks to the principle of non-interference in any country’s internal affairs and respects the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
- Turkmenistan’s gas used to flow North, hostage to prices set by Gazprom. It now flows East.
- in Kazakhstan, where Chinese companies have taken over much of the energy industry.
- It is surely unlikely that imperious Xi Jinping will throw away the great prize of G2 Sino-American condominium to rescue a squalid and incompetent regime in Moscow from its own folly.
- Enough of Europe’s gas pipelines have been switched to two-way flows since 2009 to help at least some of the vulnerable frontline states
- Officials have been ordered to draft plans within 90 days to break dependence on Gazprom… Imports of Russian may be slashed by half within a decade.
- Russia’s central bank cannot defend the rouble without tightening monetary policy, driving the economy deeper into recession in the process.
- Russian banks and companies must roll over $155bn of foreign debts over the next twelve months in a hostile market, at a premium already over 200 basis points.
- Any sanction against any oligarch linked to any Russian company could shut it out of global capital markets, potentially forcing default
- The price of oil is poised to fall — ceteris paribus — as Iraq’s output reaches a 35-year high, the US adds a million barrels b/d a day this year from shale, and Libya cranks up exports again. The International Energy Agency says global supply jumped by 600,000 b/d last month. Deutsche Bank predicts a glut. So does China’s Sinopec. Mr Putin needs prices near $110 to fund his budget. He may face $80 before long.
====
So in attacking Ukraine, Putin has lost China, lost middle Asia, lost Merkel, and unless it is immediately taken by force, lost all attempts to woe Ukraine back into the union.
He’ll attack shortly for domestic consumption. if he doesn’t he is done at home. The US should announce 20,000 troops are headed to Ukraine, and they should be stationed in reserves for military reasons; … to prevent them from being taken out in an opening sneak attack. If we could convince the Chinese to join us, we could quite possibly have decades more of peace in our times…..
That will depend on Obama.
Courtesy of Disney’s Alice in wonderland
Someone stirred the embers of John Sweeney’s soul. They shouldn’t have…. Sometimes it IS better to rest on one’s laurels…
In a News Journal op-ed Mr.Sweeney tries to shame the Democratic Party… It is worth the read, for in its chutzpah, it reminds old timers still left, of how the very brave Poles road their horses with swords drawn in calvary formation towards the fully armored German Panzer divisions attacking them….
On the rank of futility, his efforts are similar. On the rank of bravery, his efforts are similar.
I think what we are experiencing is the passage of one century into another… Mr. Sweeney is a product of the last century. Things were very different then from how they are today. As one ages one is prone to becomes sentimental, and emotional, and embrace those good things they remember in ones youth…. As a result those things called facts, which depart from the other side of the brain, get vetoed out of existence in editing, and their interference with a fictions narrative is negated…
We get a nice story that if it stayed on the porch in the company of old men rocking their hours away, would remain that, a nice mixture of observation and opinion….
The problem is that this is not staying on the old folks home porch, but is attempting to interject itself into policy and plans for our future. Therefore, it must also be served alongside a complete rebuttal, so that policy makers are given a clear view or our future, both the dreams and reality, and not just the one sided wistfulness of one single old man.
Mr. Sweeney remembers Wilmington of a different era… 1973…. He doesn’t remember it very well for his piece is entirely devoid of any mention of the riots and subsequent war zone imposed on the city of Wilmington 5 years just before. He conviently fails to even mention the despondency of that time captured by then City Supervisor O. Francis Biondi in his telling the New York Times, “the National Guard here has become a symbol of white suppression of the black community. That may be a useful way to get elected, but who wants to run a city under those circumstances?”
He also fails to bring up the Court ordered desegregation rule that evolved from the ashes of that occupation and racial pot stirring. A rule that has the blessing of no political party, and still is the predominant problem underlying New Castle County’s education today..
These alone throw cold water on his assertions that life was ideal back in 1973. Just maybe… if you were a wealthy white; but certainly not for any black… Sweeney simply sweeps all blacks aside as he continues his claim.
Let us take and break down his opening paragraph….
- Is Wilmington a better place to live today than it was in 1973? Why, yes. Yes it is.
- Is crime worse or better? Crime is better. Despite overall shootings in and among drug traffickers, all other crimes are fractions of what they were in 1973.
Are the schools better? Public schools are; particularly for those of Afro-American descent who come from the city. Charter schools suck though. - Are more kids going to college? More kids are going to college than back in 1973. And at higher percentages too.
- Is business booming?Walk down market street some evening and tell me. Yes, business is as good, if not better than before the ’68 riots.
- Is the city’s future brighter? We have the Riverfront, a baseball team, a civic center, a walk along the river. A very attractive city. Market Street, an Art School. Two state universities and a state college. I would certainly say our city if much brighter than 5 years after we had our national guard overextend their record.
So even his opening assertions, which he never attempts to defend, are at their very starting place, horribly misconceived…
If ones entire premise is horribly misconstrued, then everything afterwards is such as well… Were anyone to make a mistake and use sand instead of flour to make bread, their end product would not be bread would it not? Logic works the same way….
The second gigantic flaw in Mr. Sweeney’s reasoning just oozes out of this statement right here…. (I should warn readers that even in Sweeney’s advanced age, two parts of what he will ring true… both are about his abysmal party, the Republicans…) ==“The easy – and accurate – answer is that there are barely any Republicans left in town. A second – and only slightly more complicated – answer is that the Republicans of late have shown little interest in cities and their problems. The final answer comes directly from the first two: Since the Republicans are no threat, the Democrats do not have to do anything to retain the voters loyalty. They will win automatically.
Did you catch the flaw? If not, allow me to point it out.. Mr. Sweeney seems to totally forget something called “primary elections” Perhaps he can be forgiven for that; Republicans have only had a few primaries in my entire lifetime, and they were only because of Mike Protack. Yet Democratic primaries have been some of the closest, competitive, promise driven contests in this state. If you are voted in, and don’t listen to your constituents, you are going to face 11 challenger for your seat the next session… Hell, the only way to get re-elected in this town, is once lucky enough to get in, you take damn good care of your client base….. And as Mr. Sweeney himself points out, those clients aren’t Republican voters…
You see, Wilmington voters are not voters who follow party rule as Mt. Sweeney so blandly assumes. The reasons they don’t vote for Republicans is because Repulbicans don’t care about them. Republicans only care about big money and is why they can’t get votes in Wilmington. Party has nothing to do with it. In fact you could make Wilmington flip Republican in just one election cycle. Just run a Republican who says he is going to tax Charlie Copeland and his friends 100% out the gazoo. Then you would find it was the issues keeping Republicans off the roster, not the name of their party… Republicans can’t get elected because they are wrong for Wilmington.
Yet Mr. Sweeney makes no mention of that either… And here is where Mr. Sweeney loses it.
He blames Barack Obama. Yep, blame the black man not just for this cities problems, but all cities problems… In his statement that all cities have democratic mayors and Barack Obama is not helping them, her forgets a couple of other observations by which only his statements could have the hint of truth.
He forgets that prior to Barack Obama, there was George W. Bush, a Republican, and he ignored cities too. (Remember New Orleans?) He forgets that not all mayors are Democrats. There are Republican mayors too… New York, Fresno, Miami, Mesa, Tulsa, Virginia Beach, are just a few Republican mayors experiencing the same city problems as is Wilmington. The truth is, that running a city on cutting taxes, getting rid of government, and instilling disciplined religion in all aspects of life, is a very hard sell. The reason almost all town mayors are Democratic, is because Democrats are the only ones who make sense. So if one has Republican mayors and a Republican Executive Branch, and a Republican State government, and still have the same problems, Sweeney’s argument is completely undercut.
He also seems to have had a tad memory slip up, and has forgotten that despite Democrats holding the presidency, and despite the Senate being blue, there is a Republican house. which has proposed nothing, and which has voted down every expenditure brought before it, even Hurricane Sandy aid. (It took Democrats to finally get that passed). With political realities like that, making grandiose plans that never get off the ground is nothing but an exercise in futility. Sweeney fails to mention the elephant in the room: that there can and will be no help for cities as long as they is not a super-majority of Democrats in both houses…
In a complete disembowelment of disbelief, Sweeney states that national politicians have stopped wooing City voters. Two things are missing on Sweeney’s radar. One, Republicans have tried to make inner city voting next to impossible by limiting voting machines and forcing intimidating long lines, and two, it is the growth of urban areas that propelled Democrats in every state. All states have counties red and blue. If a state is more urban, it’s blueness wins out…and more than anything, that is why Republicans are losing.
It is no ones fault but their own…
Is anyone shaping Wilmington’s future Sweeney asks? It is bizarre questioning, because Sweeney already answered it….
In some areas, the city is safer. In others, there are more jobs. Certainly, some schools are better today than they were in 1973. And individual organizations and people, including elected officials, have worked hard and have put together effective coalitions. The Financial Center Development Act brought new banking and credit-card jobs to town, a federal judge desegregated the area’s schools, the decaying dock areas were redeveloped into the Riverfront, with an I-Max movie theater, a convention center and a host of new businesses and condos and apartments
I’d say we had some good plans for our future. We’ve come a long way since 1973…
Is Wilmington better off? Hell yes… If so, that makes Sweeney’s argument that we need to go back to 1973 rather pointless and odd. I can think of no afro-American who wants things returned to 1973….
In the end, Sweeney’s arguement breaks down. We should have one political party he says, and that should include Democrats and Republicans. Well, (confused) that’s what you’ve been complaining over what we had?
Since Sweeney’s arguments boggle th logical mind, I struggle to find a box to put them in. At best, it is someone wistful of their younger days, of back when they were in power and who wishes their privileged class like that of Nicholas and Alexander, could once again rein supreme and not have to deal with “those people”…
The rest of us, are better off with all we got since then.
What do you think?
Photo courtesy of the EPA.
That would be my advice. Truth is, we quickly make Russia into a demon. They do the same to us. If there is anything we have learned over 100 years since the Great War started in August 1914, it is that going to war, should be the last resort…
Back in the early ’90’s upon being given the privilege to look over the Soviet’s intelligence when Communism fell, we were shocked that all their aggressive actions were seen in their eyes as defensive moves against possible aggression being planned by us….It is best represented by a young officers story from the cold war. I’ve long forgotten the source, if it comes up later I’ll tag it in…
But a young officer was in charge of a section of the German fence, and on his first shift, received a request for orders and told the reconnaissance brigade to go 5 more miles along the fence past where they usually turned around. They called back to say they’d stumbled on fresh movement of troops being maneuvered to that gap on front line we never had bothered to inspect.. After finding our troops were now outnumbered by their new response, this young officer ordered another brigade to move up from the south. That brigade also discovered another large number of troops moving in from the eastern reserves to that same point… The officer began to sweat. Was he witnessing on his watch, in his territory, the beginning of the long-feared invasion of Western Europe by the Soviets? He called up two more brigades and ordered them to dig in around that point. The Soviets brought up tanks, and lined them up for an invasion… The young officer then picked up the phone… Far away, the head of command looked over all the evidence… Finally he gave this advice… Pull your troops out, by ten miles…. he did, and the Soviets pulled theirs back as well. Ok, came the next order. Resume normalcy. And soon, everything again was routine….
For those that don’t understand war, the point of the story was, that the young officer caused the crises. The whole Russian buildup, was because of him. He made a move the Russians didn’t understand, and since they didn’t understand, they prepared for an attack. As we brought up more, so did they. They were simply matching our moves… Fortunately someone wise enough to understand that he Russians really didn’t want to go to war, stepped in and averted a possible WWIII start-up incident…
As if on cue, already dumb John McCain is rattling swords and demanding we nuke Moscow. Soon Lindsey Graham will follow as Tweedle Dumb always follows Tweedle Dee… Likewise, Putin will also have his exact same crowd (probably riding Harleys), his group of idiots, clamoring for war as well…
The Western press has already begin its war talk, leading with the condemnation of the Russian Government… But really, isn’t that a bit premature? No one has died. Far less than anything that happened in Kiev earlier this week….
Let’s wear Putin’s shoes for moment….
What if the predominantly Mexican population of San Diego wanted to be aligned with Mexico instead of the USA, all because we couldn’t get Republicans to pass immigration laws.. What if they gathered en masse in San Diego to protest, stayed, burned down government and private buildings. What if we tried to make them stand down, and it roused up even more Mexicans to their defense. What if the Mayor fled to Yuma, and camped out in a sanatorium. … …
What would the US do. OUR entire Pacific Fleet rests in San Diego… We would probably act prudently. and move outward to expand our perimeter. We would probably commander all airports and ship docks in that area in order to be able to land reinforcements if necessary. We would probably park a couple of gunboats facing the city as an intimidating force reminding the Mexicans we had forces they couldn’t get to, so their behavior should keep that in mind. We’d probably block access roads leading into the port, so an invasion army wouldn’t be able to charge in unannounced…
Just to play devils advocate, what might happen if we took no action to defend ourselves? As most Americans are asking the Russians to do? We saw the Mexicans had little respect in town for law and order. There are a lot more of them than there are of us… What if 10,000 of them just walked on to the base, armed with shotguns, hunting rifles, and a few semi automatics. What if they boarded all our ships, our subs, and put our sailors at gunpoint into the brig, and announced they were in charge of the Baja Mexican Navy… Now the 2nd largest navy in the world. What would the US do? Would we sail into our own harbor as did the Free French and blow what used to be our own ships up out of the water?
Of course the Mexicans would say we are invading their new country. Of course every Spanish tonged nation South of our border would be condemning us for invading Mexican California… despite the fact that a lot of gringos, maybe even a majority, live around San Diego and support our American troops being there and keeping the masses of Mexicans from turning on them….
Point is, we would ourselves, do what Russia just did...
So how can we condemn them, when we have contingency plans to do exactly the same thing?
There is further evidence this is not like Sudetenland, . One, no one has died. It was a smooth peaceful quiet takeover, textbook by American Standards. Two, action is isolated to the port and Crimea. Three, all evidence points to these actions solely for the purpose of controlling access to the base.
As Americans we would laugh at Europe, Russia, and China telling us to abandon San Diego. There are a lot of similarities between that and the Russian base. The number one move now appears to be: for the Kiev Ukraine government to insist that the base will forever stay Russian, and guarantee the safety of all Russians living on Crimea… Second, it should state that the current administration insists there will be no change for those who like having Russians close by. For that select group, there will be only two options. Life goes either goes on the same; or it gets better. The third option that it may get worse, is forever off the table.. .
It would be the equivalent of that American young officer calling off his men, and telling them to retreat backwards 10 miles.. it would be the opposite of what happened 100 years ago, where threats begot threats and soon rigid plans took effect and not one leader had the chutzpah to stop it from going forward. 6 million soldiers died, 15 million civilians died, and a whole generation of young men was wiped out. Girls had to marry men their father’s age.. and in the end Western Europe’s borders were right back where they were before the whole event started.
Cool heads must prevail. Of course the McCains will spout off. They don’t matter. What matters is that we treat the Russians with respect just as we would like them to do for us, if the shoe were on the other foot and we were fighting the battle of San Diego…..
The internet will be abuzz with posts shortly. The excitement was great. No one knew if it would pass. It did.
Melanie _____.______. Smith (lol) Girl you did it. Hats off to a rather well crafted bill designed to make it through. You earned your bottle of wine tonight.
Bryan Townsend is amazing.. A Patrick Henry when it comes to what is just. I kept seeing Tony Deluca in that position, knowing full well we would have an entirely different outcome had it been so.
Patty Blevins as should be, worked the background brilliantly. Knowing what must take place to do these things, she gets a shout, because the quiet ones, are the ones you have to watch… It takes a lot of structure to put on a pageant such as this…
Clothier, Marshall and Bushweiller had tough choices.. out of a thousand voices in their ear, they chose to hear the right ones. We are so small standing next to them.
Karen Peterson rocked the house. “If my happiness somehow demeans or diminishes your marriage, you need to work on your marriage” certainly seems like it would apply to Senator Venables. That dude has some work to do…..
In this hearing and vote, it becomes very clear. If you look straight into the heart of America, each and all the values we grew up under, the Democrats embody.
The evil that also lies in America, is Republican to the core… Never in my lifetime did I expect to see people use God to promote bigotry. For as the vote was failing, as the house of sticks was crumbling around them, as they worked themselves into a fever pitch to make one last gasp to undo the damage, the clear, unadulterated hatred, the pure crystal of evil burned from underneath their skin. Hatred. Hatred at all these people was their fuel.
I now know what those brave souls walking across the bridge at Selma saw in the eyes looking back. I now know what those women in children sleeping in Wounded Knee saw when their tents were slashed open. I now know what those female slaves in Alabama saw in their overseer’s eyes… I now know what every Southern black African American man saw, when he heard the phrase… Boy, better move a long now, you know you don’t belong here.”
Because I saw it staring back at me on the floor of the Delaware Senate. It was in each of those Republican’s eyes as they got up and tried to embarrass, put down, demonize an innocent group of people they deemed inferior, beneath them, slovenly, trash. It was in the eyes of every fake pastor or priest to got up to twist God’s word in such a way as to demean the very one whose words they praise on Sunday.
This is the undercurrent of America we don’t like to talk about. This is the sewage that come with building a society. This is America’s most horrible accomplishment. The underbelly of our just laws and our freedom to say or do what we please. There are people who only gain worth by putting others down, and because they are Americans, they have every right to do so. Prejudice will continue.
Seeing it in person was unnerving. Seeing it for real made one sick. We have a real problem in our country, One that must be put down like a poisonous snake… Sure we can live with it. But one day it will bite us, or even worse. Our children….
But today, we beat them. Like George Wallace in the schoolyard doorway, they showed America the stinkin oafs they truly are….
The only reason they voted no… was to fuel their hate. Delaware and America can and need to do much better…
And lastly. Bethany Hall- Long….. Oh my… it takes great courage to stand up to one’s enemies… It takes even greater courage… to stand up to one’s friends….
I have to go now. I cannot fight back the tears…
Today at 2:00 the vote will begin on House Bill 75. . It will replace Delaware’s Civil Union law with that of marriage. For gays it is the end of a long hard fight to gain respectability; after all the jeers, self-loathing, insults, hurled their way, they are human in every regard known to man. The last distinction will be dropped.
This moment will also determine the future of the Republican Party. Those that vote no against this proposition, will wear it around their necks indefinitely. Times are changing and Republicans have only two options left…. They can be known as being one who opened the door, or as one on the other side, trying to block it and keep it shut.
History is not kind to those on the wrong side. The Herbert Hoovers. The Richard Nixons. The George W. Bushs… That is the side on which you will be. Particularly if you staked your vote on doom and gloom arriving at our doorstep, and nothing happens, Your past words will get thrown back at you every time it helps someone else get ahead….
But what if Republicans voted for it unanimously? What would happen if the Republican Party also said Yes to HB 75? it would electrify the party. Republicans would no longer be the footstool that gets kicked around because it is always in the wrong part of the room.
If Republicans voted yes to HB 75, there would be no reason NOT to vote for Republicans in 2014. All the stereotypes would shatter as if in a thousand pieces of glass… All that old baggage that hits you squarely on the head every single time you campaign, wouldn’t be there…
People for the first time since the 90’s, would see you as human beings who are individuals and have the thoughts they do, not because the are injected with a chemical, but because those conservative thoughts make real good sense…
Once you get a reputation, small changes don’t change it. It takes something really big, huge, to shatter an old reputation and be seen in truth for what you are….
This is that opportunity for the Republican Caucus. You are Senators. You vote for your constituents as well as your state. What is morally right is unquestionable here. Single sex marriage hurts no one and is the only fair vote possible. What is questionable, is your courage to accept it. Correct me if I’m wrong, but all of you have staff or friends of family who are gay. You KNOW the stuff being said against gay marriage is crap…
Do you have the courage to do the right thing? Of course you do. You are Republicans in a Democratic state… You have tons of courage. But do you have the will to unite in solidarity and have the entire Republican caucus vote Yes to single sex marriage?
If you don’t, it will haunt you till the end of your days….
Does anyone remember Senator Robert Byrd, longest serving US senator in history? Well, every time he was introduced on television while alive and even at death, it was always accompanied by the acknowledgement he was once a Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan… He long ago apologized he was wrong, but that option had made great sense to him at the time.
Remember this, as you vote. History is fickle if it doesn’t go your way….
Tom Carper came out publicly for the end of DOMA and the support of same sex marriage.
Although some may snipe it is politically motivated, it isn’t. It just is what is right. Period.
Courtesy of Tom:
“As our society has changed and evolved, so too has the public’s opinion on gay marriage – and so has mine. I pray every day for God to grant me the wisdom to do what is right. Through my prayers and conversations with my family and countless friends and Delawareans, I’ve been reminded of the power of one of my core values: the Golden Rule. It calls on us to treat others as we want to be treated. That means, to me, that all Americans ultimately should be free to marry the people they love and intend to share their lives with, regardless of their sexual orientation, and that’s why today, after a great deal of soul searching, I’m endorsing marriage equality.”
Going against the platitudes one has been brought up under is always hard. It takes great courage to step out into nothing but air and hope the bridge forms under ones feet……
Thank you Tom for taking that step.
Editors Note: John C arney came out in support the day before. The entire Delaware Congressional Delegation is now anti- Conservative on this issue. Since fewer Conservatives exist today then there were domestic Marxists in the 1960’s, this should be interpreted as simply the mainstreaming of our current delegation.
A. A woman, with two small children, separated from an abusive husband. He has just started violating a no-contact order, and is making threats over the upcoming divorce.
B. A father of three boys, married, lives in rural area. Owns 97 acres of woods. Has a two mile driveway. Then fifteen miles of one lane road to the nearest major highway, whose junction is 38 miles from the nearest police station.
C. A 15 year old urban dropout, who was jumped and beaten up badly when he was twelve in an act of random violence; he was in the wrong place when they were looking for something to do, allegedly to “teach him a lesson”; the reality? There was no reason for it.
D. A thirty year old man, who was raped over 100 times while a child by a neighbor, and that neighbor now is politically well connected, who boasts on talk radio of how big his arsenal is….
E. A bright, attractive professional woman of twenty five, who has a high powered job, lives alone out of necessity and convenience, lives on an international schedule, enters and exits often between midnight and 6 am.
F. A 43 year old mother, who at 18 became state’s witness and testified against her acquaintance and he, is being freed tomorrow, sentence done….
G. A 62 year old pill popping DJ, who excels at conservative talk radio, by stirring up hate, spinning lies into truth, and coining derogative names to be recycled by bitter old white me, like “femminazi’s”….
H. Pastor Washington, who has taken the calling of walking around the inner city on very cold nights, and persuade homeless people to swallow their pride and come inside to a warm shelter…
I. One day, you?
One of the items in the Wall Street Reform Act, a bill Mitt Romney says he wants to scrap on day one, makes executives pay for messing up.
Investors now are given a heads up on their CEO’s compensation plans and golden parachutes. That information used to be only privy to the board.
Secondly, if a public traded company restates its earnings because of accounting errors, it must seek compensation by any past, present executive office in excess of what was under reported. Which means it comes out of the bosses pay…. Hooray! Rejoice. Rejoice.
Third, if a large financial company is put into receivership, the FDIC can take back ANY compensation over the past two years, received by any senior executive or director, past or present, who was substantially responsible of the loss of the firm…..
These are teeth you can’t get put in by a Republican. Only Democrats have the balls to take on big banks and big financial firms. We don’t need a goofy Republican president with a pair of marbles.
kavips 