The Top 10 Blue Delaware Articles of 2019

It’s time for all those end of the year reflection lists, and we have three articles in that genre coming your way. They are all top 10 lists. Tomorrow, the top 10 people or organizations that disappointed us in Delaware politics in 2019. On New Years Day, the top 10 people or organizations that made a difference, or were progressive heros or champions in Delaware politics in 2019.

Today, we list the Top 10 Blue Delaware posts of 2019, which will undoubtedly rekindle some memories of the year past.

1. The Backstabbing Bunch

This post made a certain daughter of a certain Senator quite unhappy. The article concerned the breaking news that Senators McBride and Poore decided to kill the gun safety bills in the Executive Committee because Senator Poore did not want to offend her husband’s friends. Here is an excerpt from the post:

McBride and Poore had promised that these bills would get out of committee and get votes on the floor of the Senate. They made those promises to mothers, kids, families and a whole bunch of Democrats who worked hard to get these bills passed. A time for apologies has passed. A time for compromise has passed. You cannot apologize for stabbing someone in the back. You cannot compromise with people who expect children to die for their right to own and use a military assault weapon.

Only resignations or a defeat in a primary will do for both McBride and Poore. And I will add Trey Paradee to this mix, as his asinine amendment gutting amendment to the Assault Weapon Ban bill most likely convinced McBride and Poore that they should betray their caucus and side with the gun nuts and the NRA. And I include Bruce Ennis because, while he was not duplicitous as the other three, always being honest that he is with the gun terrorists and not with the children who want to grow up without being gunned down in a massacre, he is still an NRA Democrat and he needs to go.

2. What is going on at Manor Pharmacy in New Castle?

For the five year period between 2006 and 2012, Manor Pharmacy in New Castle purchased nearly 10 million pills of opioid drugs, according to the News Journal through the Washington Post. That is 10 times the number of people in the whole state, let alone in the small town of New Castle.

3. McBride Lies to Public in Statement on Gun Measures

“At the start of this session, I had intended to have a floor vote on all legislation related to firearms. But, at this time, support in the Senate to move SB 68, 70 and 82 forward is almost non-existent.”

This is an outright lie by Mr. McBride. I reached out to Senator Townsend about this outrageous claim that there absolutely no support in the Senate to move these bills forward. His response: “I refer you to the fact that there are sponsors and co-sponsors of these bills.”

True enough. SB82 has the sponsorship of Senators Sturgeon, Townsend, McDowell, Lockman, and Sokola. In this twelve member Democratic Senate caucus, that comes to an existent support level of 41%. I believe you can include Senators Brown, Hansen and Walsh into the mix as supporters of the bill, which brings up to a possible and existent support level of 67%.

SB68 and SB70 had four Democratic Senators as sponsors and co-sponsors in Townsend, McDowell, Sokola and Sturgeon. And again, I think both bills would have also garnered the support of Lockman, Brown, Hansen and Walsh.

So these bills likely had the support of the Democratic caucus except for McBride, Poore, Ennis and Paradee. So Dave McBride should stop lying about this caucus, lest he is prepared to lose the right to lead it. His three pro-NRA comrades can help him sink gun safety legislation, but they won’t help him win a leadership election.

4. Time for some Open Government Reforms after the DE Turf Affair

The Delaware Coalition for Open Government’s John Flaherty says DelCOG is now pushing legislation modeled after a bill that passed the House in 2007 but failed in the Senate that would create an Inspector General so lawmakers avoid future appearances of conflicts of interest. Flaherty said state legislators could also give the Public Integrity Commission authority over ethics violations. Kowalko says he also supports such a bill “for the very specific purpose of overseeing any chance of us having mishaps, missteps, or deliberate ignoring of conflicts of interest.”

5. I can’t tell if this is parody or racist

The reason why I can’t tell is because of the nature of the Middletown Hummers Parade. In my experience, the floats are supposed to be satirical. So are these people making fun of Trump and his racist supporters who believe this, or are those people the racist supporters of Trump? I don’t know. What do you think?

In the end, the general consensus was that this was not a parody.

6. God Help Us, Scott Walker is back

Did you know that the insane Delaware version of Scott Walker was running for President? I remember hearing about it, but had forgotten, as had the rest of the country. Who knows if he was running as a Democrat or Republican, because he switches parties with each election. He apparently was also running for Governor against John Carney in 2020, but he must have forgotten to announce that to the rest of us.

It doesn’t matter though, because now, according to the latest News Journal interview with him, he is becoming a Democrat again to run against Chris Coons. And while I am all for giving Mr. Coons a primary, I don’t want his only challenger to be someone who will force me to vote for Chris Coon enthusiastically.

7. So let’s talk about that speech last night…

Not Joe Biden’s speech where he performed the ultimate Biden gaffe where he announced his run for President in a Freudian slip during a mistaken tangent where he was trying to claim that he was the most progressive candidate in the race. Yeah, no, Joe. You are progressive on some issues, like LBGTQ issues. But praising David Brooks in the same speech negates some progressive cred, as does pining for a time with Republicans had good faith while ignoring their constant bad faith. Recognize your lane and stay in it. Don’t try to claim you are Bernie Sanders.

No, I am talking about our senior Senator Tom Carper, with an emphasis on senior. Mr. Carper was there last night to introduce an award to a friend of mine, Robert Burns, the party’s parliamentarian, but Rob was an afterthought to what can only be described as indecipherable tirade. Mr. Carper now has one speaking style: screaming. He informed the audience that he was going to talk about immigration, even though he was supposed to be giving a 2-3 minute introduction for an award. The audience audibly groaned. He proceeded to talk about helping Colombia back in the 90’s and how we need to do the same with Guatemala now, to prevent crime and violence in their country, thus preventing the formation of caravans threatening our border (nice use of Trumpian framing there, Tom).

8. Equal Rights Amendment Passes House 35-6

HB1, the Equal Rights Amendment banning discrimination based on sex passes in the House by a vote of 35-6, well over the 2/3rds majority required. It now heads to the Senate for a hearing and a vote. Since this is the second leg of the constitutional amendment process (i.e. the second session in a row that the Amendment has been considered after passing both Houses in previous session), if it passes the Senate, the Constitution is deemed Amended immediately, with no signature from Governor John Carney required.

The 6 sexist bigoted no votes are from the following: Collins, Postles, Yearick, Vanderwende, Dukes, Morris. [All Republican men].

9. The 19 to watch in 2019

10. Trey Paradee Stands up for America

The Southern racist Slave Owners who supported the Confederate States of America were traitors. Those who led the government of the Confederate States of America were traitors. Those who fought for the Confederacy were traitors. They killed Americans in war. They were traitors. These are undisputed and objective facts. These are not opinions.

That there is any memorial or monument or statue commemorating the traitors who killed Americans in America defies logic and patriotism. Indeed, the only reason one would commemorate the Confederacy is because one wants to promote the ideals for which the treason was committed in the first place: racism and slavery. Again, these are facts, not opinions.

With that background, you have to ask yourself why there is a Confederate flag and monument honoring those who fought for the South in the Civil War in Georgetown, Delaware. You have to ask yourself why this racist and treasonous commemorative site was receiving $14,443 a year in taxpayer money from the State of Delaware. It would appear that finally, a state office holder did ask why, and then took action.

Sen. Trey Paradee (D-17th) serves on the Joint Finance Committee, which reviews and allocates funding for various groups and organizations under the Grant-in-Aid bill. This year he recommended that the Georgetown Racism and Treason Memorial be struck from the list of groups receiving funding. The Grant in Aid bill passed unanimously on the last day of the legislative session, as it usually does.