Category: reform

Pennsylvania Elections Today (Larry Krasner:1 — Philly PBA:0)

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Reformer Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, just destroyed his Police Union supported opponent by an almost 2:1 margin in today’s primary. 

This makes him almost certain to win the general election, as Republicans are severly out-numbered in Philadelphia, and their nominee is best known for having an ex-girl friend found dead in his bathtub: (Not kidding here)

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner easily defeated Democratic primary challenger Carlos Vega on Tuesday, taking a giant step toward winning a second term after campaigning on his record of criminal justice reform.

The Associated Press projected Krasner as the winner over Vega late Tuesday night. With 22% of the projected votes counted, Krasner held a wide advantage, 65% to 35%. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans seven to one, Krasner is now very likely to win November’s general election. He won the 2017 general election with 75% of the vote.

“Four years ago we promised reform and a focus on serious crime,” Krasner told supporters at a Center City hotel Tuesday night. “We kept those promises. And this time they put us back in office for what we have done. Not ideas, not promises, but realities.”

Krasner, 60, was a defense and civl rights lawyer for three decades, with a long record of suing the Philadelphia police before he was elected as a reformer in 2017. That victory helped propel him to the forefront of a new crop of progressive prosecutors across the country, a reform movement that was tested this election in Philadelphia by rising violent crime.

In his victory speech, Krasner said he had a mandate “from the people most affected by serious crime,” voters he suggested had rejected critics who blame the DA for shootings plaguing the city.“That mandate has rejected, definitively, a politics of fear that is built on falsehoods,” he said, calling for more funding for crime prevention. “We have to invest in all those things because we were robbed of them a long time ago. And what we are facing now is the consequences.

You have a mandate to push even harder, particularly against the Philadelphia police who still have a lot of Frank Rizzo in them.

Also, on the other side of the state, a DSA supported candidate scored an upset victory over the incumbent mayor.

Beating a two-term incumbent in a race centered on equity, state Rep. Ed Gainey won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, which should pave the way to becoming Pittsburgh’s first ever Black mayor.

Mr. Gainey was beating incumbent Mayor Bill Peduto 45 to 41 percent as of 11:11 p.m., with retired police officer Tony Moreno garnering 13 percent of the vote and local ride-share driver Michael Thompson registering 1 percent.

“I just called [Ed Gainey] and congratulated him on earning the Democratic endorsement for Mayor of the city of Pittsburgh. Wishing him well. Thank you Pittsburgh for the honor of being your Mayor these past 8 years. I will remain forever grateful,” Mr. Peduto tweeted shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Mr. Gainey, a 51-year-old state lawmaker representing a district stretching from Highland Park to Wilkinsburg, frequently asked, “For whom is Pittsburgh most livable?” — a question that he backed with facts from the many task forces and reports Mr. Peduto commissioned to identify problems. His message seemed to match the moment, and he thanked God, his wife, his children, his mother, his step-father and all of his campaign staff after Mr. Peduto conceded on Tuesday.

………

Mr. Gainey is almost certain to win in November, with no Republican filed to run in the primary and the city’s dark blue demographics making it unlikely a challenger could oust him — though it’s possible a Republican will have emerged from the write-ins.

Not a bad result, particularly given that Peduto tried to accuse Gainey of “Socialism”  toward the end of the campaign.

Nice to see the term shifting from a detriment to something positive.

F%$# Me. I Agree with Mitch McConnell

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He is looking at further restricting the filibuster.

Notwithstanding the assertions by Senators that the US Senate is “The Word’s Greatest Deliberative Body,” the filibuster, and its routine use has made it nothing more than a petri dish for psychopaths:*

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is opening the door to changing the filibuster in response to growing pressure from Republicans angered that Democrats have blocked legislation from reaching the White House.

McConnell has appointed a special task force to explore changes to the filibuster rule and other procedural hurdles — including whether to eliminate filibusters on motions to proceed to legislation. That’s a tactic the minority often uses to shut down a bill before amendments can be considered.

McConnell has tapped his close ally, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to form a task force with Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and two other freshmen to weigh various reforms. They hope to implement the changes at the start of next year.

“We’re going to take a serious look at whether Senate rules ought to be changed in order to make the Senate work more effectively,” Alexander said.

The filibuster is an accident of history, and it has done far more harm than good.

To the degree that the filibuster returns to the fetid swamps of history, it is a good thing, regardless of party.

*Understand that this is not a formal diagnosis. I am an engineer, not a doctor, dammit!†
†I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!

Books to Read: Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force

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I’ve got to read this book. Professor Robert Farley, an assistant professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky has written a book calling for the abolition of the US Air Force as an independent branch of the service:

The United States needs airpower, but does it need an air force? In Grounded, Robert M. Farley persuasively argues that America should end the independence of the United States Air Force (USAF) and divide its assets and missions between the United States Army and the United States Navy.

In the wake of World War I, advocates of the Air Force argued that an organizationally independent air force would render other military branches obsolete. These boosters promised clean, easy wars: airpower would destroy cities beyond the reach of the armies and would sink navies before they could reach the coast. However, as Farley demonstrates, independent air forces failed to deliver on these promises in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War, the Kosovo conflict, and the War on Terror. They have also had perverse effects on foreign and security policy, as politicians have been tempted by the vision of devastating airpower to initiate otherwise ill-considered conflicts. The existence of the USAF also produces turf wars with the Navy and the Army, leading to redundant expenditures, nonsensical restrictions on equipment use, and bad tactical decisions.

I certainly agree with this idea.  The raison d’être for an independent air force is Douhet’s theory about how strategic bombing could win wars.

History has shown this to be completely false.  Strategic bombing with the possible exception of the use of nuclear weapons against Japan, have never won wars, nor do they appear to have shortened wars.

H/t War is Boring.