DL Open Thread: Fri., Dec. 27, 2019

Filed in Featured by on December 27, 2019

No Room At The Library For The Homeless. When the defacto mayor of Wilmington is Buccini/Pollin, you know, the powerful overlords who steal money designated for low-income housing to build high-rise condos for the wealthy instead, this policy makes perfect sense. The Toxic Tandem of Mayor Mike and BPG continues to be perhaps the most under-reported story in Delaware. Will City Council do anything?

Building The Wall: Three Miles In Three Years:

“Our goal at the end of 2020 was 450 miles,” Mark Morgan, acting commission for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told reporters. “It’s hard right now to be able to say whether we’re still going to be able to meet that goal, but I’m confident that we’re going to be close.”

Morgan said that 93 miles of wall had been built so far during the Trump administration. At least 90 miles of that replaced existing structures, according to CBP figures – although Morgan argued during the briefing that all barriers built under Trump should be considered “new.”

Look on the bright side. At least Trump cronies are getting rich off of these contracts.

How Oil Companies Avoided Fines After Spilling 10.8 Million Gallons During Katrina.  The law says they have to pay. Remember, though, it’s Louisiana:

All told, the federal agency overseeing oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico reported that more than 400 pipelines and 100 drilling platforms were damaged. The U.S. Coast Guard, the first responder for oil spills, received 540 separate reports of spills into Louisiana waters. Officials estimated that, taken together, those leaks released the same amount of oil that the highly publicized 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster spilled into Alaska’s Prince William Sound — about 10.8 million gallons.

The Oil Pollution Act, passed by Congress in response to the Valdez incident, requires that federal and state agencies work with the companies that spilled the oil to conduct a preliminary assessment of damage to natural resources. Once a comprehensive report is finalized on the value of the affected plants, soil, water and wildlife, those so-called responsible parties must pay for restoration efforts.

Fourteen years later, not one assessment of the damage to natural resources after the two 2005 hurricanes has been completed. None of the 140 parties thought to be responsible for the spills has been fined or cited for environmental violations. And no restoration plans have been developed for the impacted ecosystems, fish, birds or water quality, a review by The Times-Picayune and The Advocate and ProPublica has found.

Ocean Mining: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?  A fascinating in-depth (pun intentional) piece on yet another threat to the environment. The, um, bottom line?:

“We’re about to make one of the biggest transformations that humans have ever made to the surface of the planet. We’re going to strip-mine a massive habitat, and once it’s gone, it isn’t coming back.”

Did Abusive Cardinal Bribe His Way Out Of Being Investigated?  Sure looks that way. Making those who accepted the bribes, including two Popes, complicit in his ongoing pedophilia.

That’s about all I can take for one day.

What do you want to talk about?

About the Author ()

Comments (15)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. bamboozer says:

    The public library in Dover lets the homeless come in from the cold, they sit quietly for the most part, it’s the humane thing to do. Having said that why not build and maintain shelters for them? Other then it might cost the rich a penny.

    • Faithful Skeptic says:

      Looking forward to hearing more than thoughts and prayers from you guys about moving the mens’ shelter in Dover to the edge of a middle-class neighborhood: http://www.wboc.com/story/41408570/dover-interfaith-moves-closer-to-moving-mens-shelter-to-walker-road Also note that one of the major players in doing this is Mike Harrington, he the former chair of the Delaware GOP. Maybe Chris Coons asked him to help?

      • Alby says:

        Let me guess — the Downtown Dover Partnership that’s evicting them doesn’t want the shelter downtown because it “gives the business district a bad look” or some such excuse. So now the men will have to walk a mile and half to access public services.

        I don’t know what you want to hear. This is a dog-bites-man situation.

  2. Alby says:

    Agreed. The story here is that the library is being tasked with something it is not equipped to do and its employees are not trained to do. It’s a disgrace that libraries have become the shelter of last resort.

  3. RSE says:

    At least the library is being used for something useful…lol…Some of the homeless could maybe even help out and browse through the card catalog to make sure everything is in alphabetical order….Do they still use the card catalog in libraries?

  4. RE Vanella says:

    It’s fucking nonsense like this that inspires me to make it the mission of the rest of my earthly life to destroy “Delaware Online” fuckery and hire away the 3 or 4 decent journalists they employ.

    The journalists who are good know who they are.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/matfromde/status/1210687269604077570

    • Faithful Skeptic says:

      Very good. And 100% accurate. I was trying to figure out how to bring this to your attention. What was your clue? I followed the lineage of the group and found that the Executive Director (I think that is her title) was a staffer for the Senate Minority.

  5. Nancy Willing says:

    Meyer gets a pass here?? Every time? He is just as culpable as Purzycki for this cruel new library policy.

    From the link: Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misstated who operates the Wilmington library. It is funded by the county and state but run by a separate board.

    http://www.wilmington.lib.oh.us/administration/
    Ex-Officio
    The Honorable Matthew S. Meyer, County Executive
    The Honorable Michael S. Purzycki, Mayor

  6. RE Vanella says:

    Because Meyer has shown no interest in purging homeless from Wilmington and Purzycki/BPG are engaged in a multiple front effort to do just this.

    Old Rick Van Story closed
    YMCA doesn’t get it’s grant
    Bus connections moved from Rodney Sq
    Mental Health/Addiction Services being driven out

    It’s a trend, see.

    I appreciate your obsession on Meyer, though. But given the history I don’t believe an ex-officio chair had anything to do with this. I doubt he could even stop it if he knew.

    Although I’d love to ask him this a question

  7. Shorthand Nancy:

    Gordon great.

    Meyer sucks.