DL Open Thread: Thursday, August 24, 2023
Didn’t watch the debate. Didn’t watch the commentary after the debate. That ‘climate change is a hoax’ would seem to be disqualifying, though. Even to Rethugs. Pretty sure that farmers don’t think it’s a hoax. However, pretty sure ‘the media’ needs Vivek, so we’re gonna get an endless hype train–until it’s time to toss him off.
Yep. They Beat White Kids, Too.
Apparently, a Delaware state cop took offense to being pranked, and he and his buddy took it out on the alleged prankster. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but this beating seems outside the purview of police business, yet (stop me if you’ve heard this before) their names are being withheld by the cops. Which, of course, wouldn’t happen with any other garden-variety beating, which would be accompanied by mugshots. Here’s the News-Journal story. An excerpt:
In the post, the woman − who wrote it on behalf of her sister − said her 15-year-old nephew and his friends were pranking residents with “ding-dong ditch” before the reported assault occurred. It’s not exactly clear where the teens were playing the game, where kids run up to a person’s home and ring the doorbell, then “ditch” before someone answers.
The prank has been performed by kids, usually pre-teens and teens, for decades.
According to the woman, the boys unknowingly targeted a home owned by a state trooper. He “was not home at the time, but he was made aware by other family members in the home,” she wrote.
The woman said as the boys walked home, two troopers stopped them. The teens were not carrying weapons, she said, emphasizing in the post the word “unarmed.”
“The two state troopers arrested my nephews (sic) friends, then beat the living hell out of nephew,” the post said. “My nephew currently has a concussion, needs surgery to repair severe eye damage (as the cops stomped on him and kicked him multiple times).”
Hey, at least we can be thankful that the newly-signed LEOBOR bills still protect these thugs’ (the cops) rights to anonymity.
Rudy Whines About Mug Shot. Yep, the same guy who made the perp walk an institution in NYC. Were I an editor, I would have requested at least a few photos of the hundreds of perp walks that Giuliani orchestrated. He was the perp walk king. Yes, there were innocent people forced to endure the indignity:
He memorably directed police officers in 1987 to barge onto the trading floor of Kidder, Peabody & Co. to handcuff trader Richard Wigton and escort him through the company’s trading floor. Wigton was captured weeping by photographers on the scene.
Indeed, charges against Wigton, were dropped 3 1/2 months after they were made. An investigation continued for another 2 1/2 years before it was abandoned. He died in 2008 at age 77.
More ‘Sad’ News Out Of Georgia: Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark Not Above The Law:
A federal judge has denied last-minute attempts by Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark to avoid being arrested in the Fulton County, Georgia, election interference case if they fail to appear on time for their arraignments on the charges.
Both the former White House chief of staff and the former top Justice Department official wanted to block any attempts to arrest them for ignoring the deadline set two weeks ago for the 19 defendants in the state indictment to turn themselves in.
They’re almost ‘ready for their close-ups’.
‘Tax The Rich’. It can happen here, too. Maybe all those doomsday warnings about upcoming shortfalls in Delaware will lead to higher tax brackets for the most wealthy among us. Or, you know, perhaps they’ll dip into the Rainy Day Fund, which is bursting at the seams, but which is only used to protect our Bond rating:
When legislators proposed a bill in 2021 to increase taxes on Washington’s wealthiest residents and put the money toward child care and education, Flores was elated. She showed up to testify in support.
The bill passed. This year, the money started flowing in—hundreds of millions more than legislators anticipated.
While efforts to pass a federal wealth tax are at a standstill, a nascent movement at the state level to get high-income people to contribute more to public coffers is beginning to notch successes.
Washington state’s tax, on capital gains, overcame a court challenge in March. Massachusetts voters amended their constitution in November to tax millionaires at a higher rate. And legislators in eight more states introduced bills this year aimed at reforming tax systems that take a smaller share of household income from people with the most money than from people with the least. Those changes would yield hundreds of billions of dollars in potential new revenue.
The optics are great, too. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing millionaires grovel.
BTW, Delaware now has two funds full of unspent money:
The state’s rainy day fund, the Budget Reserve Account, has a projected balance of $326 million, or 5.9 percent of general fund operating spending. The governor also allocates $18.9 million (unencumbered general funds in excess of the constitutionally required set-aside of two percent of available general fund revenue) to a newer reserve known as the Budget Stabilization Fund, bringing that fund balance to $421.5 million in fiscal 2024.
All-Male South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Draconian Abortion Law.
Will Racist Wilmington Riverfront Development Corporation Stop Hookah Lounge From Getting Alcohol License? Were I the State Auditor, I’d investigate this ‘quasi-government’ institution to see if it was perpetuating racism:
Over a year after the Wilmington Riverfront Development Corp. rallied businesses to oppose a hookah lounge serving alcohol, Pure Flavor Hookah Lounge owners are getting a hearing with the state alcohol control board.
The development corporation along with several Riverfront businesses submitted petitions in July 2022 to prompt a public hearing on the hookah lounge’s application for a taproom license, but it would take a year for Delaware’s Office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commissioner to schedule it.
The Riverfront Development Corp., a quasi-government entity responsible for steering development and “maintaining and securing” public properties at the Riverfront, sent a letter on July 19, 2022, asking the commissioner to deny the Black-owned business’s request for a taproom license because “there have been numerous complaints” about the lounge and “the operators.”
“The Pure Flavor Hookah Lounge has brought patrons that are a threat to the guests, employees, and overall public safety of the Wilmington Riverfront,” McGlinchey concluded in the letter.
However, none of the allegations are documented by Wilmington police, and law enforcement earlier this year stressed that none of the alleged incidents could be tied to the Justison Street business.
Correspondence obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed seemingly coordinated efforts among development corporation officials, the lounge’s landlord Pettinaro Management LLC and the Buccini Pollin Group to oppose Pure Flavor’s request for a taproom license.
If the Lounge gets the license, I’d love to see them sue these racist bastards for restraint of trade.
What do you want to talk about?
So, it’s another savage state police beating, can but wonder if this will provoke another million moron march in Dover, if you remember the idiots assembled when the cops kicked a man getting down on the ground and broke his jaw, on film at that. Suspect that most of the marchers were ex Air Force Fascists, Dover is full of them, and it sucks.
But Hey! TAX THE RICH! An idea whose time has come perhaps after having left the building decades ago. Will our cowardly Dems in Dover sign on to this far left radicalism? Will Chris Coons consummate his love of the Republicans? I wish, would make it easier to flush the little turd.
I’ve heard that there was some upset at the riverfront when firestone changed hands and became docklands. Docklands is less stuffy and has a more diverse clientele; so it’s no surprise that a black-owned business that serves black patrons is being targeted.
The whole idea of the riverfront, at its core, was to build a walled garden within the city, and further marginalize the poor neighborhoods with strategic disinvestment. It’s a kinder, gentler kind of racism that doesn’t involve the outright bulldozing of neighborhoods. The stakeholders love it.
I agree almost totally with your second ‘graf.
Gentrification writ large.
As I’m sure you know, it’s where Mayor Mike made his bones.
So my question for El Som….. are you going to update your avatar with the most recent “republican president to not win the popular vote mugshot?”
I really should update the avatar. Just haven’t given much thought to a new one. Figure it’ll come to me, and then I’ll get one of our techmeisters to do the rest…
I hope you keep the avatar. It always makes me chuckle a little.
I would like to see someone go to court to challenge these cops’ LEOBAR protections for criminal acts committed off-duty. I strongly doubt the application of those protections would stand up to legal scrutiny.
If the state had a real newspaper it could file suit to make their identities public.