2023: The Good. The Bad. The Ridiculous.
As usual, the ‘Good List’ is much smaller than the other two. I can not so humbly state that this is the only list you’ll need to sum up Delaware in 2023. It’s long, but well worth your time, replete with generous links to the stories:
THE GOOD:
Jan. 18: Gov. Carney proposes a 9% increase in teachers’ salaries.
Feb. 7: News Journal Finally Discovers Ft. DuPont Boondoggle. 9 years too late, but still…
Feb. 10: January 6 MAGAt from Delaware gets three years in prison. Gotta love this quote: “His lawyers had asked for a 12-month sentence, and argued that Seefried, 53, lacked “even average intellectual capacity.” “Mr. Seefried did not appreciate the complex and for many, painful, history behind the Confederate battle flag.”
Mar. 28: Great day in the State Senate. Both marijuana bills pass and go to Gov. Carney, and Renters’ Right to Counsel also passes.
Apr. 7: No more Dave McBrides. The quaint notion that state legislators should live in the districts they represent is now law.
Apr. 17: Fox settles with Dominion for $787.5 mill. The good news? Fox revealed for the fraud it is. The bad news? We miss out on the circus.
Apr. 21: Carney will allow pot bills to become law w/o his signature. Mighty nice of him to avoid the inevitable veto overrides.
May 9: Progressives win, neanderthals lose, in Delaware school board elections.
May 22: Tom Carper announces he will not seek reelection. Good. LBR is at least nominally less conservative than Carper. And Sarah McBride and Eugene Young are more progressive than LBR.
June 6: House passes HB 99, which addresses long-term climate solutions for Delaware. The bill is ultimately signed into law. One of the session’s major accomplishments.
June 14: The Renters’ Right To Counsel bill receives final passage in the Senate and heads to Governor. In a mini-upset, Carney actually signs it. Great work by all involved.
June 21: Auto-matic Voter Registration Activated In Delaware. “If someone is not registered to vote in Delaware, they will become automatically registered if they apply for a driver’s license, renewal, ID card or learner’s permit.”
Aug. 3: Great year for environmental legislation in Delaware.
Sept. 29: Delaware’s AG pursues ‘Delaware’s radical energy agenda’, much to the chagrin of a downstate mouthbreather. That’s what dis Suxco ditz calls suing oil companies.
Oct. 24: ACLU of Delaware Files Suit Against Wilmington Police. Due to alleged violations of ‘Constitutional protections against unreasonable stops, searches and arrests’ arising from Wilmington’s Operation Safe Streets Program, which is part of Mayor Mike’s gentrification strategy. Speaking of which, Wilmington cop claims he conducted over 1000 traffic stops, didn’t record anything:
“A Wilmington police officer testified he made more than 1,000 traffic stops over a four-year period but didn’t record or report any of them unless they resulted in an arrest or traffic citation — a practice a federal lawsuit says is designed to cover up constitutional violations by officers engaging in racially biased policing.”
Oct. 26: Delaware’s AG goes after companies that dump PFA’s into our air, soil and water. Hey, someone has to look out for the public since DNREC is in thrall to the polluters.
Nov. 17: NCC Council creates a watered-down Police Review Board over the objections of the NCC Police. Better than nothing, at least.
THE BAD:
Jan. 2: Speaker Pete releases committee assignments dominated by the usual anti-progressive suspects.
Jan. 19: Delaware’s Jay Briscoe, a world class pro rassler, killed in car crash.
Jan. 26: Riverfront Development Corporation opposes license for a hookah lounge.
Feb. 23: State cops dominate the list of highest-paid state employees. More from Al’s story: “Those six aren’t the only ones aboard the gravy train. Of the top 56 people on the list, 27 — just under half — are state cops. Each made in excess of $200,000 in 2021. None are among the agency’s top officials.
Mar. 2: Delaware City Refinery’s third violation of the year–and it’s only March.
Mar. 27: Lauren Witzke being Lauren Witzke:
“According to the lawsuit, Vaughn chronicled his and his husband’s journey through the surrogacy process on social media — the same place their eventual surrogate reached out to them offering to help them start a family after the men tried for two years to adopt.
In late February, Vaughn shared a video showing him and his husband holding their 32-week-old “preemie twins” as a family for the first time.
Seventeen days later, the lawsuit claims, Witzke reposted Vaughn’s video to her Twitter account saying, “A new fetish with pedophiles consists of robbing babies from their mothers straight out of the womb. This is human trafficking and would be illegal in a sane society.”
April 8: Shooting at Christiana Mall.
May 6: Delaware hires yet another sub-standard prison healthcare company to provide sub-standard care. As in, this one’s been sued–a lot.
May 31: Delaware Chamber Of Commerce Publicly Endorses Everything Bad And Opposes Everything Good. Just in time for the June legislative race to the finish.
June 2: Yet another operator takes over the Port Of Wilmington in yet another secretive deal. Replete with repayments that won’t be paid and yet more taxpayer money flowing to the new operator. Jeff Bullock keeps his job despite his repeated fuck-ups with the Port. June 26: Looks like we get stuck with a $100 million bill due to Bullock’s stupidity.
June 15: Ag. Secretary Michael (Poor Ex)Scuse comes out against Green Constitutional Amendment. Meaning, so does Carney.
June 23: Carney and Chamber celebrate signing of bills that bypass the public on project approval. Check out the photo. Try not to puke.
July 5: DNREC silences community concerns over port-related projects in Edgemoor. Is there a more feckless public agency in Delaware?
Aug. 3: Carper Bets On Bidenomics Fail. Makes money by ‘shorting’ the US economy. Casual corruption that never gets examined. At least he’s retiring. To his five pensions.
Aug. 10: ‘First State Educate’/’First State Action Fund’ hires convicted felon with a track record of trying to destroy public education. One of my best stories of the year.
Aug. 18: House staffer files to primary Frank Burns in Newark legislative district. Granted leave by a suddenly-altruistic Val Longhurst to damage a great candidate who poses a threat to her Speakership. The staffer’s background is more than a little sketchy.
Aug,. 23: Delaware State cops equal-opportunity pummelers? At least this once.
Aug. 28: More stench rises from the Underground City At Ft. DuPont. Nobody’s answering the phone at the purported developer of the RV park.
Sept. 7: John Carney endorses Bethany Hall-Long for Governor, schedules fundraiser for her. Also belongs under ‘Ridiculous’ as future events will demonstrate.
Sept. 8: NCC residents can’t sue cancer-causing polluters–unless they get cancer. Great article by Karl Baker demonstrating that the Delaware Way supports cancer-causing polluters at every turn.
Sept. 26: Yet another Delaware State Trooper beats the shit out of a teenager. This one’s been indicted. Don’t know if LEOBOR will get him off scot-free.
Sept. 29: Jason330 retires as DL’s fearless leader. Simply the best boss who never paid me a penny that I’ve ever had.
Oct. 4: The Purzycki to Carney mayoral deal first surfaces.
Oct. 7: Wilmington City Council votes against public transparency.
Nov. 6: Delaware’s Ag Secretary gives out no-bid contracts, violates state law. Nothing happens to him. John Carney believes in selective integrity.
Nov. 8: Yet another ‘Christian services’ organization shocked to discover a sexual predator in its midst. This one preying on refugees.
Nov. 27 Delaware’s Department Of Elections doesn’t investigate anything.
THE RIDICULOUS:
Jan. 26: $122 mill for Legislative Hall expansion?
Feb. 9: Sentence Of The Year?—“House Republicans spent much of their first big oversight committee hearing Wednesday attacking Twitter for denying American voters the chance to look at Hunter Biden’s penis.”
Feb. 23: Lewes’ Missing Cannonball Found. On a nearby sidewalk, where it had apparently been hiding in plain sight for a week.
Feb. 23: Delaware’s Scott Walker sues to have his drunken driving conviction overturned. Why?:
“Walker argues in his 47-page complaint that because of his disability, police should have heeded his request to be left alone in order to sober up after being found semi-nude and sleeping behind the wheel of his running car in a restaurant drive-thru. Having not followed his request, Milford police violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, he claims.” He loses.
Just curious–how did the car end up where it ended up if he didn’t drive it there?
Feb. 26: News-Journal heralds the opening of a Hobby Lobby in Delaware w/o mentioning its virulent anti-gay history. I did, though.
March 15: The ‘Special License Plate For Retired Legislators’ bill is introduced. Presumably b/c Margaret Rose Henry wants people to know that she used to be somebody. It ultimately passes. My timeless prose on the subject:
“And now, the moment that (none of) all of you have been waiting for…Ladeez and Gentlemen–MY kind of bill. HB 85 (Bolden) ‘creates a special license plate for retired state legislators. This Act shall be known as “The Senator Margaret Rose Henry Act”. No doubt in the spirit of naming the prison after Sen. Jim Vaughn, which made sense since Vaughn had made sure that enough prisoners were incarcerated in his personal House Of Detention. Also in the spirit of naming that Lewes Facility the ‘Sen. Dave McBride Wide Stance Rest Stop’. Because, um, he lived there. In Lewes, presumably not at the rest stop.
Alternative titles for HB 85: The ‘Do You Know Who I Am Bill’, the ‘I Used Ta Be Somebody Bill’ and The ‘Your Radar Must Be Off, Officer Bill’. Open for more suggestions. Word is, Senator Henry really wants this bill. Why? Is she a bad driver? Reading the bill, I think that both John Atkins and Gerald Brady would qualify. Everybody OK with that? The only stated purpose for this bill is one retired legislator’s vanity. It could be viewed though, in fact I would view it that way, as a means for retired legislators to perhaps play the ‘do you know who I am’ card. A terrible bill. Which no doubt will be signed into law this session.
March 20: Delaware GOP asks 12 ‘business leaders’ how to “support economic growth and improve the lives of workers”. If you have a sense of the absurd, you will love the identity of the ‘leaders’ and their ‘thoughts’.
March 22: Rethugs launch statewide campaign against the scourge of electric cars.
Apr. 12: Seaford’s Mayor Casts A Tie-Breaking Vote Giving Voting Privileges To LLC’s and non-residential businesses. Ridiculous, but not the final appearance of this on our list this year.
Apr. 19: Wilmington Councilperson Zanthia Oliver voted to give yet another ill-deserved $200K to her brother, who feeds pretty much only at the public trough.
May 14. Julianne Murray’s ‘vision’ for the Delaware Rethuglican Party, which she now leads, consists of opposition to a whole bunch’a things that most Delawareans like:
“Politics are local,” and that the party’s messaging will shift toward issues that “hit Delawareans regardless of whether they’re a Democrat or Republican.”
Some of those issues, Ms. Murray said, include ongoing consideration of zero-emission vehicle regulations under California’s Advanced Clean Cars II standards; last May’s widespread gun control package; House Bill 99, also known as the Climate Change Solutions Act of 2023; and the state’s ban on plastic bags and potential prohibition of straws and polystyrene foam, under Senate Bill 51.
May 20: As if we needed more proof that our current state party is useless.
May 24: Yet more proof that our current state party is useless.
May 28: Headline From Today’s News-Journal. A ‘subscribers-only’ article at that: All you need to know about Nicola Pizza’s new location in Lewes. Uh, I’ll take a stab at it. They sell pizza. They have a new location in Lewes. You’re welcome.
May 29: Headline From Today’s News-Journal: ““Looking for Delaware, Maryland fireworks? Here is our list for 4th of July shows”.
Never too early to make your plans, I suppose.
Jason ponders what % of the News-Journal is now cranked out by AI.
June 3: Smyrna kick-boxer drinks pee on national television and only wins $10,000. Not just his own pee, but pee from a horse and a pig (which tasted like liquid bacon.)
June 15: Idiot from Delaware Building Trades opposes electric vehicles.
June 15-30: The ongoing kerfluffle of the Seaford ‘One LLC/One Vote’ bill. Featuring likely the dumbest session boycott in Delaware history by the House Rethugs, who took a stand in favor of the LLC ‘Right To Vote’. A sampling of articles on this topic: June 20. June 28: Everything Falls Apart In The House. June 29: Seaford Charter fails in House. House Rethugs will boycott. June 30: The utterly insane story of the LLC vote, replete with utterly insane quotes from Mike Ramone. June 30: D’s capitulate, pass LLC bill. Why? The Senate has made clear they won’t touch it. From Claire Snyder-Hall:
“On the final day of the legislative session, the Delaware Senate adjourned without bringing the controversial corporate voting rights bill to the floor for a vote. HS 1 for HB 121, introduced by state Rep. Daniel Short, would have allowed artificial entities like corporations, LLCs, and trusts to vote in Seaford’s municipal elections. So while the bill passed in the House, it will not become law this year.”
June 22: Michael Brown, that Michael Brown, sues City of Wilmington b/c he didn’t get a political job he sought. Claims age discrimination, which sounds better than incompetence discrimination.
June 26: 500,000 rounds of ammo walk out of a Delaware Cebela’s. Presumably not on their own.
June 30: The coronation of Val Longhurst as Speaker. Representatives and lobbyists were ‘encouraged’ to each give her one white rose, thus explaining the ‘Queen For A Day’ vibe of the ceremony. Here’s what I wrote:
“Did anybody else view the grotesque coronation of Our PAL Val as Speaker on Friday? Complete with an enforced Hug-athon, a bouquet, and a reception befitting of someone who was named Queen For A Day and won both the washer and dryer. That, show, like Val’s coronation, was a sickening spectacle.”
July 18: ‘Gun rights’ activists cry about not being able to carry weapons around the Delaware State Fair. Who will ever put the wounded chickens out of their misery?
July 27: Hunter Biden and his attorneys fuck up their own plea deal. Think he’d like a do-over about now?
Aug. 15: Corrupt Ex-State Auditor sues state for defamation.
Sept. 5: No new jobs? No problem. We’ll give you taxpayers’ money anyway. What happens when you privatize Delaware’s economic development office.
Sept. 21: Entire Suxco Republican Committee resigns.
Sept. 27: State Of Delaware sues Amazon while State of Delaware throws money at Amazon. Short wrap-up: Jennings good, Carney bad.
Sept. 28: The Bethany Hall-Long Campaign Finance Coverup Begins. The one article you need to read to get the entire picture.
Oct. 16: Delaware’s laziest Republican files to run for Register Of Wills. Another no-show job, same as Bonini’s absence from Sunset Committee meetings, for which he still got paid.
Nov. 11: Rethug lawyer, former NCC Councilmember, blows himself up real good.
Nov. 19: Suxco towns ban weed sales. Can’t believe the Delaware Restaurant Association hasn’t objected. The Munchies=greater profits.
Nov. 22: Our PAL Val calls Matt Meyer a member of ‘The Jew Cult’. Did I mention she’s Speaker of the House? Scroll to Episode 783. It’s a keeper.
Nov. 27: UD announces plans to go big-time in college football.
Dec. 22: The one-day Democratic candidacy of a MAGAt nut-job to succeed pistol-packin’ Pete Schwartzkopf. He withdraws a day later, suddenly discovering he’s ‘too busy’ to run.
