DL Open Thread: Monday, April 15, 2024
Couple of idle thoughts to start the week:
Israel’s vow to rescue the hostages was only slightly more sincere than OJ’s vow to find the real killers.
America invested more energy in the courtship of the Golden Bachelor than the subsequently-wedded couple spent on their own marriage.
Oh, for those of you utilizing cunning linguistics to argue that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza, feel free to read this:
I can tell you.
I covered the genocide in Bosnia for The Post, wrote a book about it, and reported from Iraq and Afghanistan, among other conflict-ridden countries. Also, my ancestors were key funders of Jewish immigration to British-controlled Palestine. The Warburgs and Schiffs donated millions of dollars to that cause, and during the warbetween Jews and Arabs that started in 1948, they helped raise vast sums for the new state of Israel. When Golda Meir made an emergency fundraising visit to the United States, one of the philanthropists she met with was an uncle of mine who led the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
As Israeli forces grind through Gaza in what the International Court of Justice defines as a “plausible” case of genocide, my family’s history of philanthropy runs into my familiarity with war crimes. When Israel bombs and shoots civilians, blocks food aid, attacks hospitals, and cuts off water supplies, I remember the same outrages in Bosnia. When people in a Gaza flour line were attacked, I thought of the Sarajevans killed waiting in line for bread and the perpetrators who in each case insisted the victims were slaughtered by their own side.
Millions of Jews in America feel connected to Israel’s creation. Maybe our ancestors gave or raised money, maybe they went and fought, maybe they donated to Zionist organizations. What’s a Jew to do now? Everyone makes their own choices, but my experience of war crimes taught me that being Jewish means standing against any nation that commits war crimes.
Any.
The Trial Begins, But Not Really. Jury selection will likely become a deliberate shit-show thanks to Le Grand Orange.
Trump Gives Us A History Lesson On Gettysburg. He knows as much about Gettysburg as he does about the Bible. Hmmm, is there a merch opportunity here?
Will Mike Johnson Tell Ukraine To ‘Drop Dead’? As if we needed more proof that Trump and the Rethuglican Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vladimir Putin:
The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said he will aim to advance a bill for wartime aid to Israel this week following Iran’s weekend attack, but did not clarify whether Ukraine funding would be part of the package.
US assistance for both nations has languished amid political bickering in Congress, with Johnson – an ally of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – blocking an earlier $95bn in aid sought by President Joe Biden for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan which had passed the Senate.
“The House Republicans and the Republican party understand the necessity of standing with Israel,” Johnson told Fox News. “We’re going to try again this week, and the details of that package are being put together right now.
Johnson has over recent months refused to take up the Senate bill. Instead, he has sought to craft his own legislation, with Ukraine aid structured as a loan at Trump’s behest.
AG Goes After Downstate Manufactured Home Owner. Good:
“Owners of manufactured home communities should consider themselves on notice,” Attorney General Kathy Jennings said. “Exploiting vulnerable Delawareans with threats and lies is not something manufactured home community owners can expect to get away with.”
In the opinion, the Hearing Officer stated that “the harm caused by (Blue Beach)’s actions cannot be undone.” According to the AG’s office, the park owner made false and misleading claims about the nature of the park as justification for taking action against its residents, although a number of them lived there year-round.
The administrative penalty against Blue Beach amounted to $737,000 for “willful violations of the Consumer Fraud Act” and a $94,000 penalty for violations of the Cease and Desist Order.
Capano, Carper And Mayor Mike: Hey, intervening for developers is what we do. Don’t know why the News-Journal buried this story:
A sidewalk built just over Wilmington’s border is the center of a lawsuit that accuses Mayor Mike Purzycki of overstepping his authority − and the city limits − to benefit a planned apartment-building development by Louis Capano III.
The lawsuit revolves around two properties off Miller Road: the Capano-owned, former Riverside Hospital tract right inside the city limits and the Miller Road Commons, a shopping center that hosts the Home Depot and sits just outside the city limits. The two properties are separated by 37th Street, which runs multiple feet inside and parallel to the shopping center’s border.
It states that Purzycki contacted Rosen’s firm and pitched Capano’s plans for the neighboring property as well as the developer’s desire to obtain an easement deal. And to sweeten the deal for Rosen, Purzycki’s then-police chief wrote a letter committing more police resources to patrolling the shopping center, despite it being outside the city, according to documents filed in the litigation. (Yes, there are donut shops in the area.)
Later, Purzycki would reach a separate agreement with Capano that allows the city to build improvements in the easement and gives the city authority to make the monthly payments that Capano owes to Rosen’s firm for the easement in the event the developer defaults. That agreement also gives the city the “right” to pay the costs of any breach of the easement agreement and to potentially claw back any costs from Capano, according to a copy included in the court filings.
City Council would eventually approve the rezoning for the development. But five years later, the only signs of work on the property is the sidewalk built alongside 37th Street.
In legal correspondence that preceded the lawsuit, an attorney for Capano wrote that the sidewalks were installed at the behest of both Purzycki and Sen. Tom Carper. Emails included in the rezoning submissions for the property show Martha Carper, the senator’s wife, serving as a go-between in discussions involving Capano as well as city officials and neighbors of the property.
JEE-zus. Read Xerxes Wilson’s entire article. Delaware Way shit of the lowest magnitude. I’d like to know what John and Velda think. Or, more precisely, Velda. Carney checked out long ago, if he ever was checked in.
What do you want to talk about?
