DL Open Thread Monday, Aug. 12, 2024

Is there a bad idea John Carney won’t embrace? Most basketball fans are aware that the Philadelphia 76ers want to construct a new arena in downtown Philly right next to Chinatown. The project is supported by the construction workers’ unions – is there a bad idea they won’t embrace? – but opposed by those who don’t want a repeat of what happened when Washington, D.C., destroyed its Chinatown by building an NBA arena next door. The Philadelphia standoff prompted Camden, N.J., to offer itself as an alternative. The other day, Carney offered up Wilmington’s waterfront as a prospective site. The idea is preposterous on its face – Camden is just across the Delaware River from downtown Philadelphia, while Wilmington is more than a half-hour away, and much further for the team’s many suburban fans. This is a guy who supposedly is running the state while simultaneously campaigning to run the city, and THIS is what he’s talking about? No wonder Velda is going to win.

The Paris Olympics ended to mostly positive reviews for both the host city and the athletic feats on display. I even caught a touch of the fever – I didn’t think I had to get a booster shot after years of uninspiring Olympics. My literal highlight: that Swedish kid breaking his own world record in the pole vault at 6.25 meters (20’6″ for Yanks) on his third and final attempt when he already had won the gold medal.

If you need another reason to be impressed by Tim Walz, check out this item about his master’s thesis in education, which was based on his classroom experience. He argued for teaching the Holocaust not as a stand-alone unit or as part of World War II, but in the context of genocidal movements and what brought them on. Sounds theoretical, but in 1993 he asked his class to survey conditions in various regions of the world and predict where the next genocide would occur. Their answer: Rwanda, where the genocide began the next year.

The media is treating the hack of the Trump campaign, allegedly by Iranian interests, mainly as a sign of Trump World’s ineptitude. Some have noted that the Trump Exception remains in force: Politico sat on the leaked documents for three weeks without writing about them. But Marcy Wheeler points out that because so many Trump people wear multiple hats, national security could be compromised. So there’s more at stake than John Podesta’s risotto recipe.

Oh, I almost forgot: The Trump Unhingement continues to accelerate. He bleated out a claim that, despite the photographic evidence and the presence of dozens of reporters who were there, Kamala Harris was greeted by an empty tarmac at the Detroit airport. The media, understandably, soberly underreacted, because nobody wants to be the first with the headline, “GOP Nominee Insane.”

The floor’s yours.