DL Open Thread: Friday, November 8, 2024
What ProPublica Will Cover In A Second Trump Presidency. At least we can look forward to great journalism from one place that hasn’t been utterly compromised:
Sixteen years ago, we started ProPublica to do hard-hitting, rigorous journalism that exposes wrongdoing and injustice. In that time, our investigative reporters have covered three presidential administrations, from the Obama administration’s failed housing policies to the Trump administration’s immigration strategies that separated parents from their children at the border to the Biden administration’s failure to uphold U.S. law when it came to arming the Israelis.
Now that Donald Trump is the president-elect for the second time, we will once again turn our focus to the areas most in need of scrutiny at this moment in history. As our editor-in-chief wrote yesterday, that’s what our more than 150 working journalists do.
Donald Trump’s victory marks a turning point in the American experiment, and there is much to be dissected about what it means.
We will leave that analysis to others.
Our role as an investigative news organization lies elsewhere. In the coming months and years, we will be devoting a significant portion of our staff to chronicling the effects of what promises to be a drastic change in the role of the federal government in all of our lives.
This is nothing new for us. Over the past three presidential administrations, we have closely covered the actions of the federal government, from the Navy’s propensity for building expensive ships that aren’t seaworthy to the failings of regulators to protect the public’s health and safety.
In the 21st century, “without fear or favor” means maintaining a fact-based, data-driven approach to journalism. Our job is to give readers an independent, verifiable account of what’s happening, even if the president is calling us enemies of the people or bloodsuckers. At ProPublica, our mantra is that we bring the receipts to every story we publish.
Jesse Eisinger, one of our senior editors, delivered some remarks to his staff this morning that sum up how I believe reporters at ProPublica and elsewhere should be approaching this moment.
“We face the biggest test of our professional lives,” he told them. “Now we get to see if we really meant it when we said we will hold power to account. Will we do so when our subjects have true power on their side and a willingness to use it? We may be harassed. We may be sued. We may be threatened with violence. We may be ignored. Are we just sunshine journalists or are we ready?”
Send Matt Meyer A Message–Or Your Resume. That’s what the transitiondelaware website is for. Me? I’m gonna send him my transparency agenda.
Wilmington Cops Go After The Homeless. Anyone think Carney will be any better than Purzycki?:
Last month, Wilmington officials and the ACLU of Delaware settled a lawsuit over the city’s policing of homeless people – an agreement that barred local police from arresting individuals who had asked strangers for money or who had lingered in public areas.
But, in the wake of the settlement, police appear to have taken a new strategy, one that critics say is unfairly targeting society’s most vulnerable populations.
Less than an hour after the ACLU announced its deal with the city last month, police were outside the offices of a local homeless services organization, called the Friendship House, which also had been a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Officers had been called there following reports of people doing illegal activity on sidewalk benches that sat just outside the doors of the Friendship House.
What followed was a tense exchange between police and officials of the Friendship House and of the church that owned the property.
Police asked to remove the benches, which for more than 30 years had provided respite for homeless individuals to drink coffee or wait on an open restroom at the center.
But the leaders of the organization and of the church refused.
Officers responded by threatening to shut down the Friendship House and cease its operations, according to Kim Eppehimer, executive director of the Friendship House.
Then, they left.
About an hour later, city officials returned with tools and a police escort, and promptly cut the benches from the sidewalk, trucking them away.
They placed cones over the nearly inch-long pieces of rebar that were left protruding up from the concrete on the sidewalk.
Purzycki and his cop henchmen are soulless bloodsuckers. I hope the ACLU has them back in court ASAP.
Delaware Rethugs As Clueless As National Democrats. Small consolation, I know:
But while Trump and his Make America Great Again movement won the nation’s popular vote as well as Pennsylvania and six other so-called swing states to regain the presidency, what message would Herninko use to attract voters to Republican red in blue Delaware?
“You gotta just go out there and let them know what your party stands for, what Republican means,’’ she said. “We’re a party of conservatives. We believe in the Constitution. We believe in the rights. We don’t want open borders. We want our guns, our country, that’s what we want.’’
I, uh, think people already know that.
What do you want to talk about?
Just a (hopeful?) thought.
Perhaps what we saw was the end of the merger between a Clintonian-style D Party and the corporations that underwrote it.
We’re not all the way there in Delaware yet, but I think the General Assembly in particular can point the way in a productive new direction.
I think the challenge for future Delaware governments is to cope with less federal support and the need to increase state/local taxes, or cut services. That pressure will cut against a progressive agenda.
Nice thought, but they’re addicted to the money. They’re not gonna kick a 30-year habit quickly.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/07/kent-county-register-of-wills-election-changes-after-absentee-vote-count/76113331007/
Not the sexiest race, but I am drinking Bonini’s tears after his surprise loss for Kent County Register of Wills. OF COURSE he’s saying it was “stolen.” Clown. Please please please disappear and never come back.
Earth to Colin: Absentee ballots count just the same as other ballots.
Democrats consistently outperform on them, which is a 180-degree switch from how it was even twenty years ago.
Now why Kent County doesn’t count them in advance and add them to the totals like is done in the other two counties is beyond me.
Hey, if Julianne Murray wants to waste whatever money remains in the Rethug coffers to try to save Colin’s carcass, who am I to warn against it?
Nobody on either side cares enough to rig an election for Kent County Register of Wills.
After canvassing in Chester County on Tuesday, we went out for a beer in Kennett Square. A group of bros, trucker hats, facial hair, came in and one guy wore a Trump WrestleMania t-shirt. Still wearing my Harris gear, I asked t-shirt guy if he was a volunteer for the Trump campaign. “No” , he laughed, “I’m volunteering for the deportation.”
This is not fiction. I’ll never forget that.
Bernie is right that Democrats didn’t deliver for these voters. But they seem to have enough money; Dems just didn’t deliver enough race hatred.
Joe Manchin vetoed Democrats’ best efforts
I’d be angrier except so many Latinos voted for it. So let them fight it out amongst themselves.
I went on the legislature’s website this morning. It’s so nice not to see Our PAL Val and her horse face on it anymore. Hope she spends time thinking about being a better and kinder person in the future.
That reminds me–as of the day after the election, those no longer in the General Assembly are off the payroll, and those who are coming in are added to the payroll.
That ALSO reminds me–in the past, Return Day was where the jockeying for leadership kicked up a notch. Pete ‘n Val had short-circuited it by calling a caucus for two days AFTER the election, in other words, before Return Day.
Hmmm, might have to make a phone call or two…
What an insane thing to say. Women voted for Trump too, but you’d never say that other women whose reproductive rights may be affected have to fight it out amongst themselves. Latinos are not a single monolith and just because part of one group made that decision doesn’t mean the others don’t deserve sympathy.
“you’d never say that other women whose reproductive rights may be affected have to fight it out amongst themselves”
I’ll say it. Let the GenZ girls have it out with their moms, aunts, and grandmoms over this Thanksgiving and next.
“You’d never say that other women whose reproductive rights may be affected have to fight it out amongst themselves.”
Sure I would. What’s the matter, you don’t want to confront them? They’re the ones harming you, not me.
Here’s the thing about immigration: I among those who want more, not less, immigration. I am joined in that opinion by 13% of the public. If the group most affected by this has no sympathy for their fellow Latinos, why am I expected to pick up the slack? If they feel so little sympathy that they’ll vote to keep other Hispanics out – and I’m well aware that they’re not a monolith, that’s what allows them to be just as bigoted as whites, Blacks and Asians – why should I?
There’s a saying: Never try to teach a pig to sing, because it frustrates you and annoys the pig. Reportedly Latinos don’t like liberals because they coined the term “Latinx” to counteract the fact that in Romance languages, everything is gendered, and this clashes with the liberal opinion that things shouldn’t be gendered. If that annoyance is enough to make them vote for Republicans, I can’t stress this enough: They’ll get what they deserve. I can only hope that some of the ones who voted Republican because they thought themselves safe get deported as well.
I have spent an aggregate 6 months or so in PR 2012-2020 . Love the place and the people but a healthy chunk of both men and women are right wing. The history there is complicated. They were given citizenship to be cannon fodder in WW1 and responded by being one the highest per capita members of the military. There was a time when displaying the Puert Rican flag was a crime. I get the vibe that there is “please my abuser” vibe that runs deep.
Unless there is a sudden baby boom, new citizens are the only ones who are going to pay my Social Security. Most people don’t understand how Social Security funding works.
I too want more immigrants, but legally and in a controlled manner, and slowed down when unemployment is high. It was painful to hear Democrats advocating for illegal immigrants at times when wages were flat and there were dozens or hundreds of citizen applicants for every job opening. (Seasonal farm work is its own thing; there needs to be legal programs for migrant workers – with the emphasis on ‘migrant’).
On the other hand, if new immigrant males are going to vote for Trump from some misguided toxic masculinity, I’ll laugh and point as they are herded onto the boxcars.
Enough about the past. Let’s talk future.
Who’s running against Nicole Poore? She must be looking around and seeing she’s the only one of her pals left.
Will probably be one of the easier pickups for a decent dem in a primary. She’s remarkably weak and clearly not a great political strategist. Will she even run again?
Val and Bethany both lied about the Inspector General Bill and they both got defeated.
Isn’t that KARMA? Carney didn’t want it passed and the Democratic mis-leadership failed to do their jobs. The new Gov should call for an outside audit of the Clearing house committee to see where and how all federal funds are spent. And while they are at it, Audit the River-front committee as well to see where and how our money is spent. Right after they disclose the unemployment funds theft and whom stole funds. Corrupt Carney Admin should get no mercy from their Shenanigans.
Alby – Sometimes teaching pigs to sing works out fine. They can also be taught to play the flute.
https://youtu.be/sNdREPqMo0Y?si=k_IxEfe1IW2Eg18l
I like the portraits of their parents.