DL Open Thread: Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Trump Nominee Deems Himself Unqualified,  Withdraws From Consideration.  Perhaps Trump’s only nominee capable of self-reflection:

Sheriff Chad Chronister, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, withdrew his name from consideration for the office on Tuesday, only three days after he was nominated.

Sheriff Chronister, who is in charge of the sheriff’s department in the Florida county that is home to Tampa, announced his withdrawal in a message on social media, saying that as “the gravity of this very important responsibility set in,” he had changed his mind about accepting the nomination.

Opposition from some RWNJ’s didn’t help his cause:

After his nomination, Sheriff Chronister immediately came under fire from some of Mr. Trump’s most ardent right-wing supporters for his decision to vigorously enforce Covid-19 regulations during the pandemic. His critics pointed in particular to his arrest of a Florida pastor in March 2020 for holding a church service in violation of lockdown rules.

Oh, one more thing:

Current and former D.E.A. agents also started circulating a video of Sheriff Chronister’s son, George Zachary Chronister, rapping about his involvement in a knife attack against another man during a brawl in 2017. The son was sentenced to 22 months in prison for the stabbing and later released a rap video describing it, titled “Slash Yo Face.”

Tell me again who’s in charge of the vetting process…

Speaking of Unqualified…Monique Johns gets her Bundling Party today.  $600 contributions only, at the Hyatt Riverfront Hotel, Shawn Tucker among the lobbyists circulating the invitations.  No need to sugarcoat it–she ran for the money and only for the money.  She has officially been bought.  Were I the AG, I’d assign someone solely to keep an eye on her.

The buying of county officials is the one element lacking in Nick Stonesifer’s otherwise-useful explanation of the development process in Delaware.  Actually, it’s excellent.  I learned a lot, and I’ve been around for awhile. Highly-recommended, especially for newbies.  I’d recommend it to Monique Johns if I thought she gave a shit:

Rapid growth in the First State has thrust land use debates into all three of Delaware’s counties, and new supersized residential communities, warehouses and other projects have caught many residents off guard.

Delaware ranked the sixth fastest growing state nationwide and the fastest growing in the Northeast corridor last year, with an estimated increase of 1.2%, according to the Census Bureau.

But to understand how Delaware grew so quickly, it’s important to understand how these projects broke ground, and when and where the public can get involved.

Maybe it’s just me, but I kinda think that this story edges out the News Journal’s breathless reporting on the Return Of The McRib.

Kash Patel’s Republican Enemies List.  You know, the guy Trump wants to head the FBI:

In his book, Patel, a supporter of QAnon and a promoter of assorted MAGA conspiracy theories (the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, the Trump-Russia investigation was a hoax, and the January 6 riot was sparked by “strange agitators” and federal agents), called for mounting “investigations” to “take on the Deep State.” Though he doesn’t specify what the cause for these inquiries would be, he has plenty of people in mind. In an appendix to the book, Patel presented a list of 60 supposed members of the Deep State who are current or former executive branch officials and who presumably would be the prey.

This line-up also includes a number of Republicans and onetime Trump appointees. These include Bill Barr, who served as attorney general for Trump; John Bolton, one of Trump’s national security advisers in his first White House stint; Pat Cipollone, Trump’s White House counsel; Mark Esper, a secretary of defense under Trump; Sarah Isgur Flores, who was head of communications for Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions; Alyssa Farah Griffin, the director of strategic commissions in the Trump White House; and Stephanie Grisham, former chief of staff for Melania Trump.

When Barr was Trump’s attorney general, he prevented Trump from appointing Patel deputy director of the FBI, noting Patel was vastly unqualified for the position. “Over my dead body,” Barr told the White House at the time. Barr’s presence on Patel’s run-down of Deep State wrongdoers—like Ryan’s inclusion— suggests it might also function as a list of his own personal vendettas.

‘Suggests’?

Got $295 Mill Lying Around?  Then you can buy America’s most expensive property which is guaranteed to flood:

The nine-acre gated retreat in Naples – styled as “Florida’s most exclusive compound” and complete with two vast guest houses, a dock, a yacht berth and facing water on three sides – stands as an extravagant symbol of how the desire for a balmy Florida lifestyle is colliding with the climate crisis.

According to First Street modeling, the $295m Gordon Pointe property has a 68% risk of flooding in the next 15 years and an almost guaranteed 95% chance of a flood over the next three decades. Its flood exposure is “severe” and its risk from winds is “extreme” according to climate threat ratings that now appear on Zillow property listings.

Mangroves, marshes and protective sand dunes have been swept aside here so multimillion-dollar developments can sit as close as possible to the sea, which is 6in higher than it was in the 1990s and is accelerating upwards due to the burning of fossil fuels.

“There has been building right out on to the beach, we are very low-lying, we don’t have good dune fortifications now and no one really thought about storm surge here until Ian happened,” said Michael Savarese, a geology and climate expert at Florida Gulf Coast University, about Naples’ exposure.

Schadenfreude just waiting to happen.

Delaware Slumlord Must Pay Up.  $150 K hardly seems like enough, but at least it’s going to the people who lived in his buildings:

After decades of thwarting city and state codes and dodging responsibility for the care and maintenance of rental properties in Wilmington, beleaguered landlord A.J. Pokorny will be forced out of the rental business in Delaware and required to pay $150,000.

The agreement reached between the Delaware Department of Justice and the landlord comes nearly two years after dozens of Wilmington residents were suddenly displaced from their homes on May 17, 2022, on North Adams Street.

It prohibits Pokorny from owning any rental property in the state, requires that he pay a $150,000 judgment, and designates another $600,000 “suspended judgment” in case Pokorny doesn’t follow through with the plan. Up to $125,000 of that judgment will go to former North Adams residents, the settlement stipulates.

State attorneys say the settlement is unique for Delaware and secures agreements that would have been unattainable during a trial. Plus impacted former residents will receive money as a result.

What do you want to talk about?